self-leveling again (or still)

[<JHertzman@xxxxxxx>]

Lyndon Martin, Keith Walker, and Howard Warren have fairly well answered
Robert Cess's question about the leaking self-leveling valve on the automatic
Milano. The unit can be rebuilt (assuming Howard's mechanic has mere mortal
competence) although exactly how (which is what Cess asked) is uncertain, or
the car can be retrofitted with stock or aftermarket springs and shocks,
resulting in no better handling and ride than technologically-deprived manual
Milano owners usually accept. 

One minor puzzle remains. Howard Warren says fixing it was "well worth it.
I've *NEVER* driven a 4-door sedan that handles like the Milano does now."
Leads to two questions:
(1) Has Howard ever driven a non-self-leveling Milano, and was it less fine?
(2) Does anyone who has owned fairly comparable automatic and manual Milanos
concurrently have any observations on whether one handled better and rode
better than the other in normal use? (Fred Di Matteo has had both in the
family, I believe concurrently and in comparable conditions, has anyone else?)

A third question is whether there anything at all to support the suggestion,
which I believe I read on the digest, that the self-leveling/automatic
connection on Sport Sedans and Milanos is there because of the transmission's
sensitivity to car attitude? It sounds unlikely to me, but unlikely things are
sometimes true-

While looking for that elusive suggestion I ran across a posting by Dana
Loomis in AD5-165 saying in part: "The consensus of the digest seems to be
that there are not unusual problems with the ZF transmission itself.  However,
US-model milanos with the automatic transmission also had a self-leveling
hydraulic rear suspension that shared a reservoir with the power steering
unit.  The hydraulic shocks on these cars seem to have a tendency to develop
leaks after a few years, which in turn leads to some risk of running out of
hydraulic fluid and damaging the steering rack.  Some owners solve this
problem by eliminating the hydraulic suspension when it starts to leak and
installing aftermarket springs and shocks." Sounds like a good reason for not
just putting up with a soiled driveway.

Finally, a recent thread on leaking power-steering racks ended with a fairly
wide endorsement, including by Fred, of the use of power-steering stop-leak
additives. Wonder if anyone has tried it for the self-leveling leaks? I would
not expect it to be a magic wand, but it might be worth trying as an interim
palliative.

John,
who enjoyed self leveling on Sir Alec's marvelous Hydro-Lastic system, finds
it useful on his very variably loaded van, and expects to remove it as a
useless complication from his someday-perhaps Sport Sedan-

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