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Transmission gurus, longevity of 1/2 gears driving only question

4xcrazy

4xcrazy

3/4 ton status
Joined
Oct 31, 2003
Posts
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Location
Elma, Washington
Just curious, I know its not the best idea to be doing it, but at the moment we really don't have the cash to be replacing another transmission in this truck.

As I was out test driving and actually going to a couple of places for something as a test run as well, I already know the trans won't shift out of 2nd gear, sometime it slips pretty good from 1st to 2nd if I'm on the throttle pretty good, so I just baby it to prevent the slipping, which seems to help, doesn't seem to slip.

But anyways, no cash for a new/rebuilt trans, 35" tires, 4.10 gears, while I have been out with it the few times, it seems I can run right with traffic around town, which the speed limits really don't go much higher that about 40mph. I'm running about 2000rpm at about that speed, in 2nd gear.

How long, guesstimated, crazy ideas, thoughts or what have ya, do ya think I can get away with say short trips, or maybe getting back and forth to a job daily if it's local. Most of the driving here in this town would most likely be no more than about 5-6 miles.

When it died on me in Phoenix, I didn't even give this any thought, as everything there was usually highway driving required situations. None of that here really.

I realize something inside the trans is burnt out or whatnot, but this is why I'm asking any transmission guys, what's going to happen if I continue to drive it like this.

Thanks.
:D
 
Im no transmission guy by any means but it seems like they are easier to rebuild when they are still working even if only partially. Seems like any time I drive one till it quits it costs more to repair it.

But I understand not having the money to repair it now. Same reason why my scout is still not drivable. I fortunately have other several other means of transportation.
 
Its hard to say--I have seen transmissions limp along for a year or more,if driven like grandpa...others only take a few miles to fully destruct..

One kid I know who owns a Dodge Neon had the automatic in it lose 3rd gear and overdrive--he commutes from my town to New Bedford daily,a good 25+ mile trip each way...he asked my friend at the repair shop "how long do you think it'll last like that--I dont plan on keeping it too much longer"...he said "only one way to find out--your engine will likely blow up first,screaming it at 55 mph in second gear though"...
He responed "OK,then I'll take the "back roads" and keep it under 40 mph"..

He soon tired of going the "slow way" and decided to drive it on the highways at 55+ mph...to his surprise and ours,the car has now gone over 2 years and 14,000 miles ,and still runs about the same as before the tranny started acting up--he says he'll drive it till it blows a rod,or wont move now!...what hurts is it might only need a new computer module that Dorman now sells,it could just be in "limp mode"...

I have seen slipping Powergilde's go 30,000 miles,and I have seen TH400's that didn't make it home 4 miles after they started slipping and missing shifts too...one customer at my friends shop burnt up his 700R4 in about 10 miles when he decided that the "passing gear cable" that broke off,could wait until his next payday to be replaced...:surepal:...

I've been fairly lucky,I bought my '81 G-10 van with a "blown tranny",it only had first gear & reverse...however,I discovered the govenor gear was stripped and "apple cored".I threw in a used one from a junkyard tranny and it worked perfectly for 44,000 miles till I parked it...

Had another car with a TH350 that wouldn't shift into third until 45 mph and when it did it slammed in HARD...it also felt like it went into neutral when you let off the gas,and it wasn't until one day I noticed white smoke belching out of the tailpipe that the vacuum modulator was junk...replaced it and it drove like new again...

I had another transmission that had the pan get dented up against the filter,and it howled like the pump was junk,like a siren,and it slipped badly...I took off the pan,beat it flat with a hammer,and put a new filter on it,and it was OK again...the guy who sold me the car was pretty ticked off when he heard that was all that was wrong with it..:D
 
I'm not real sure what's going on with it really, all I know is it doesn't even try to go into 3rd gear, and sitting here now, I seem to remember back when it was original, with 225k miles, when it did something similar to this, it wouldn't go into 3rd either, but for some reason I'm thinking that it at least tried, like it would try to shift, but slip then drop back into 2nd.

It's not even doing that.

It'll run up through 1st gear, if it's hard on the throttle, it'll slip pretty good into second, if the throttle is of normal pressure, it snaps in pretty quickly, like normally. but other than that, it doesn't even attempt a 3rd gear shift, at all.

There are no weird noises from it, when he finally got the truck here, I checked the fluid, it wasn't brown/burnt, but it definitely wasn't the nice new looking pink color when I left it. It looked comparable to maybe a 50k mile fluid run, dirty, but you wouldn't think it'd be that bad.

I don't really know the inner workings of transmissions, it's one of those parts I was never really interested in, seemed too complex, everything else on the truck, I can handle though.

