I was coming home tonight and left a red light, went over some railroad tracks, got near the speed limit of 40mph, and it was like the transmission suddenly went into neutral. Tried to pull it in manual 2nd, and still nothing. Put it in neutral, coasted into a Walgreens, and into a parking space. My first thought was fluid level, so I checked that since it was up to operating temperature and running, it was fine and color was good. Jumped back into truck and tried all gears...P, R, D, 2, and 1. I could tell when engaged the rpm fluctuation, but when given go pedal the rpms would raise and I could tell the truck was slightly moving, then quit. The rpms's were kind of funny coming back down to idle after letting off the go pedal. The truck stays stationary when in P and will move in N of course. There's no fluid under the truck, no SES light on the dash, and no blinking overdrive button.

This transmission was rebuilt about 8 years and 36k miles ago. I had a billet triple disk torque convertor built with Torrington bearings at the time. The transmission got new high heat frictions, sprag, EPC, Tugger, etc.

I will go back and check for codes in the morning. I am thinking the filter may have come loose...or possibly the feed bolts baking out. It's just odd to me that I can feel the gears somewhat engage when put in R or D, so maybe it could be a pump problem too...

 

to me,
if it just suddenly quit,
I would suspect the filter fell off and the feed tube is no longer in place.

 

Maybe @Mark Kovalsky or @cleatus12r might chime in...

 

Truck is now home. Checked codes and there were only 2 that pertained to a delete sensor and turbo boost. Looking more like the filter falling out. I called the mechanic I trust doing transmission work, and he even said the same thing. So tomorrow I'll drain and pull the pan. I'm hopeful that's what I'll find...

 

I drained and pulled the pan today. Fluid doesn't look bad and filter looks correct and still intact. There is more stuff around the magnet than expected. I will pull the filter in the morning and take a closer look at it.

I did call and talk to Josh at Performance Adapters to see how close they were to releasing the hardware to adapt a 6 speed or 10 speed from later 6.7L Superduty trucks for our older 7.3L Superduty trucks. He said they're still 3-3.5 months out. He said Chad at US Shift is still working with his 7.3L truck to work out the bugs, but it appears everything is lining up...it's only 1/4" difference at the back transmission cross member mount and it's clearing the his bellowed up-pipes. I asked about if his truck has mods and apparently he's working with Charlie at KC Turbos, so sounds like he may be putting some more power through it.

 

that sure looks like a lot of metal around that magnet....

to me, the internals are not long for this world.

 

If the 6R140/10R140 adapter and TCM come to fruition, I might have a BTS 4R100 for sale.

 

That's why I called...to see if that might be an option, but it doesn't look like it for me at this time if need be. Might also be nice in the wife's Excursion for better mileage, but we've also been talking about getting another Audi Q5 TDI and eventually selling the Ex since all the kiddos are grown adults now...

 

Sorry I'm late to the party but a pressure gauge would have told you a lot before dropping the pan. Totally from an old wore out memory I believe if the filter falls off the truck would stall in reverse. It does look like you have hard part damage with all of the metal, might be the converter.

 

Mine acted very similar when I lost the TC. It was supposed to be a “billet” yada yada from a rebuild shortly before I purchased the truck. I pulled out from a stop with the trailer and it popped with a feeling like the transfer case jumping out of gear around the time it shifted to second. The truck would barely move while in gear.

There was quite a bit more fine metal in my pan though.

I really wanted to cut the TC open to see what happened but had to turn it in for a core.

 

I may just put the pan back on and fill the fluid back in so I can check, but I was going to take the return line off to see if I get a gallon of fluid in one minute of run time. You think a pressure gauge would be better?

 

From what I could find, when the TC goes it spreads aluminum through the transmission...ie the fluid having the silver glitter look. The fluid I drained is clear with no glitter. The transmission has been shifting fine with no issues, and when it did this I was running empty and not in the go pedal. I'm thinking forward clutch drum might have let go, but it it's a problem on the bottom end it would be good to know before having to man handle that beast out from under the truck.

 

It depends on the failure mode.

The torque converter in one of my 95s quit during a 3-2 downshift. Luckily I had enough speed to let off again and have the converter clutch apply in 3rd (and subsequently 4th). I drove another 13 miles at highway speed but as soon as I stopped at the sign at the highway exit, it was game over.

The resulting teardown resulted in requiring nothing more than a replacement torque converter.

I'm not saying that your problem is the torque converter but I know that failure isn't always catastrophic.


I bought an 01 a number of years back for a steal because it didn't move. The overdrive planetary exploded (what the input shaft connects to inside the transmission). No metal ANYWHERE except piled up under the failure. I cleaned it out, put the center support/intermediate clutch/overdrive clutch parts back in and have been driving it since.

 

Sounding more like it's something in the front part of the transmission...torque converter, forward clutch drum, planetary, etc. Just strange to me when Reverse or Drive is selected the rpms change...granted they go up instead of down.

 

That's tuning. The PCM knows through the MLPS that it needs to compensate for a load.....that now isn't there.