I have a friend at work that has a 2000 7.3. She was telling me about a tranny issue she is having. She say that it works fine when cool but after the tranny gets up to operating temp that it is hard to get it out of park. When it does come out of park she says she has to put it all the way down to low to get it going. Her mechanic quoted her 2 grand to change out the seals in the tranny and stated that would fix it. Doesn't sound kosher to me but I know squat about transmissions. Any ideas?

 

That doesn't sound right to me either. I'm no transmission guy, but I do know the parking pawl is mechanical, not hydraulic. I don't see how changing seals would make it any easier to shift out of park. Sounds like a good time for Mark K. to pop in . . .

 

X2 what Pikachu said. And 2 grand could rebuild the trans. It sounds like a rip off.

 

Seals have nothing to do with getting it out of park. They have EVERYTHING to do with not wanting to move except in 1. That could be worn out seals, and a $2k rebuild is what it takes to replace all the seals.

 

ok. Thanks Mark.

 

Not knowing much about a transmission, I guess you are saying there are internal seals? Bad seals would mean low fluid, therefore hard to move, or not contained in the right places meaning low pressure. Transmissions are a mystery to me. All I know about them is what I learn when they go south and I get handed the bad parts after a rebuild.

 

There are many internal seals in the transmission. If they fail the trans can do what this one is doing.

Another thought is that there are feed bolts under the valve body. They move the pressure from the valve body to the clutches. If they loosed, and that's a common issue, it can also do this. That is MUCH cheaper to fix than a rebuild. The pan has to come off, remove the valve body, and tighten the three bolts underneath it.

 

Mark, is it possible to learn anything about transmissions by getting one from the bone yard and taking it apart? Transmissions seem to be really complicated. I know where the TC is and the valve body, but that is all I know.

 

Yes, you could learn quite a bit that way. I also recommend getting a good rebuild manual so that you know what you're looking at. There is a good one at https://www.atsg.us/atsg/.