It was 10 degrees Fahrenheit here recently (that’s about minus 12 Celsius) and tonight it was warmer but not much, and my 2000 Audi A6 with the 4.2 V8 didn’t much like starting. The engine turned over very slowly the first second or so. I was VERY glad that I’d installed a massive battery that just barely fitted in the battery compartment. Anything smaller and I might well have had a no-start condition.

However, I later needed to remove the battery to move my BMW around (and its battery needs to be charged, so I’m using the Audi’s). Removing the Audi battery risks a lower-back injury, but then my assistant had a clever idea. The batteries I buy (and that, I hope, you buy) have a handle at the top, and putting a broomstick handle through it makes it easy for two people to lift out.

My 1989 BMW 325i has a ZF 4 HP-22 automatic transmission, and it behaves perfectly. I can find good, used ones easily for about $100, and the transmission weighs less than 70 pounds. I’m a girl and even so, I have personally, physically picked one up.

My 2000 Audi A6 with the 4.2 V8 has the ZF 5 HP-24A automatic transmission, and it is wonderfully high-tech, but it has some very puzzling problems. Finding a good, used one means spending $1,800 or so, and the thing is massive and weighs almost 320 pounds. I’ve personally removed one, and it scares me.

It’s sort of like the movies where person A is in love with person B, who is glamorous but difficult. Eventually person A becomes less and less enthused and finally checks out, and chooses person C: someone less glamorous, but more practical — and nicer.

You can probably see where I’m going with this.

I’m fantasizing about replacing my ZF 5HP-24A with a ZF 4 HP-22.  And yes, the former is an AWD transmission and the latter is RWD, so I’d have a Quattro without superpowers. Still, it’d be a lot better than it being dead in my driveway. And besides, I live in Nevada on mostly dry, flat, level ground. Do I really need AWD? No. Maybe I could just remove the front half-shafts and call it good?

Originally I’d fantasized about the ZF 4 HP-24 as used in the 300 HP BMW 750iL, but that also uses electronically controlled shifting and I need a vacation from electrical issues. A nice, simple  transmission with hydraulically operated shifting would be wonderful. The most complicated electrical component should be the back-up light switch.

Power comes in the front, power comes out the back, a shift lever controls the basic direction the thing is supposed to be going, and that is that. Beautiful and simple. I miss that.

Sadly, the Audi’s torque would probably tear the ZF 4 HP-22 apart. The torque rating for the Audi engine is: 300 foot-pounds or so, wow.  The most torquey engine used with the ZF 4 HP-22 is, as far as I can tell, The Jaguar XJS 4.2 liter engine, with 236 foot-pounds.

Next, I started wondering what life would be like if I took the Chrysler A727 transmission out of my old Jeep and stuck it into the Audi. How viable would that be?

Wikipedia says:

The … 1962 … A727 … was initially referred to in consumer-oriented publications as the “TorqueFlite 8” … Compared to the early cast-iron transmissions, many and various internal improvements were featured … A727 Torqueflites became — and remain — wildly popular for drag racing, off roading, and monster truck applications because of their controllability, reliability, ease/cheapness of repair and brute strength.

The Chrysler A727 transmission:

• Could certainly handle the torque and power that the Audi engine would generate.
• Weighs about half of the weight of the ZF 5 HP-24A transmission.
• Electronic components: zero.
• Has affordable parts. A master rebuild kit is priced at maybe $150, and many mechanics can rebuild one. By contrast, just the solenoid kit for the Audi is priced at more than $500.
• Doesn’t need expensive ATF.

Suddenly, the idea has become VERY tempting. So, what would be hurdles, aside from getting my hands on a Chrysler transmission (which is easy; I own three of them)? I’d have to…

• Mate a mechanical torque converter to the Audi engine and yet end up using the same ring gear so that the Audi starter still works.
• Mate the Audi engine to the Chrysler transmission using a custom-made bell-housing.
• Mate the rear of the Chrysler transmission to the Audi drive shaft, or have a custom one made. No problem; our local drive shaft shop rocks.
• Deal with the back-up light wiring
• Deal with shift lever issues
• Deal with shift lever console issues, such as no gate for the Tiptronic.  At least one model of the contemporary Passat has a non-Tiptronic transmission so I might use a center console from that on the A6.

