Mojave Red
Full Access Member
This event happened a couple of weeks ago but the problem persists. Let me set the stage: It's the first day of our two week block leave (Army guy for those who don't know) and my wife and I, along with a couple of other Army families, are headed to the eastern Sierra Nevada for a little fishing/camping. It's approaching 100 degrees outside as I start up the long grade on the 395 north out of Ridgecrest. I have my 2500lbs camper in back. Everything seemed to be going fine until my transmission just let go - like it shifted to neutral. I pull over, get out and immediately smell burning clutches. Lucky for me I travel with a gallon of every type of fluid imaginable. So I dumped a gallon of transmission fluid into the transmission, barely registered on the stick, and began to limp towards Lone Pine. I'm already getting the look from my wife . To make an already long story short, I dumped three gallons of fluid into the transmission between Lone Pine and Bishop (about 60 miles). A guy at the only transmission shop in town tracked my fluid loss to the vacuum modulator - seems the vacuum pump was sucking the fluid out and spewing it right onto the road. $110 dollars and a new modulator later we're back on the road. Made it the rest of the way to June Lake and back home without major mishap or loss of transmission fluid.
The thing is, the transmission is not shifting right. It doesn't alway make it back down to first after a stop, and I usually have to back off the throttle to get it to up shift. I'm sure I caused some damage when I ran it dry, but still shifts solid without slipping in or out of gear. I've long suspected that my torque converter has gone south but I don't know how to properly diagnose that.
So I need your suggestions, opinions and thoughts as to what to do. Is it rebuild time? Could it be the wrong modulator or is it out of adjustment? VRV? How to you tell if your torque convert is bad. It seems like I have to get it spun up pretty good before my truck starts rolling with any type of load. Please help. I'm at wits end over this. My wife won't accompany me on anymore camping/fishing trips until I can guarantee no more problems. The transmission is the last major component on my truck that I have not replaced or rebuilt. Not sure if it's original but it's got at least 70,000 miles with me - and I've been pretty ******* it. Enough said...
Thanks much, Brian
PS: we caught lots of fish...
The thing is, the transmission is not shifting right. It doesn't alway make it back down to first after a stop, and I usually have to back off the throttle to get it to up shift. I'm sure I caused some damage when I ran it dry, but still shifts solid without slipping in or out of gear. I've long suspected that my torque converter has gone south but I don't know how to properly diagnose that.
So I need your suggestions, opinions and thoughts as to what to do. Is it rebuild time? Could it be the wrong modulator or is it out of adjustment? VRV? How to you tell if your torque convert is bad. It seems like I have to get it spun up pretty good before my truck starts rolling with any type of load. Please help. I'm at wits end over this. My wife won't accompany me on anymore camping/fishing trips until I can guarantee no more problems. The transmission is the last major component on my truck that I have not replaced or rebuilt. Not sure if it's original but it's got at least 70,000 miles with me - and I've been pretty ******* it. Enough said...
Thanks much, Brian
PS: we caught lots of fish...