It's not getting driven much anyways, we do have the Avalanche. This right now is more of a second vehicle for when she's out and about or on a road trip at one of Eloras dance competitions. Nothing is too far of a drive around town here and I mean within 2 miles I can get about everything I need, including ammo :tongue1:

But once I do find some full time work, it's gonna need to be driven every day, at least to and from there. But who knows when that will be, because I'm so old and decrepit,,,,:doah:,,, no one seems to want to hire me right off. Also doesn't help I don't have a Washington license yet, but that's another deal. :D

Anyhoo...
 
I have yet to be brave enough to try tackling an automatic tranny rebuild...I've seen many torn apart by friends who scrap them,to get all the steel parts out,and they dont look like they are easy to work on--its one thing to gut one with a hammer to scrap it,to be able to remove and replace all the parts that have snap rings,and must be facing a certain direction,etc,seems to be out of my realm--I suppose you'd need some special tools also...I wouldn't attempt it myself,much as I'd like to be able too..


The 700r4 in my '85 Burb supposedly loses reverse after it gets driven 20 miles or so,and it refuses to go into overdrive I was told too--I have never registered it yet or driven it further than just up my street and back,and so far reverse has worked OK for me..but I take the previous owners word for it the tranny is dying...

He told me he did drop the pan,saw fluid that looked black as used engine oil come out of it,and all he did was spray the valve body off good with brake cleaner,and the pan,and put it right back on,added a bottle of Lucas tranny treatment and filled it up with fluid,and it sat for 4 months till I bought it..

I noticed someone put one of those external filters on one of the cooler lines,and I was told they could cause problems if they get restricted,or were installed in the wrong line...I never tried deleting it because I wont be able to tell if it helped if I cant take it for a good longer ride..and I cant even SEE a TV cable ,its buried under the injector pump somewhere--could be broken or not connected for all I know..

Since the 700R4 seems to be GM's "worst" transmission in stock form,I am leaning towards getting a TH400 and a matching T-case ,or swapping in a TH350 short tail with the spacer to the t-case,instead of keeping the 700R4...the Burb now has a plow,so it'll be likely I'll be using it and will need a decent transmission..

I dont drive far or take long trips often,so I dont think I'd miss the overdrive much if at all...it has 3:73's in the diffs..I drove a lot of other cars and trucks with 3 speeds and 4:10's on the highway,it didn't bother me at all...I can always put bigger tires on it!..
 
Why not buy a used one for $100 or rebuild it yourself ($300-400)? They are easy to rebuild.
 
Well, Greg is the guy to answer this one, but I'll throw in some info. First of all, do you know which tranny it is?
If its the 700R4, stop driving it until you read up on and adjust the TV cable. Adjust it like the factory says, and resist doing any "tweaks" that some websites say will work better.
If its a TH400, check the vacuum modulator and vacuum line.

These are easy, no cost checks. Well, if the modulator is bad, you would have to replace it, but they should be cheap, and its on the outside of the transmission. 5 minutes with a wrench and you are done.

Otherwise, having it stay in a lower gear is much more likely to give your motor problems than the transmission, as long as its not slipping.
The slipping is what will kill it.
Remember, an automatic does not actually shift gears. All the gears are engaged all the time, it uses clutches and brake bands to determine which gears are under load.
The clutches and brake bands are not supposed to slip when driving. They engage and lock under normal use.
They slip slightly when engaging or releasing of course to give a smooth shift. But if they slip all the time, its the same effect of driving with your foot partially depressing the clutch on a manual letting it slip as you drive down the road.

Or riding along with your foot on the brake. Eventually the clutch or brake shoes will overheat and wear out.

If the transmission is slipping as you drive, its not going to last long. You need to do whatever you can money wise to find the problem and either correct it or minimize it.
If you can stop the slipping by the way you drive it, then its much more likely to last.
The wild card, is what is causing the problem. If its something that is not getting progressively worse, then you may last a long time.
But, if it were the governor gear coming apart and getting worse and worse while throwing pieces of plastic into the system, then no amount of careful driving will save it.

As an absolute last resort, you can try one of the transmission repair kits in a can. TransMedic, or one of the other snake oils.
Look for one that says it reduces or eliminates slipping rather than cleans out the sludge.

Never use that in a good transmission. Its not needed, and might cause problems. Here, you don't have that much to lose if its slipping. If its not, then don't put in the snake oil.
 
kennyw said:
Why not buy a used one for $100 or rebuild it yourself ($300-400)? They are easy to rebuild.
Click to expand...


I have yet to see a used one for $100, I'm not comfortable with rebuilding them yet, I don't have the room in the garage or the supplies to properly get things cleaned and organized.

I did forget to mention that this is a 700r4, and the TV cable was set properly when it was installed and has never been messed with since then. All was working fine since it was installed and along the whole trip until he got into the longer mountain grades and started coming down into the west side of the state. That's when he said it started acting weird, shifting weird and whatnot.

I'm pretty certain some bands or clutches are burnt, there was material in the bottom of the pan when I changed out the fluid a few days after it got here.