There’a a nice C5 Audi A6 being advertised in Walnut Creek, for around $10K. The main attraction is that the car was converted away from the ZF 5 HP-24A to stick shift by someone savvy, who did a nice, clean job. I’ll probably go have to pick their brain as to how to get the Audi wiring to be happy even without the ZF 5 HP-24A.

Imagine the ad for a Tanya-converted car:

• 2000 Audi A6 with the 4.2 V8
• Converted to RWD and Chrysler A727 Torqueflite aAutomatic transmission, rebuilt with 10-year warranty.

That should do it. I’m located in Nevada anyway, and Nevada urbanites tend to need a Quattro about as much as they need a high-lift monster truck to drive to and from the grocery store, or ten miles to work, on flat, level, dry ground.

I’ve just read some sage advice from the most savvy BMW tech I know to exist, on the Web; a gentleman who goes by Shogun. And yes, he does live in Japan.  Someone was having issues with his automatic transmission, and Shogun opined:

“Maybe a valve body problem. Have you removed the valve body and cleaned it and checked all the small balls and orifices. And especially the solenoid valves inside valve body!!!!”

That got me thinking. So I poked around on the Web some more, and found a nice article on the website for Transmission Repair Cost guide, titled “Transmission Solenoid: Symptoms & Replacement Cost.”

As I understand the article, the owner serviced the valve body and the automatic transmission is now noticeably happier albeit still not perfect.

The author also makes the point that old, dirty fluid can cause the valves to stick, and since many Audi A6 cars have NEVER had an automatic transmission service, that might well explains the problems on my Audi A6 project cars.

Officially, according to Audi, that transmission doesn’t need service. According to the transmission manufacturer, it does. To me, the latter opinion carries more weight.

Another article on MyAutomaticTransmission.com ties slippage to the same problem:

“SLIPS OUT OF GEAR WHEN WARM
SYMPTOMS: Transmission slips out of gear intermittently when engine warms up
CAUSE(S): Internal seals or valves allowing fluid to pass causing pressure loss
REPAIR: Transmission Rebuild or Replace”

That same website also has an article that explains how the same symptoms might be caused by issues that require a rebuild, as well as issues that don’t require a rebuild. The article lists nine things to investigate before giving up hope, and deciding to do a rebuild. These items make a lot of sense to me.

Several of these tie back to the transmission fluid not having been changed, so I have ordered some more transmission fluid, and I plan to do a project car service soon: fluid and filter change.

For our two 2000 Audi A6 project cars, the model with the 4.2 V8, I’m fantasizing about replacing the solenoids for the ZF 5 HP-24A. Each car is misbehaving and I haven’t figured out why.

As parts go, the eight solenoids seem to be relatively easy to replace.  Instead, were we to get into replacing clutches etc. then I’m way out of my depth.

New solenoids as a set are … okay, wow, about $500. Not cheap. When I discover something like this, I start to wonder how I can test a used solenoid to see if it’s good beyond the obvious.  I could get an entire used transmission, albeit in unknown condition, for less than the price of a new solenoid kit.

Ditto as to the other internal components. They are pricey.

I also recall reading “DO NOT PUT ANY USED PARTS INTO YOUR ZF TRANSMISSION” so … there’s that. Whoever wrote that probably had some good reasons, maybe for the same reason one shouldn’t use previously used … what’s an example … geez … toilet paper. Or condoms.

Still, given the high price of these new ZF internal parts, I’m tempted.

It’d help a lot to know what I’m doing, which right now isn’t the case.

For example, until recently I worked on the principle of “don’t ever re-use manual transmission clutch components; use new stuff only.”

So one fine day this summer, my friend (who is a professional mechanic) and I had just removed a BMW manual transmission that I was about to buy when he inspected the clutch. The more he looked, the more he liked. The conversation went somewhat like this:

• Him: Wow, look as this clutch. Buy this, too. Oooh, and the flywheel.
• Me: Nah. I don’t ever re-use used clutch stuff, on principle.
• Him: Wait, this IS just about brand new. The owner of this car must have just had this installed when something else broke on his car. I mean, wow, look at it.
• Me: I can’t really tell what makes a clutch & flywheel new vs. not.

And so, patiently, he explained it all to me, pointing out various technical details. He convinced me, so now I own an almost-new pressure plate, clutch disc and flywheel for a BMW M20 engine. New, this stuff would have cost me several hundred dollars. Instead, I got the parts, gently used, almost new, for next-to-nothing.

