Building a legacy takes more than just skill. It takes dedication, resilience and a willingness to carve your own path. Chris Harmon, owner of Harmon Performance Transmission in New Richmond, WI, is a third-generation transmission builder, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. From tearing down transmissions at just five years old to forging ahead to create his own company, the trade is in his blood. Even so, stepping out on his own to start his shop wasn’t easy. With industry challenges, rising costs and the pressure to provide a quality build, Harmon had to prove that he could not only continue the tradition but take it to the next level.
Lead Me Home
In Harmon’s case, one must ask: Does his love of transmission building come from nature or nurture? His grandfather first began rebuilding transmissions in 1964. By the ‘70s, Harmon’s father had joined in as well. He spent many hours working in the garage, and when Harmon was a child, he too started hanging out there with his dad. “That was kind of our shared bond time that we would spend together,” Harmon recalls.
As a five-year-old, he cleaned parts. Later, when his father started giving him various subassemblies, Harmon learned how to disassemble transmissions. By the time he was 12, he was fully taking them apart, washing them and prepping them for build. He also started some subassembly rebuilding, thus learning to build in sections. He built his first transmission on his own at 16 years old.
Harmon learned how to break down and build transmissions by spending hours in the garage with his father (pictured).
“Taking them apart for so many years, you almost naturally kind of learn how things go back together by the opposite,” Harmon says. “It just made it click a lot easier for me.”
After he and his father had worked together in different shops for about 10 years, Harmon’s father opened his own transmission shop in 1996. During that time, Harmon went to tech school and got an automotive degree. He also worked in general auto repair for a while, just to see if he enjoyed it. In the end though, he felt drawn back to transmissions.
Harmon’s father wanted him to take over the business. However, Harmon’s father preferred working on general factory-rebuilds while Harmon himself enjoyed the performance side of the industry. The differences in their processes and preferences eventually made it difficult for them to work together. As a result, Harmon slowly branched off on his own, focusing more on performance-based transmissions, so that he wouldn’t be competing with his father. Once he got busy enough with his own work, he started Harmon Performance Transmission in his garage until a local auto repair shop for which he built transmissions offered him a spare bay.
Harmon Performance Transmission began in Harmon’s garage but has since grown to have its own shop alongside other automotive centers.
“That kind of helped separate my personal life from the business a little bit. Having a company in your house is a little different. It’s something you’ve got to get used to,” Harmon says.
Life’s Been Comin’ too Fast
What started as a one-bay shop with just Harmon as the builder has grown into a five-bay business with employees. While Harmon cites starting this business from the ground up as his greatest challenge, his second biggest obstacle was time management. Having a wife and three children, Harmon had to figure out how to balance being a business owner and a family man.
“When I first launched the company, it was 12-, 14-hour days, six, seven days a week,” Harmon admits. “And I did that for quite a few years straight. It wasn’t a struggle in the moment, but I can look back and see how it affected me.”
Harmon now runs a five-bay shop. The business grew quickly, and he needed to bring on help.
But the business grew faster than he thought, and as more work came in, Harmon had to learn how to say no in order to manage his time better.
“I wanted to be able to help everybody that I could possibly help. It got to the point where I had enough business that I could no longer do that,” he says. Finally, Harmon knew he had to make a change. It was difficult for him to set aside his workmanship pride and hire an employee. After all, in doing everything himself, he knew it was being done to his preferred quality and specifications. But learning how to delegate helped him grow as a person.
“That’s a big adjustment for a business owner if you’re not used to having an employee,” Harmon says. “So I had to learn communication skills with him to keep things rolling smoothly.”
Taking Care of Business
Harmon started his performance company in the early 2000s based on front-wheel drive 4T65E transmissions, which no one else in his area was really working on. That uniqueness made his work stand out—and helped build a loyal customer base.
For Harmon, the challenge of the build is what excites him most about his job, and the reward comes from the satisfaction he feels after working hard. However, he’s also excited “when the customer gets to actually enjoy what they’ve gotten, because most of my transmissions are more special to [them],” he says.
After all, with regular transmission work, a customer is usually looking to fix something broken and get back on with normal life. However, Harmon’s clients are seeking him out for a different reason, and it makes the whole process more personal. “They don’t work the same when I’m done,” Harmon says. “I’ve done programing changes or hydraulic calibration changes. So, it’s kind of nice to get other people’s feedback on what you do, especially when you stick so much into it.”
Harmon’s son is already learning transmission skills.
Ultimately, Harmon sees his legacy not just in the transmissions he builds but in the name he’s earned. In following his grandfather’s and father’s legacies, he wants to leave behind a good reputation like they did.
In addition, he says, “I would like to be known for the custom stuff that we do. And, I feel like making those friendships with a lot of my customers and working hand-in-hand with them — I want just people to remember that I was a helpful person and always went out of my way for them, because I’ve spent a lot of my life putting into this industry, and it’ll be nice to take a little bit away when I’m done and look back and go, ‘I did the best I possibly could with what I had.’”
And, if all works out well, he’ll be able to pass on his transmission-building skills to a fourth-generation Harmon. Yet the issues he faces now will impact the builders of the future. Join us next time to learn what issues Harmon sees in the industry and how he thinks we should fix them.
Harmon (rear, center) hopes to pass on the transmission-building legacy, just as his grandfather and father did.
