C6 puking fluid out the dipstick tube and slipping

[argve]

Well she does this about 40% of the time when you shut her down. She does this after she has been running at highway speeds for a little bit but not always. She also slips when she's doing this to the point you can't hardly get the truck to move under it's own power. You can rev the snot out of her to get her to crawl. Now you can let her set and cool down and then she will work perfect (no slipping and no fluid being puked out). Seems that when she pukes she slips bad. But as said this is intermittent.

The VRV needs adjusted badly she holds her shift to the bitter end but I can make her shift if I run through the gears. I'm gonna look at vacuum lines and set the VRV tomorrow but I need to know how to adjust it. I'm planning on doing a search for that later and run down to the library tomorrow and see if they have haynes or something on it (our library has SOME manuals but not all). But if you boys want to post up a "how to adjust post" I would not complain in the least.

My thinking on the puking fluid is it might be the vent is clogged which brings up another question - Where is the vent? I'm not much of transmission guy as I haven't had the joys of rebuilding one yet - automatic that is....

Today when she did all this (slipping and puking) I checked the fluid level and it was full - actually it was a bit over full but as soon as I restarted her to check the fluid and shut her off the puking stopped. So I'm confused....

 

[Hydro-idi]

I am sorry to say that your transmission is well beyond shot. Your torque converter is slipping to the point where it is heating up the fluid, which in turn will puke out the dipstick and all other weak seals and burn up your clutch plates. When this is happening, your transmission is probably seeing oil temps around 240-280 which is not a good thing. The transmission will need to be rebuilt as well as a new/rebuilt torque converter. This happened to my buddies f250 powerstroke diesel until it eventually burned itself up. I remember seeing trans temps around 270 degrees when I was towing heavy with it and told him something was wrong. Instead he put duct tape on the gauge so he didn't have to look at it lol.

 

[gandalf]

Travis, I have a 28 page pdf file on the c-6. It's out of some manual, but I have no idea which one. I'd be happy to send it to you as an email attachment. I'll need an email address, though. PM me an address and it's your's.

This has to be on the truck you just got. That's not good. Did it give any indication of trouble driving home? I've never done it, but I've heard that rebuilding a c-6 is not too hard.

 

[IDIDieselJohn]

Sure sounds like the TC is beyond shot.


For future reference, the vent is just above the most forward tranny line.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[icanfixall]

Nice pic of the vent area.. Sure does sound like something let go all of a sudden. For the atf to puke out the vent you need to get things really hot or way over filled. Now determining the reason it got hot is another adventure. No matter what you find the trans coler will have to be replaced. No rebuilder will warranty a rebuild if the aux cooler is not replaced. I didn't ask if you have one but I'm thinking you do.. I recall something about this rig was setup to tow something... These C6 trans are not hard to rebuild but I have not done one either. Get a shift kit and a really good converter and drive the wheels off it when it done... The smile will be tuff to remove hours after driving a new tans C6..

 

[IDIDieselJohn]

When the C6 in my motorhome failed..well starting failing I should say, cause it got me home.... hours non stop.


It started leaking around the dipstick oring, and got so hot and burnt all the fluid and turned it black. Still drove, and shifted fine! But had to manually shift it as it blew the vacuum modulator as well.


This was at the end of the season, so I drove it to storage (about 6 miles), and after winter, trying driving it back home, and not even a from home, I was sitting at a red light, all of a sudden it starting making this god awful grinding racket of a noise, then light turned green, started giving it some gas, starting moving, and ****, nothing, no more noise, no more gears. Towed it the rest of the way, and when I took the tranny out, the TC was full of loose chunks of metal inside.

 

[towcat]

At this point, the trans can pretty well be considered done. But.....check some other stuff first since it may cause an early death to the next one you put in.
1) trans cooler. be absolutely sure the cooler is not plugged up with metal. compressed air and backflushing will give you a accurate idea if the cooler is plugged or not.
2) trans vent tube. mud wasps have a nasty habit of building nests there. make sure it's not blocked.
3) put in a trans temp gauge. if the convertor is done, the fluid temps will be out of control fast.
good luck.

 

[gandalf]

The manual is in the mail, as the old saying goes. It should be waiting in your email que now. I hope it helps, and the problem isn't as serious as we all fear.