You can probably see where I’m going with this. I’m really enthused to find a way to strip down a ZF transmission, scrutinize (or better yet: test) each part, and then keep the good ones and toss the bad or well-worn ones.

I’m aware that there can be subtleties. For example, often, parts wear as a set, and so if one installs a used camshaft along with used rocker arms, and they didn’t wear into that not-new shape together, then their surfaces won’t touch as a broad plane but more at an angle, and then both parts will wear out way faster. That’s why, when disassembling a cylinder head, it’s crucial to label what went where. And probably a cylinder head is primitive compared to the high precision of ZF transmission internals.

Still … it sure is tempting. I mean, at the very least, the transmission pan and its hardware should be re-usable if it’s a good, used part, without antagonizing the ZF gods. And maybe some speed sensors and cables too. And so on. Somewhere there’s a tipping point, but my guess is that it depends on the relative merits of each part, as opposed to using a broad principle that is unnecessarily dismissive.

Applying false absolutes and buying everything brand new would explain why a transmission rebuild can cost thousands of dollars, which hardly anyone wants to pay since one can buy good A6 cars for less than $3,000 — for the entire car, which explains why I see SO many dead A6 cars in junkyards: once the transmission misbehaves, people give up on the car.

Resurrecting dead ZF transmissions affordably, using good, tested, gently used parts  … that is becoming very tempting to me. I’d be the first beneficiary of his policy. I’d have two healthy Audi A6 project cars.

After much effort, I finally own a ZF 5 HP-24A transmission out of a C5 Audi A6, and it’s in my shop, on a pallet.

I’m itching to take it apart, but there’s a good chance that this is a good one since the donor car was in the junkyard due to engine issues. Sadly, I have a very bad track record of destroying things, the first time I take them apart.  So, I’m thinking I should go find a bad transmission to take apart first.

Problem is, these transmissions are hard to find. The “A” at the end probably stands for “Allrad” as in 4WD, and that’s a rare variant. The RWD variant lacks the “A” hence just ZF 5 HP-24. Those are easy to find. I’m tempted to do that, but I’d like to know how similar the RWD is to the AWD. So I’ve been poking around on the Internet, trying to piece it all together.

One of the interesting challenges of this sort of task is that the information on the Web rarely reconciles, so I need to exercise some good judgment to make sense of it all. Fortunately, I’ve spent enough time lying underneath C5 Audi A6 4.2 V8 cars that I also have a reality-based frame of reference.

Things I’ve concluded to far:

• Audi calls this transmission the 01L. ZF calls it the 5 HP-24A, but it’s the same thing.
• For the C5 Audi A6 with the 4.2 liter V8, there’s an early variation through 2000, and a later one. The earlier variation has a code of “ECF” on the actual transmission plate, and a ZF part number of 1058 020 015. The later variation has a code of “FUL” on the actual transmission plate, and a ZF part number of 1058 020 031.
• These are unique to the Audi A6; the ZF 5 HP-24A is also used on the Audi S6 and the Audi A8, but those are different variations.
• The RWD variation (not used by Audi) is found in the high-end BMW and Jaguar cars built in 1997 through 2001 or so. For BMW, the different models each have a different variation of transmission yet the ZF part number always starts with 1058 000 and then has three digits that vary.  As to “different model” in the preceding sentence, for purposes of ZF part numbers, BMW considers the 740i and 740iL to be the same model, and the 540i Sedan and station wagon too. For Jaguar, it’s possible to find an XK8 and an XJ8 with the same variation in their transmission (i..e, an exact match) as long as both have the same type of engine.
• The theme whereby the 4WD version uses 1058 000 part numbers and the AWD version uses 1058 020 part numbers seems to stop at the transmission unit level. For the housings, for example, the RWD has part numbers that start with 1058 201 or 1058 301, and the numbers for AWD all start with 1058 201, though of course the last three digits are different.
• As to the housings and the parts that belong there, I didn’t notice any overlap in the part numbers. In other words, I found no parts common to both the RWD and AWD variants.
• As to the input shaft parts, yes! Match! Perfect match.
• As to the oil pan, some minor part numbers matched.
• As to the oil supply, the pump was different, but some minor parts matched.
• As to clutch packs, identical. Yay!
• As to planetary drive groups, identical.
• As to brake groups, identical.
• As to the duct plate, the plate itself and the wiring harness were different but many components were identical, down to even the valve orifice sizes. Isn’t THAT interesting?
• As to the valve body, identical according to one site, not so according to another.
• As to the solenoids, I found them to be identical. That was very interesting, too. Also: of the three solenoids, the two outside ones have the same part number, which is different than the one in the center.  The solenoid replacement kit part number is also common to the RWD and AWD, both.
• As to the replacement kits, the fiber clutch kits and steel kits have the same numbers for RWD and AWD, both.
• The overhaul kits, for everything including the kitchen sink, are not identical for RWD and AWD.

