tranny slips when it heats upcan i make it 120 miles?

[88bigburb]

Title pretty much says is, I'm looking at buying a k5 with a th350 the owner says it slips when it heats up, the price is right, its in great shape, but its kindof a buy it quick situation, I can't arrange a tow for at least a week, I have a tranny sitting in my garage.

From what I understand, it started slipping, and he had it towed, if I add a bottle of trans-x and drive slow with frequent stops, can I make it home, or close too it, I'm assuming I should avoid highways, any input would be appreciated, thanks in advance, Dom

 

[imiceman44]

Title pretty much says is, I'm looking at buying a k5 with a th350 the owner says it slips when it heats up, the price is right, its in great shape, but its kindof a buy it quick situation, I can't arrange a tow for at least a week, I have a tranny sitting in my garage.

From what I understand, it started slipping, and he had it towed, if I add a bottle of trans-x and drive slow with frequent stops, can I make it home, or close too it, I'm assuming I should avoid highways, any input would be appreciated, thanks in advance, Dom

Well I have done it a lot, but I didn't have any big hills on the way and I tried to keep the momentum going, if you have a straight stretch of highway, take that.
The tranny will not heat up quick if you are on a steady speed with no down or up shifting, you could possibly make the whole trip in one shot, but if not at least if you start with it cold, you may be able to do more than half first give it a break then finish it.
Plus if it starts to slip and you are close, you can put it in LOW, it will reduce the stress on the tranny and go longer, but not on a highway at that gear, only up to about 25 max.
And if all else fails, reverse should still work, one time after I lost all forwards, I drove 15 miles in reverse to get home. Did it twice in one year too

 

[chalet2506]

You belong to CK5, so just take your spare tranny along and swap it on side the road if need be.

 

[79rustyk10]

How bad does it slip?

 

[88bigburb]

I don't know exactly how bad its slipping, and the tranny I have in the garage is a 400, so its not exactly a "bolt in" swap lol, but yeah,

so I'm better off takin the highway as long as I have 3rd? Cuz it will def be way faster according to Google maps, not factoring in the cooldown breaks,

 

[sweetk30]

i purchased a truck 1 time. shifted solid when dead cold.

drove it and lost 4th then 3rd then 2nd then nothing. all within a 10 min window of warm up from dead cold.

when i swaped the tranny i had to reuse the old pan and when i pulled it i dont know how it was driving at all. 3/4 " thick layer of clutch and junk in the bottom of the pan.

but 500 bucks for the truck and 50 for a good used tranny = money ahead. still got that motor in my plow truck these days. good solid runnin 350 tbi .

 

[blazinzuk]

Drop a bottle of lucas in it, in one of my old th350s it would help enough to go wheeling for half a day.

 

[88bigburb]

Well the loss of all gears in 10 mins is a bit daunting, but yeah, I figure for the price, I can't beat it, even if I do end up getting it towed if the tranny goes, so I figure, take it easy, and keep my fingers crossed, with any luck it'll hold out fine and I can even get a couple days cruising around back and forth to work before I gotta swap in the new one,

 

[wasted wages]

does it have oversize tires/tall gears?

If it does, a borrowed set of smaller diameter tires will help if the gearing is wrong or the rig has large tires.... smaller diameter tires will lessen the strain on the trans....especially uphill..

also if it starts to slip bad....pull over drop the front driveshaft...
put it in lo range and drive slowly.... it may just get you home...

anything you can do to take the load off the trans will help..

just a suggestion...

 

[imiceman44]

does it have oversize tires/tall gears?

If it does, a borrowed set of smaller diameter tires will help if the gearing is wrong or the rig has large tires.... smaller diameter tires will lessen the strain on the trans....especially uphill..

also if it starts to slip bad....pull over drop the front driveshaft...
put it in lo range and drive slowly.... it may just get you home...

anything you can do to take the load off the trans will help..

just a suggestion...

Already mentionned the low range, but didn't think of oversize tires, they will make it easier if you had stock sized tires.

 

[88bigburb]

Well I got a set of 30x9.50's to take and put on, closer than the 315/75r15's on it (what an oddball size lol) only problem I'm afraid of is that I'm fairly certain the lugnuts holding the mag wheels on won't work, if they're anything like all the mag nuts I'm familiar with, so in the event that they are wrong, anybody know the thread size for lugnuts to buy?

