Has anyone used Daryl at AA Transaxle?

dtrumbo · Post by **dtrumbo** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:18 pm

Hi all,

Sorry if this should go in one of the chat forums rather than the technical forum. I'll happily move it if it's a problem.

Has anyone used AA Transaxle in Duvall, WA? I need the tranny in my '70 fixed and he seems to be reasonable, but I just wondered if anyone had any first-hand knowledge of his work and any recommendations.

Thanks!

IFBwax · Post by **IFBwax** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:26 pm

Yes.. he's great. Does good work. I had a great experience with him, Jasan however did not. But Daryl made it right, right away. Sometimes I think that's the best judge of someone, not if they make mistakes, but rather, what do they do, once mistakes have been made.

He doesn't do automatics though.

Westy78 · Post by **Westy78** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:41 pm

Yep, I'd recommend Daryl anytime. The fault I had with the first transmission was the machine shop that he uses fault. Long story short, I installed the first one, wouldn't go into second, called Daryl at around 7:00pm that night on a Monday, explained that I had a big campout (the RendezVW) that weekend, he had a clean case on the bench and built me a second box that night and I had it in the bus by that Thursday with four fresh quarts of Redline supplied by him. Daryl told me to send the other tranny back whenever I got the chance. Shipping paid by him.

It's not always if the part is perfect, it's what the vendor does to make it right if it's not.

IFBwax · Post by **IFBwax** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:53 pm

That's what I meant Jasan.. that everything worked out fine with you. His turnaround time was really good too.

dtrumbo · Post by **dtrumbo** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:45 pm

Thanks guys! I think I'm going to remove engine/tranny in the '70 this weekend and take him my box on Monday.

karl · Post by **karl** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:25 pm

Can you post contact info for him? Website..... phone #...... address.... etc. Is this him? http://www.aatransaxle.com/

IFBwax · Post by **IFBwax** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:27 pm

karl wrote:Can you post contact info for him? Website..... phone #...... address.... etc. Is this him? http://www.aatransaxle.com/

http://www.aatransaxle.com/

Sorry Karl.. did you edit that? Yes that's him. Shoot, the one chance I had to help you for once, and you figured it out first.

karl · Post by **karl** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:35 pm

How would you guys compare AA with Rancho?

I need to get my 67 bus transaxle rebuilt and I wonder why there is a $200 difference between the two.

Rancho = $399.00
AA = $600.00

chitwnvw · Post by **chitwnvw** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:51 pm

karl wrote:How would you guys compare AA with Rancho?

I need to get my 67 bus transaxle rebuilt and I wonder why there is a $200 difference between the two.

Rancho = $399.00
AA = $600.00

I haven't heard anything bad about Rancho. On my rebuild AA was 100 bucks more. I just felt better having one guy to call up and b**ch out instead of a whole operation. Daryl's pretty reasonable, though, why don't you call him and talk to him, feel him out, ask him why he's worth 200 bucks more? He might come down some.

I do have to add that he's been pretty good if there has been a problem and he eats all the costs of any problems. Might be worth 200 American.

karl · Post by **karl** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:49 pm

Maybe I should this route: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/ ... ?id=579649

Yeah, right!!

Westy78 · Post by **Westy78** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:00 am

Karl, I don't know why Daryl is $200 more but I do know that he doesn't use any cheap, low quality parts in his rebuilds. Don't know about Rancho. Daryl is a one man operation so the lack of volume could be the difference in price when compared to Rancho also.

dtrumbo · Post by **dtrumbo** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:43 am

When I talked to him yesterday he mentioned that he hasn't raised his prices in years. He also mentioned that he is so busy, he's nearing burn-out. I joked with him and told him I better get mine in and done before he does so.

I'm also opting for new parts instead of re-manufactured parts. This will cost me $200.00 additional, but if there ever is an issue during the three-year warranty period, he will pay me labor to remove the tranny and return it to him. This tells me that he's confident in his abilities and if he's able to use known-good parts, he'll stand behind his work above and beyond 'normal'.

chitwnvw · Post by **chitwnvw** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:24 am

Before this gets to be a Daryl lovefest. I had him rebuild mine. Got it back into the bus, filled it with Redline... and it had a slow leak of tranny fluid.

[albumimg]2152[/albumimg]

I emailed Daryl and he offered to pay to ship it back or I could:

Sounds kida hoakey, but I have seen it work on previous core trannys I have gotten...A little RTV with a threaded screw or bolt...anything to hold the oil in..there's no pressure in there, so just about anything works..lemme know how it goes..and thanks..

I didn't want to lose my bus for a month so I try and get a screw with some Seal All in there and this galley plug pulls out. So I email him again and:

That is a galley plug for the shift rail detents I believe..makes sense now...didn't catch that on you pic before...just press fits in there, so do whatever is easy for you and thanks

I'm a little fuzzy on what a "shift rail detents" is, or why one would have been attached to the transmission he sent me. But again with the Seal All and a bigger screw and it's held up fine.

If was also a little iffy going into 2nd, Colin thought it was an old transmission that was about to fail. It does seem like that behavior has gotten better. I don't have those panic in the intersection moments anymore, where it just won't go into 2nd. I really loved that when making a right turn and the oncoming traffic was barreling down. We'll see. I had planned on shipping it back to Daryl this fall after the season was over and having him fix these issues.

I think Daryl is a competent craftsman. He does make mistakes, more than likely this sort of thing happens with anyone working with 35 year old equipment that you are trying to refurbish. I do feel comfortable with him standing behind his work. If it wasn't such a hassle to remove/ install a transmission and then ship it via UPS.

Anyway, my 2 cents.

dtrumbo · Post by **dtrumbo** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:06 pm

Thanks for the honest review. I'm lucky(?) that I live about 20 minutes from his place so if (hopefully not) I need warranty work, at least I don't have the added hassle of shipping.

chitwnvw · Post by **chitwnvw** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 1:05 pm

dtrumbo wrote:Thanks for the honest review. I'm lucky(?) that I live about 20 minutes from his place so if (hopefully not) I need warranty work, at least I don't have the added hassle of shipping.

I'd say that being 20 minutes away saves you $200 shipping right off the bat. 20 minutes away sounds like heaven.

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Has anyone used Daryl at AA Transaxle?

Has anyone used Daryl at AA Transaxle?