Max retarder temps?

[Wayne Kotila]

Ryan; I was told by Allison that the tranny could handle going over 300 deg. F. for breif periods so when my tranny guage just passed up the 300 deg mark I would turn off the retarder and rely on the brakes tell it cooled back down thenI would turn the retarder back on. This worked great for years then one day my tranny failed on a trip and after an expensive towing and about another $8,000.00 I had a new rebuidt tranny. The mechanic that did it told me my tranny had been severly overheated andthat it lookedall burned up in side. I was the third owner of the coach and I have no idea how the prvious owners used the retarder but I followed whatthe Allison tech told me.After that experience I would not let the tranny tempget much over 250 deg.

Wayne

1985PT40

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From: Ryan Wright
To: wanderlodgeforum
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 12:42:51 AM
Subject: [WanderlodgeForum] Max retarder temps?

Jerry's post about his first loaded trip reminded me to ask this question:

At what point does the retarder temp become a concern? What's the
magic number I need to keep it under to avoid problems? The red line
on my gauge is @ 330 so I stay well away from that, but Jerry's post
sounded like 260 was bad and that's always seemed
middle-of-the- gauge-ok to me.

-Ryan
'86 PT-40 8V92