Leaving Baton Rouge a few days ago with my '98 Ultrasport with 140K on the odometer, my Allison 3060 decided to go to neutral and didn't want to move the coach. Thanks to the wonders of the smart phone, I found I was only about 4 miles from "Baton Rouge Diesel Parts and Service", the only Allison service center in Baton Rouge. Thanks to my towing service, for the first time ever, the motorhome was on the back of a BIG wrecker and we were towed to the above mentioned service center.
Being in a strange town, you are at the mercy of whoever is available. I was a bit apprehensive when we were towed in but in just minutes, Tyler the service manager had David the technician, on the job. To make a long story short, they found that I had apparently lost a clutch pack in the Allison and the failed clutch had completely clogged the inlet filter to the pump. This filter is INSIDE the valve body and can't be serviced without dropping the valve body. They suspected "C5" as they have seen that before. At this point, they could have easily told me I needed a new tranny and I would have had no choice but instead of that, they told me they could get the C5 clutch pack out without pulling the transmission and if that was the problem, they could fix it for a fraction of what a reman trans would cost me.
They pulled the C5 clutch out the back of the trans and sure enough, it had come apart. With the valve body out of the transmission, they were able to inspect the rest of the clutches and they all looked "like new" and showed virtually no wear or delamination..... as they expected for an Allison with so few miles on it.
By now, it was getting late in the day and they said we could spend the night in the coach and even provided power for us! At 8:00 AM the next morning, David was back on the job and by noon, he had replaced all the frictions and steel plates in the C5 clutch, cleaned and reinstalled the valve body along with three new filters and new gaskets. We filled the trans with 5 gallons of oil and after idling for 10 minutes (Allison requirement with a new clutch pack) David hooked up the laptop and we went for a ride. David had to make an adjustment or two to address the shifting firmness and with that, the transmission was as good as new.
They said they had seen several C5 failures in this transmission and in fact, Allison had a service bulletin about the C5 clutch and had a new material for the frictions. They said they had never had one come back after they repaired it with the new materials. Incidentally, they said they had NEVER seen a failure in a motorhome. My luck!
I mention this because too often we see posts about shops that didn't satisfy the customer. In this case, Baton Rouge Diesel did an exemplary job of taking care of a customer even knowing that they would probably never see me again. THAT'S customer service.
I'm now about 800 miles further down the road. The transmission is shifting perfectly and it's dry as toast under the coach.
If you find yourself in or near Baton Rouge an need Allison or diesel service (they specialize in Detroits), you can't go wrong with this place. By the way, the cost
WAS a fraction of what a replacement transmission would have cost, just as they promised.
