When I had my tranny rebuilt, the shop forgot to tighten the top tranny bolts
...which came loose and the nuts fell off....I sure thought they were
responsible.  Since your friend's mechanic supposedly did not touch the front
tranny mounts, technically i guess he's in the clear if in fact he did not
tocuh any of the bolts.  You hasve to ask, though, would the tranny have fallen
out had he not removed the engine....I doubt it.  Hopefully, GMB will weigh in
on this one and enlighten us with some of his eloquence.

to answer youyr question, though, dump the shop....or double check everything
they do. My mechanic always does a visual and once-over of the whole vehicle
even if i just want tranny oil changed.  He checks everything and is the guy
who found the loose tranny nuts even thgough he did not do the tranny...(he did
not have time).  He treats my van like it's his patient and he's the doc and
has keen interest in it's overall health and longevity.
steve

ncdragonfly wrote:

> On their way to our place last Saturday the transmission came loose from the
> front mount and
> the engine/tranny dropped to the pavement! Yes, fell out on the road. Very
> fortunately he was down shifting at an intersection and traveling at a very
> slow rate of speed as I am afraid if he had been traveling at highway
> speeds he and the kids would be dead and a beautiful '85 would be scrap
> metal. When I got to him and we crawled underneath the vehicle we saw that
> the +/- 4 inch bolt that holds the front tranny mount to the frame was
> simply not there. No sign of the bolt shearing, the bolt was not found on
> the road thus we were unable to inspect it. My question is this, is the
> mechanic responsible? Please don't misunderstand this is not a litigious
> situation so much as it is a quest to find a reliable VW shop for my
> friend. My feeling is that at the very least the mechanic was negligent in
> not checking all mounts to the frame after dropping the engine and
> remounting it. The mechanics response was that he did not service the
> transmission just the engine and therefore had no reason to adjust this
> bolt. What do my fellow listees think? How about you professional's out
> there? Thank you very much for your opinions.
> David Higginbotham
> 82 Westfalia
> Raleigh, NC