 

[imiceman44]

Well I got a set of 30x9.50's to take and put on, closer than the 315/75r15's on it (what an oddball size lol) only problem I'm afraid of is that I'm fairly certain the lugnuts holding the mag wheels on won't work, if they're anything like all the mag nuts I'm familiar with, so in the event that they are wrong, anybody know the thread size for lugnuts to buy?

If it's stock it will be 716" standard lug nuts.
Unfortunately you're too far, I have bags of them.

 

[sweetk30]

6 lug 1/2 ton = 7/16 lug nuts
8 lug 3/4 ton - 1 ton = 9/16 lug nuts

and you just below me by around 2 hr's . i am in horseheads ,ny just over the ny boarder off 15/99

 

[88bigburb]

Well, my route will take me right beside harry's you-pull-it, I should probably just stop there, shouldn't take too long to scrounge up 24 of em, it would be extremely beneficial, if they didn't take all the wheels off the vehicles, lol, and my buddy who's gonna drive my car back thinks I should give it a quick tranny flash before we head for home, good idea or no?

 

[sweetk30]

7/16 was gm solid axle stuff only. and prob all gone from local yards in the rust belt.

and if slipping i would NOT flush it. remove all the grit and no more grip.

 

[88bigburb]

So definitely NOT flush? I don't know all that much bout trannys, so hopefully my buddy won't get all pissy lol,

And harry's isn't just my local yard, its the "world's largest junkyard" that place is great, always a semi fresh supply of solid axle Chevy's WWW.wegotused.com I make the hour and a half trip like once a month through the summer, less in winter, lol its actually like one of my life goals, live in hazleton, so I can be close enough to go daily

 

[blazinzuk]

No flush!

 

[88bigburb]

OK, so definitely no flush, but what about trans-x "helps stop slip" additive?

 

[diesel4me]

I'd use Ludas....or better yrt,get a tow bar and drag it home,so you wont be S-O-L if it does refuse to move in ANY gear halfway home!...(and risk getting pinched for attatched plates,no insurance,etc)....

I've limped a few trucks home I bought before,and regretted it more than once...a ramp truck costs less than court costs and paying penalties ...years ago cops would cut you a lot of slack,tofay they'll nail you to the wall if your caught sneaking an unregistered.uninsured vehicle home...sometimes you can fudge things by writing a bill of sale and using your own plate legally,but its a gray area few cops know all the details of,and most of them will worry about that after your in the holding cell ...

When I got my 85 Suburban ,it was in a rown about 10 miles away,and its 700R4 was losing reverse and overdeive after a few miles of driving..--I had no one to drive my car home when I went to go buy it,so I had to let the previous owner drive it--he slapped his plate from a '97 Burb on it and off he went,with me close behind...we made it OK,but if we had to pull over I'm sure one of the several cops we passed would have pulled up and wanted to check the registrations ,see if we needed a tow,etc...usually I can arrange for a tow from a friend with a ramp truck or car trailer,I know its more money to spend,but worth it ,IMO..especially if its more than say,10-15 miles away or more..

 

[imiceman44]

That is why now I have AAA premium, I get one time a year up to 200 miles tow and 3 times up to 100 miles tow. It doesn't matter where I am at so if it's under these numbers I just go and call them from there, if it's more I try my best to drive it and when something happens usually I am close enough, but I try to keep those tows for fully disabled trucks and I usually use up all my tows every year.

I'd use Ludas....or better yrt,get a tow bar and drag it home,so you wont be S-O-L if it does refuse to move in ANY gear halfway home!...(and risk getting pinched for attatched plates,no insurance,etc)....

I've limped a few trucks home I bought before,and regretted it more than once...a ramp truck costs less than court costs and paying penalties ...years ago cops would cut you a lot of slack,tofay they'll nail you to the wall if your caught sneaking an unregistered.uninsured vehicle home...sometimes you can fudge things by writing a bill of sale and using your own plate legally,but its a gray area few cops know all the details of,and most of them will worry about that after your in the holding cell ...

When I got my 85 Suburban ,it was in a rown about 10 miles away,and its 700R4 was losing reverse and overdeive after a few miles of driving..--I had no one to drive my car home when I went to go buy it,so I had to let the previous owner drive it--he slapped his plate from a '97 Burb on it and off he went,with me close behind...we made it OK,but if we had to pull over I'm sure one of the several cops we passed would have pulled up and wanted to check the registrations ,see if we needed a tow,etc...usually I can arrange for a tow from a friend with a ramp truck or car trailer,I know its more money to spend,but worth it ,IMO..especially if its more than say,10-15 miles away or more..