I've got a 1992 E350 motor home chassis with E4OD. A few thousand miles ago the front pump seal went out when I was on the road with it and had to have that replaced. The mechanic said the seal almost looked melted. Now the torque converter is exhibiting the classic shudder but the rest of the tranny seems to be shifting fine. I've tried the shudder fix additive but apparently the converter is too far gone so I think it is time for a new converter. My question is I'm wondering if it is logical to replace the converter only being as the rest of the tranny seems to be operating fine OR should I do a full rebuild knowing the history of the torque converter. Any opinions?

 

How many miles on the tranny? Early E4ODs are trouble, especially in a heavy application, such as yours. If it's rather low mileage I'd say just change the convertor, otherwise IDK.

If it ain't broke don't fix it, right?

 

Thanks for the reply. It's got a little over 50K miles on it.

 

at 50k miles I would think you'd be ok just to fix the TC. My E4OD didn't crap till around 150K, which at the rate your going, won't be till 2040. I wouldn't worry about the tranny too much, but I would def have them install a new front seal, even if yours is relatively new.

 

My 94 E4OD had torque shudder and intermittant hard shifting after I towed several times with low tranny fluid.

The shop said the tranny and fluid did show signs of overheating which makes seals brittle whcih then break down and send chunks into the tranny. Over time you will get hard shifting and damage to hard parts. In my case, the sun shell started to wear prematurely.

I had a rebuild done and have put on about 50,000 miles of about 30% hard towing since then with no problems. I check my fluid much morfe religiously now.

I would drop the pan to see if there are signs of other damage, ie... brwon or black fluid, metal shavings or chunks, lots of clutch material(pepper flakes) etc. If things look good you might just change the converter AND FLUSH the entire tranny and piping and cooler. But if you are having a shop do the work, you are looking at about $500 just to drop the tranny plus maybe a couple hundred for the converter. A rebuild would not be a huge additional expense in comparison to doing it later if there was some unseen early damage.

Good Luck,

Jim Henderson

 

This is interesting info guys. I've got a c6 in my '79 F250 and I've been having shudder problems as well. After reading what you guys have been saying I really think it's my TC. I'm bummed that it's going to cost upwards of 1k to fix but I guess that's the cost of wanting my truck.
Just to throw this out there... when my truck is in Neutral or Park my engine runs like it should. Smooth. When I put it in gear it seems as if the engine is actually fighting with the brakes. The transmission seems to be bogging down the engine when it's in gear. It doesn't kill the engine but it certainly runs rough with lots of engine shake.
1st and 2nd gear are shuddery and weaker than I would expect but 3rd seems to smooth out like it should. 3rd isn't perfect but it certainly is better.
Any thoughts?

 

C6's don't have a clutch in the convertor so it can not shudder from that.
Your transmission probably has worn/burnt clutches that are causing the problem.

 

And your engine needs a tune-up.

 

hmmm. It's true but it feels like a deeper issue than a tune up will fix.

 

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean the overrunning clutch that the stator is mounted to?

 

The overrun clutch is not like a conventional clutch.
It consists of rollers and springs and does not cause a shudder.

 

Torque converter shudder is caused by a problem with the torque converter bypass clutch. It's a wet clutch with friction material on it, just like a clutch inside the trans. The C6 does not have one of these so it's impossible for a C6 to have torque converter shudder. If a C6 shudders it's because a clutch or band inside the transmission has failed.

 

Thanks Mark, and <i>all</i> you guys, for the info. I'm going to go weep now. :-)