This all makes sense to me. When it comes to the housing, the output aspects, and the oil pan, the RWD and AWD are different. As to internal parts, they’re identical or almost so.

It’s interesting to me how much the solenoid part numbers overlap with the more-common ZF 5 HP-19 variants too.

So, certainly, if I go disassemble a RWD variation I’ll still learn a lot about the AWD variation too.

I’m analyzing the transmission functions on my 2000 Audi A6 with the 4.2 V8, so as to isolate a problem that most likely seems to be related to transmission solenoid #3, as far as I can intelligently infer from the symptoms and what I understand about the mechanical and electrical aspects.

So tonight I hooked my laptop PC up to the car and ran the amazing Ross-Tech software that talks to the car’s transmission control module and much else besides.

I like that the software displays the part number of the transmission control module, including the variant, e.g., BS or CT.

The software can run some output tests, by energizing each of the three simple transmission solenoids in turn for as long as I like. If I hear a clicking sound, that’s a good sign that the solenoid is probably opening and closing, and causing the corresponding valve to open and close, which is sort of the whole point behind having a solenoid.

I ran the test, and in all three cases, I heard an ongoing clicking sound. They all work, yay!

I next ran the test for the pressure control solenoids, which (I gather) have a more complex task that just being on or off. A variable amount of current flows through them, depending on what the control module wants the transmission to do.

In each case, I heard a click, which is as good as it gets, with these. Next, I checked the software for error codes … none found. So, no problems found there, either.

Next, I started the car and shifted into the various gears, with an emphasis on neutral, reverse and first, since first is the one with the problem. For neutral, reverse and first, the pressure control valves all seem to be in the same basic mode, and the solenoids are the big issue.

• For neutral, solenoids 1 and 3 were energized.
• For reverse, solenoid 2 was energized.
• For first, solenoid 1 was energized.

That’s all correct too.

Pity … that would have been a relatively easy fix.

Still, I’m impressed that this car has these tests built-in. Very cool.

Not to be quick to judge or anything, but when there’s a dead gunshot victim on the floor, and the person’s spouse has just found out about an illicit affair, and has a history of jealousy and violence, and is still holding the gun which is still smoking and the ballistics match, and the ink isn’t even dry yet on the large life insurance policy on the deceased …. then, yes, this person is the most likely suspect.

That’s what I’m trying to find as to our 2000 Audi A6 4.2 project cars slipping in first gear. There are many components, but which one is the most likely suspect to be causing this symptom?

To recap either of our Audi project cars’ transmission issues:

• In reverse gear, the car is quick off the line and shows no sign of juddering or problems.
• In first gear, the transmission slips, as if it’s mostly in neutral plus a little bit of inching forward, and then with a bang and a jolt, it engages and goes into limp-home mode. Or perhaps it goes into limp-home mode and that causes the jolt. When this happens, the error code in the transmission control module shows a ratio mismatch, as in it analyzes the transmission output speed as compared to the input speed, and if there’s a mismatch, as in: it’s slipping, that triggers a fault code to be stored, and limp-home mode to be engaged. Interesting. So maybe first gear doesn’t eventually engage at all. Maybe the jolt is due to limp-home mode (i.e., 4th gear) engaging.
• Neutral works just fine.
• So now when I study the truth tables for these three gears, I see that all three of them work by having the pressure regulation valves 1, 2, 3 and 5 (not 4) energized. So, something else must differentiate them, and meanwhile I can rule out all five of the pressure regulation valves and their solenoids as being suspect.
• That leaves the three solenoid valves.
• For reverse, solenoid 2 (not 1, not 3) is energized.
• For neutral, solenoids 1 and 3 (not 2) are energized.
• That’s puzzling to me. That covers all three of these solenoids in some way, and doesn’t enable me to suspect any of them. So on to door number three.
• For 1st gear, solenoid 1 (not 2 or 3) is energized. So the difference between 1st gear and neutral is solenoid number 3 being energized or not. For neutral it’s supposed to be energized. For 1st gear, not. So, what if instead of being “not” it’s “kinda sorta?” Then first gear would behave somewhat like first gear, meaning the car would move forward, but first gear would also act a lot like neutral, which means: slippage.  So channeling the spirit of Sherlock Holmes, I conclude that a kinda-firing-when-it-shouldn’t solenoid number 3 could cause this, or a valve that’s sticking and behaving as if it’s kinda sorta closed when it should be fully closed.
• Mechanically, the big difference as to 1st gear is that the freewheel gear comes into play, so the transmission probably energizes the freewheel when the valves for 1st gear are in the correct on/off combination.

