Electrolysis eating transmission gears

[stuman]

I am looking for a Ford transmission expert or someone who has a clue to what I am talking about. I have a 1994 ford ranger with a 5 speed transmission. 2 years ago I put a rebuilt trans in it. 20,000 miles later it started whining. I pulled the back half off and two gears were chewed up. I took the trans back to the guy who rebuilt it and he said he would fix it for free. He said that electrolysis pitted the two gears and that is why it is whining. I have never heard of this. Has anyone else? He claims the trans is not grounded good enough and will give me a strap to ground it to the frame.
When I did pull the back off the trans it looked as though the center bearing was loose and letting the two gears get to close to each other.
Thanks for the help.

 

[wahlstrom1]

Yes, it is possible.... no I don't think it's likely.

We ran into this issue at work, having the aluminum van bodies isolated from the truck chassis and running coolant heaters, the coolant became the ground and was very quickly creating corrosive coolant, and it was eating the liners out of the engine blocks as well as eating hoses and clogging passages.

We did a little bit of investigating and had found that the van body manufacturer had tried to cut costs and had eliminated all but 1 ground strap.... on 30'+ of van body! We added more straps along the length of the frame and to the tranny (closest driveline to body) and we haven't had issues since.


I would says he's coming up with a legitimate (but wrong) excuse for covering his ass, why else would he do the repairs for free? It also wouldn't hurt to have another ground, especially as the factory ones may have deteriorated over time.