I remember reading things about certain gears sharing the same bands/clutches or something or other, again, not sure on the inner workings of these things. It's one of the only components I don't mess with, it goes bad, I take them out and replace them. :D
 
Whatever you do, the more you drive it, the more damage you do. That makes the rebuild more expensive.
 
Yeah, it most likely won't be driven much at all really, and I'll probably be going the route of the $500 rebuild, kind of hate doing that, last time I did it in Phoenix, I had to pull the trans out TWICE for them to get it right and they still didn't get it right the second time. Just wouldn't work right as soon as it was installed, and no, the TV cable had nothing to do with it.

Didn't matter how much setting of the cable you did, it always acted the same, I even had THEM try to get it set right, they couldn't even get it to work right. I finally removed it AGAIN, took it to a guy I had had rebuild a few others in the past, was charged another $850, on top of the $400 from the previous shop, he rebuilt it, completely tore it down, showed me what they DIDN'T do for a proper rebuild, got it working for me, gave me a brand new TV cable and fluid for it.

It worked great, was installed the same time the brand new rebuilt engine was put in, drove it around for the engines break-in, the typical stuff, loaded up the truck, heavy, pulled a decently heavy trailer behind it and headed to Indiana, had absolutely NO issues with it.

I'm just leery of the $400-500 rebuilds is all, figuring they are doing the absolute minimum in the rebuild to make sure they make their profit.
 
If you want a good shop, I know one in Monroe, WA that is top notch. They have a great reputation in this area and I used them to rebuild the 5 speed in my '96 F250 Powerstroke. I don't know what they would charge on a 700R4 though.

Snohomish Transmission
https://goo.gl/maps/i6xWT
 
Not crazy out of the way really, especially if they do good quality work, I may call them tomorrow and find out. Something else I noticed, you're near a river up there. :D I have yet to do any salmon fishing, actually don't know anything about it out here, only done trout in the local lakes around the house...

You get out and do any fishing up around there?
 
My step-son used to all the time and my neighbor does religiously. I can't find any free time between work and school to stand in the rain on a river bank. I'd rather buy my fish at the market and put those hours into one of my other expensive hobbies.
 
You should be able to drive the truck in first and second till it finally lays down and quits all together. You will have a better shot at keeping these two gears if you change the filter as the 3-4 clutch pack is probably residing there now and restricting fluid flow and pressure, and that can kill the forward clutches and leave you with nothing. The slippage a little bit in second under heavier throttle is understandable as this band is also applied in fourth gear and has no doubt suffered a little damage to it as well. If you are keeping it local and keeping it slow it could go on for a surprising amount of time. No way to know for sure so start saving now, the longer it lasts the more savings you will have to build it right when the time finally comes.
 
Well, a little update for those trans guys/rebuilders/advanced knowledge guys...

I took the truck out on the freeway last week to test out a speed deal to see if perhaps it went into a higher gear at a higher rpm, my thoughts were that my dad continued driving it to the house, here from the middle of Washington state where he noticed it acting up with shifts, he couldn't have driven it all the way in 2nd gear.

Turns out, it does in fact go into 3rd gear, the shift is beyond smooth, so much so that you cannot feel it, it just happens at some point.

I hopped on the freeway, it went from 1st to 2nd like normal, as long as you're not trying to accelerate at an advanced pace, if you push too hard and try to accelerate too fast is when it likes to slip between 1st and 2nd, and somewhere in there it goes into 3rd.

I am able to run it at our local inner-city freeway speed limits of 60mph no problem, the engine obviously running a bit higher in rpm's than I'd like, with the 4.10's and 35's it's running about 2800rpm at 60, about 2500 at 55mph.

I ended up driving it an hour and a half out to Jenns brothers place, to stay there for a week with him and do some crab fishing on his father-in-laws boat (that didn't work out too well, different story, different time)

Ended up coming back a few days early, again, drove all the way back, all the same.

SO, I called around to a few shops, interesting how they don't even want to give out "guesstimates" after informing them what it's doing and that it's already been rebuilt about 6000 miles ago and why I feel it failed this time. All the main hard parts have been replaced at that time, I feel it just needs a band and clutch pack replacement.

1st through 3rd,,, no 4th.

What are the thought on this?
 
If it is apart already, no reason to not put all new seals gaskets and clutch packs in. The full kit is cheaper than buying a few parts and it all has to be disassembled to be cleaned anyway.
 
Yeah, kind of what I was referring to seals, gaskets, band and clutches, the main replaceable hard parts like the sun shell, even the main valve body was replaced on the last rebuild due to worn valve bores or something.

The fluid didn't even look all that bad when it got here really, there was some clutch debris in it, it wasn't the brand new red/pink color, it looked like a moderately mid mile fluid that may have been past it's change interval.

There wasn't a ton of debris on the pan magnet, obviously some, a bit more than normal.
 
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