 

[argve]

Yep that would be on the truck I just got. It did puke fluid out the day I picked it up but I thought it was because I may have over filled it - it left me stranded on the approach to autozone and I had to run inside and get 2 quarts of trans fluid to get her to move. Then on the way home it just worked - never leaked one drop on the entire trip from PA to indiana but then once I got home and parked it (after running on the highway) she puked.

So it looks like I'm going to get the learning experience of rebuilding a automatic transmission. Hopefully she holds out for few weeks until I can reliably ride the bike everyday to work because once summer hits the truck's only job was to make the haul to pick up my kids from my ex and return them. After that it's main job was being parked and just getting fixed up. I guess she wants her tranny massaged more than she wants other things.... Oh well it's all part of the game. So I guess I will start looking into a rebuild kit and new torque converter. Ain't got a lot of money to throw at her at the moment so she won't get a massive ground breaking TC but she will get a new one.

Travis, I have a 28 page pdf file on the c-6. It's out of some manual, but I have no idea which one. I'd be happy to send it to you as an email attachment. I'll need an email address, though. PM me an address and it's your's.

This has to be on the truck you just got. That's not good. Did it give any indication of trouble driving home? I've never done it, but I've heard that rebuilding a c-6 is not too hard.

 

[argve]

Well a trans temp gauge is one of the things I was planning on adding anywho so I'll just throw one on there and see what we see. My bet is it's toast because when I checked the fluid yesterday she had some dark streaks in the fluid when I pulled the dipstick - I failed to mention that in the original post but it makes sense because it's debris that is trapped in the fluid and that's ain't good. More than likely it's the clutches in the trans is my bet that are floating around at this point....

On the original E I couldn't kill a transmission if I wanted to but on the sub models it seems that's the first thing I kill. At least I have moved on from brakes when I was teenager - I used to say I could find any vehicle on a lot that needed brakes with my eyes closed and not even touching the thing.... It would be the one I picked.... At least I have moved up in the food chain....

At this point, the trans can pretty well be considered done. But.....check some other stuff first since it may cause an early death to the next one you put in.
1) trans cooler. be absolutely sure the cooler is not plugged up with metal. compressed air and backflushing will give you a accurate idea if the cooler is plugged or not.
2) trans vent tube. mud wasps have a nasty habit of building nests there. make sure it's not blocked.
3) put in a trans temp gauge. if the convertor is done, the fluid temps will be out of control fast.
good luck.

 

[stumiister]

Argave
Dont feel bad when I got my truck it was a total basket case
Now Big Red as my girl calls her just needs alittle more TLC.
That is the point of these old trucks someone has negelected them and someone like us that is more mechaniclly inclined than the PO comes along and fixes them up to the point of a good running truck or better in some cases.
Please take pics as you overhaul the C6 I have one in my truck and haven't done it yet but I know one day it will need to be done.
Im sure it isnt much different than TH350 or TH400.

 

[typ4]

C6 is easier than a Th 350 or 400. ALWAYS assume the cooler is plugged, the oil goes from the conv right to the cooler and the cooler has a nice little mess of passages to catch metal. VERY hard to adequately clean one.

 

[icanfixall]

C6 is easier than a Th 350 or 400. ALWAYS assume the cooler is plugged, the oil goes from the conv right to the cooler and the cooler has a nice little mess of passages to catch metal. VERY hard to adequately clean one.

What Russ has said about the cooler is what I refered to in an earlier post. Doing the rebuild yourself is a fine idea but please know the aux coler is clean or simpley replace it to be sure. Running a dirty cooler on a newly rebuilt tran is like running dirty oil in a new engine.. It may or may not hurt but after all the work why chance it..

 

[trackspeeder]

Good thing about a C6 is you can do a strong but affordable rebuild on your bench.
Drop the pan to see what kind of surprises are in there. Black chunks in the fluid is clutch material.
Metals can come from gearsets, bushing or converter.

When you rebuild your C6. Don't skimp on the converter. Get a good one.
Flush the cooler lines and cooler well with solvent. If you have an aux cooler replace it. Aux cooler are usually a garbage can in your cooling system.
Throw a Magnafine filter between the radiator and aux cooler. You can put it after the aux cooler too.

 

[typ4]

The filter needs to go in the cooler line that feeds oil to the rear of the trans, that is the lube circuit, otherwise it will put the metal right back in.