I feel good about this. It is all starting to make sense to me now.

To see how different these two transmissions are, I suppose I could go read and compare the ZF parts lists for the ZF 5HP-24 and the ZF 5HP-24A, the former being for RWD cars, and the latter being the variant used for the Audi Quattro.

However, news of a big-picture mismatch would mean I needn’t bother. So far, such news hasn’t been forthcoming.

The Jaguar XK8 uses the ZF 5HP-24 and the contemporary Audi A6 with the 4.2 liter V8 uses the ZF 5HP-24A.  I’ve been comparing their technical documentation as to the truth tables for the various valves and how they affect the various internal brakes and clutches. My conclusion: identical.

So, worst case, if my Audi has a bad solenoid and a new one would break the bank, or if I just wanted to learn more, then I could hypothetically go buy an old ZF 5HP-24 and strip it for parts. Finding that is a lot easier than finding the ZF 5HP-24A version as in the Quattro, and if the internals are the same except for the 4WD aspect, then yay!

Not that Jaguar XK8 cars litter the junkyards locally, but BMW E38 cars do, and this was the transmission of choice for the 735i and 740i cars.

My life just got a lot easier.

The beginning of my first day at school involved me standing alone and crying pitifully, feeling overwhelmed and scared. Then, another little girl, Sarie Joubert, came over, took my hand and led me away, comforting me and saying it’s all going to be OK.

So now I’m sometimes in the same situation again, feeling overwhelmed while trying to figure out the symptoms on two 2000 Audi A6 project cars with the 4.2 liter engine and the ZF 5 HP-24A transmission. The transmission on each car slips in first gear, there’s a jarring thud, and then the car goes into limp-home mode.

One at least one of these two cars, the car was fine as it approached a particular traffic intersection, and when it left the intersection, it was misbehaving, and it’s been doing that ever since. The instant nature of the onset is helpful to know. My best guess is that an electrical component failed, but that’s sort of like saying that the needle I want is in that haystack over there.

Unless the transmission control computer is well-matched to the car, the car’s electronics won’t talk to it. I have plugged in about nine separate transmission control computers, spanning seven different variants, and that didn’t fix the problem.

The plug on the transmission control computer is a massive 88-pin thing. Hoping to be able to analyze the signals, I tried to find some information as to what each pin means, but when I found it, the totality of it was overwhelmingly complex.

The ZF 4 HP-22 transmissions that I know and love have hydraulically controlled operation, and the only electrics on the transmission itself is when it announces that it’s in reverse, so that the car’s two back-up lights can turn on.

For the ZF 5 HP-24A, the electrics seem to be all over the place. I once made the mistake of crawling under the car to study the various places where electrical wiring attaches, and that was overwhelming too.

Not just is the transmission control computer already intimidating by being a computer — but it actually talks to the car’s other computers (ECU, ABS, etc.) across a serial bus network. And then there are wires going directly to the transmission too, and to all sorts of sensors.

The way I understand how an automatic transmission (not the torque converter, just the transmission itself) basically works, is:

1. Mechanically, it uses shafts, gears and clutches to transmit power from the input shaft to the output shaft using, at any one point in time, a particular gear ratio that is one of a small, finite set of gear ratios specific to that transmission.
2. Hydraulically, it uses a high-pressure pump and various channels to guide the fluid.. These channels are centralized in a part called the valve body, where the fluids either open or close valves, and that in turn controls the mechanical components. Various fluid pressure conditions cause various valves to open or close under the desired conditions.

So, as a made-up example, to engage first gear, clutches A, B and D should be activated and then clutches C and E should not be, and to enact this, we want valves 1, 3 and 4 to be open and valves 2, 5 and 6 to be closed. The various conditions and consequences can be diagrammed using a grid that some call a “truth table.”

