TRENCH REPORT ­
Chicago, IL, Omaha, NE
by Bill Brayton

This "trench report" comes to you from Chicago, Illinois, where Dennis Madden and I were for our 2001 seminar. We came to Chicago a day early to take some time and visit with a few of the local transmission shops.

My last trench report came from Orange County, California. Since I had spent many years living and working in Orange County, I knew how to get around town quickly. Well, Chicago was a completely different story. We might as well have been in a foreign country. The traffic in this area was so heavy that the horn honking was non-stop during our entire drive.

Our first shop of the morning was Roadmaster Transmissions located just outside of the Chicago Metro area in Schaumburg, Illinois. On this day we were a bit disappointed that our old friend Bill Anthony, formerly of Toledo TransKit and now partner in this business was not there.

Tom Talaga, Danny Radoicic, Tony Hibbs, Kristine Hoyer,
Vince Bielanski, (Bill Anthony, not shown)

Testing equipment at Roadmaster.

 
The shop at Roadmaster Transmissions.

Kristine Hoyer, the office manager, however, did greet us as we entered the office. Not only does this busy lady run the office; she handles the customers needs, orders the parts, chases the parts and yes she'll even baby-sit when needed.

Shop foreman and partner in the business Danny Radoicic conducted a tour of the shop for Dennis and I. The shop was spotless, and equipped with the latest diagnostic tools. Danny said, "this equipment is really necessary for diagnosing the complicated transmissions that we're working on these days." As we walked through the shop chatting with the guys we were informed that this shop does quite a few units that are to be shipped out. After these units are tagged with the critical information, i.e. build date, builder, et cetera, the units are all run on the shop dynamometer to be sure that they will work properly when installed.

Vince Bielanski, Tony Hibbs
The builders room at Roadmaster Transmissions.

Kristine Hoyer busy at work. Roadmaster Transmissions

In the rebuiler's area I spoke with rebuilder Tony Hibbs about the five speed he was tearing down. He tells me that "stick" work is all part of his daily routine and that it helps to spice up the day. Out in the shop they were working on some really nice classics as well; a '67 Cougar, '67 Firebird and there was even a '61 V-8 Impala. Now the first person to fax me at 805-604-2005 and tell me what type of trans was in that Impala will get one hundred dollars worth of books from the ATRA bookstore. Here's a clue; it had no shift valves.

Back to the car and off to the next shop. After a few wrong turns and a couple of close calls, we made it to  S.O.S. Transmissions. At S.O.S. Transmissions, which is located in Stone Park, Illinois, we met Susan Coro, the office manager. Pete Schmidt, the owner of the shop, was busy handling a phone call so we wandered into this busy shop so as not to bother the boss. We found several technicians hard at it. We also found that this shop does quite a bit of general repair work as well as transmission repair. Bob Hendrickson was busy handling a late model Chevy smog problem on one side of the shop. On the opposite side, Ebodio Talavera was hard at work at the rebuilder's bench. These guys were not afraid of taking on any type of repair. Bob spoke of the crankshaft job on a Northstar Cadillac, which is not a job for the faint of heart to be sure, but no problem for the team at S.O.S. Transmissions. Taking our pictures and saying our good-byes we were off to yet another shop.

Susan Coro, Pete Schmidt, Bob Hendrickson, Glenn Stroman,
Ebodio Talavera, Jerry Gross, Sam Ayala

Our final stop of the day was to Pestka Transmissions in the Chicago Metro area. Now just getting to this shop through the traffic was a real adventure. As a matter of fact, I asked John Fern, the owner, how far he had to go to get a car going over 30mph. He told me, "oh about fifteen minutes to the north." John Fern and his wife, Linda have run this store since 1975 in this location. John said business was OK, but was looking forward to the snow season for the usual increase in winter related transmission failures.

Elga Thompson, Dan Aparicio, Linda Fern, John Fern	The shop at Pestka Transmissions.
	John Fern, Pestka Transmissions, at the bench.

Omaha,Nebraska

Now fast forward two weeks to Omaha, Nebraska, where they say that college football is a religion! We are up early and off to our first destination --Certified Transmissions.

Chris Conn, Jim Hamilton, David Shadlow, Jim Strokes

Talking strategy with Jim Hamilton and Jim Strokes.

Doing the testing.

This particular Certified shop is one of the original locations that started a very successful chain of transmission shops. It is also rumored that Pete Fink actually rebuilt transmissions at this location some 20 years ago.

Dave Shadlow, a customer service rep. for this operation, gave us the dime tour of the shop. As usual I took off in another direction to see what Dave's crew was up to this particular morning. I found Jim Stokes out in the parking lot hooking up the scan tool to a late model Chevy van. After Jim Hamilton, the shop foreman, and I discussed some diagnostic procedures, Jim Stokes had a plan of action for the Chevy Van, and we were off to our next location.

Actually getting around Omaha wasn't quite as bad as Chicago, thanks to the Neverlost^© system in our rental car. So we found All Car Transmissions without a hitch. Manager, Gary Collins introduced us to the guys, and as Dennis chatted with them I became intrigued by the many transmission related computer programs on the shop's computer system. Scott Wickersham and Bill Babcock share the rebuilding duties at All Car Transmissions. We found Scott tearing down, of all things -- a 350C. We all remember those right? Bill was working with a new scan tool on a late model Ford Ranger. This particular scan tool is one that we do not have in the ATRA tech inventory so it was a real treat to go with Bill on a road test and watch this scanner go through its paces. Back from the road test we took some pictures and headed for the next shop down the road.

Gary Collins, Jason Babcock, Scott Wickersham, Bill Babcock, Joe Julian

Scott Wickersham at the bench, All Car Transmissions

Gary Collins, Joe Julian, All Car Transmissions, Omaha

This next trip was easy as we had Joe Julian to follow to Powertrain Professionals. Joe is a partner in both All Car Transmissions and Powertrain Professionals, and as soon as we arrived Joe was showing us around. This shop is a bit different, in that they have a complete drive axle rebuilding facility along with their transmission rebuilding operation. Joe admits though that it is tough to compete with the mass producers of drive axles. Back in the builder's area Jerry Landolt was finishing up a 125C, and Kevin Walford, the other builder, was headed for the tool truck. We were told that this shop does a fair amount of general repair as well as transmission repair to keep things going strong all year round.
 

Jerry Landolt finishes a 125C.

Jason Voescks, Denny Lewis, Kevin Walford, Jerry Landolt, Jeff Sherwood, Pablo Saavedra

As we head off back towards our hotel we made one last stop at another Certified Transmission satellite shop. This shop is in Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is just across the Missouri River from Omaha. Paul Stewart, the shop manager, told us that this location has been in operation since 1992 and that before the shop was here an A&W root beer stand was on this lot. Besides installing remanufactured transmissions from the main facility, this location does differential rebuilding as well.
 

Paul Stewart, Certified Transmission, Council Bluffs, Iowa

Paul Stewart, John Koestner, Jeff Last, Rick Still

As always it is a real treat to get out "in the trenches" to meet the owners, operators, R&R technicians and the rebuilders of our industry today. These folks are the real innovators of our industry. Often times the "fixes" to those nasty, nagging problems that we get calls on here at the tech dept. come right from technicians just like you! So until the next time, thanks for letting us spend a little time in your shops. And remember to keep a look out for the technicians from ATRA when our seminar comes to your area, as we'll go into the trenches once again to visit the guys and gals who make it all happen.