I've had this happen in the past but just ran in to this situation again today and wanted to see if anyone has a solution before i get stuck.

We often times get this really wet snow out West that is referred to as Sierra Cement. Last night we got about 6" of really wet snow that came down when the temp was between 32-35* and on my drive in to work it completely entombed my transmission and uncarriage. It really stacks up on the passenger side above the plastic piece that cover the fuel lines.

Long story short... I get to work and can't shift the truck out of drive... Can't get it in to reverse, park or neutral so if I shut it off I won't be able to start it up without neutral so I shut it off anyway because I was going to be here for 8 hours. Here it is almost 8 later and it still hadn't melted enough to shift so I just spent 20 minutues melting the snow out from under my rig with a hose and I can now shift in to all gears. When this has happened in the past I was fortunate and was able to park in the garage overnight and it had melted by morning.

Anyone else have this issue and if so what have you done to mitigate it in the future? Thanks!

Do you mean you move the shifter into another gear and nothing happens or you physically cannot move the shifter at all?

I am pretty sure he means the transmission doesn't shift, so he shifts to D but nothing happens.

Your fluid is probably too cold to shift, that's the component of the transmission that is most affected by temperature. I would recommend a fluid exchange for high quality synthetic fluid, such as Redline or AMSOIL. I've noticed my 4Runner behave much nicer in cold weather since the change. It has properties compared to regular fluids that keep the viscosity thinner in cold temps.

One thing that doesn't make sense though is your stock transmission cooler on the underside of the radiator. Are your transmission lines disconnected or bypassed through an auxiliary cooler? If yes, disconnect the lines and reconnect the stock cooler ASAP. They are not recommended by the manufacturers to be run separately in colder climate but in series, so flow goes from transmission -> stock cooler -> auxiliary cooler. If you remove it the transmission temps take a very, very long time to warm up.

Sorry... The shifter handle won't move past D into neutral. reverse or park. It is physically jammed at that point. I can drive it because it's in Drive. I've put as much pressure as I feel comfortable doing(don't want to break it) and I can't force it north of drive.

what it sounds like your saying is that the snow builds up over your shifter linkage and you cant move the shifter due to it being "frozen"

If you crawl under the truck and look on the driver side of the transmission you'll see the linkage, its a horizontal bar with a bolt that connects to the shifter. If that doesn't make sense look up a body lift write up and most will have a picture of the linkage
Theres the dumb solution of carrying a hair dryer to melt the snow off the linkage when it builds up, or maybe a screwdriver to chip it off.
Long term maybe build some sort of skid plate to keep the snow off the linkage or even like a cut pool noodle? I've never heard of that issue before

Is there not supposed to be a plastic shield under the tuck to help prevent this sort of thing?
I'm not talking about skid plates.
Under my truck near the transmission I have the remains of a plastic shield.
Just a thought.

I don't think that mine had a plastic shield. could be wrong though

I do have that plastic shield... All it seems to do though is collect more and more of this slushy snow. As a matter of fact... There was so much snow it had sagged down about 6"+

Thanks. That's definitely what's going on and I'll have to climb under there to see if the pool noodle thing will work. Just looking for a way to keep from having to lay under there on my back when it's cold and wet.

I'll be Captain obvious ..... Definitely need to find somewhere you can park your truck where the transmission isn't frozen solid to the ground.

I found my truck's transmission to be particularly unfriendly to the cold and I live in SoCal. On cold mornings I sometimes have to let it warm up for 30-60 seconds before driving to avoid any slippage. At normal temps it is a great transmission.

Attached Images

 

I could handle that... It's the stuff that comes up from the road that kills me

Not all of the 4WD's came with the plastic shield there (and none of the 2WD's did). Most are gone at this point due to physical damage or lazy mechanics. It may be worth removing it to see if it keeps the snow from packing in that location.

-Charlie

My 97 did not have that plastic shield although it could have at one point. The 99 I bought for parts still had it but I never put it on my 97.

A healthy transmission will have no problems/issues operating at temperatures well below freezing. Last winter in Wisconsin we had 3 or 4 days in a row where it was -15 ish and my transmission acted completely normal as it should have.

If you keep getting snow/slush build up around the shift linkage, I would fab up some kind of "shield" to keep it from happening.