In electrically controlled transmissions, the valves are opened or closed under electrical control, using (for each valve) a solenoid, which I understand to be the sort of electromechanical device that makes the passenger door’s knob pop up when I pull up the knob on the driver door.

In relatively simple electrically controlled transmissions, a particular solenoid can be either energized or not, and so the valve controlled by that solenoid can be either open or closed.

So, to stay with my made-up example, to engage first gear, you’d energize the solenoids for valves 1, 3 and 4. With that premise, it’s not that complicated. I would measure whether or not any particular solenoid wire has battery voltage when it should, and if it does, great — and if does not, then hey, there’s an electrical problem upstream of the solenoid. And if the solenoid gets power but doesn’t react, it’s a bad solenoid. It’s as Simple as that. It’s sort of like being pregnant or not. There’s not much of a gray area.

By contrast, on the ZF 5 HP-24A transmission, a solenoid can be on, off … or somewhere in between, and there’s not just the one mid-way point, either. So it’s a lot, a lot, a lot more complicated.

Or is it? I finally found a truth table for this transmission, which shows how the neither-on-nor-off conditions are not that common, and besides they don’t affect first gear, anyway.  For first gear (which is where I’m having the problem) the situation is a clean, simple combination of some solenoids being completely off and others being completely on.

I also found a wiring diagram, and I finally took a deep breath and started analyzing it. It turns out to be almost comically simple. The wires from the transmission control computer to the transmission are simple voltage-energized lines, not a serial bus or any sort of weird encoding.  There are maybe eight or so wires. One wire goes to the transmission fluid temperature sending unit, which I understand to be a simple temperature-sensitive rheostat. As for the other wires, each one goes, quite simply, to one solenoid. Nice and simple, really.

Then, I read that the solenoids on this type of transmission are not deep inside the transmission, but just below the valve body — and the valve body isn’t all that hard to remove, with the pan off.

So it’s possible to test each solenoid and to have some reasonable clue as to whether or not it’s reacting to being energized or de-energized.

Given their relative accessibility, it might even be possible to replace a solenoid without having to remove and replace the entire massive 350-pound transmission. I’m hopeful.

As to the cable, a.k.a. the bundle of eight or so wires from the transmission control computer to the transmission, it is not that complicated either. If there’s continuity on each wire, end to end, it’s good and if not, it’s bad.

As to the electrical components sprinkled around the transmission, they’re not that complicated either. One is for the position of the control cable, and the rest are for speed sensors. Nice and simple, too.

Suddenly, I feel much better. It’s all going to be OK.

My sister wittily posted on FaceBook a pretend quote of a popular-in-the-US deity: “I never said that” (or words to that effect).

This summer, I was in Missisippi in the time-frame when the Supreme Court had just legalized gay marriage, and I had a hard time reconciling the mellow and benevolent style  of Jesus (as I understand it) to the hateful stuff being said, supposedly in Jesus’s name.

If we could email our deities and get a personalized reply as to the recommended course of action in a given situation, it’d save a lot of bloodshed. A non-believer could still choose to disagree with the deity’s take on things but at least the believers would finally be on the same page.

In automotive transmission culture, the company called ZF is about as close to a deity as it gets. They create amazing and complex stuff out of almost nothing, and they are huge, and they seem almost all-powerful. They are good and wise.

I’ve been a believer in ZF for many happy years now, specifically due to my favorite BMW transmission having been made by ZF.

So now I own a 2000 Audi A6 with the 4.2 engine, and the ZF 5HP-24A transmission. It seems to have a transmission problem, which might or might not actually be caused by the transmission. I bought my mom such an Audi for her birthday too, this summer, and the car also has this issue. On each car I knew this when I bought the car, and the super-low price reflected it.

But, it’d be nice to have both cars working. I don’t have the budget to go spend thousands of dollars on the locally recommended solution, which is to buy a local rebuild and have it installed locally. Besides, I like solving puzzles, and this is a puzzle that’s perplexed me since June, i.e., for five months now, as I tried to figure out what the right thing is to do.

So, I wrote to the deity, last night, and described the situation, and asked for guidance. And guess what? ZF replied!!!

In truly wise fashion, they didn’t as yet throw suggestions at me but instead asked me intelligent questions to help pinpoint the problem. I’m so delighted to be able to converse with them directly!