Grenvilleter
New member
Well my tranny finally calfed. A couple of months ago some may remember I posted regarding my tranny which was acting strangly. Failing to D/S to 1st when stopped at a light.
I went to a trans specialist and he looked , listened, read the OBDII ports, test drove it and said bring it back when it's acting up so I can read error codes...if any. I kept "nursing" it along.
It reached a point to where it was very sluggish on cold start-up and did not want to engage 1st gear at all now that colder mornings are here where I live until I rolled down a slight incline in my driveway and got "rolling" where upon it would D/S into 1st gear from ?? 2nd or 3rd ?? and after a little warm up seemed to act fine and normal...Except..
A week ago on a particularly cool (below freezing) Saturday night, jumped into my truck to get home from the deer camp and I couldn't get any gear to engage. Put the truck into low range and was able to get it up the trail to my home about 1/2 mile away but not without some major slippage going on in the tranny.
Back to the transmission shop we towed it who had, in the meantime consulted with a buddy of his who works exclusively on toyota trannys.
The explanation he was given was, and forgive me, I'm auto trans illiterate is the clutch packs will wear to a point to where the pump cannot supply the pressure needed to "lock things up" and appears like a pump failure has happened.
So... with the absence of a few thousand dollars to throw at it, I proceeded to take a gamble and replace it with a used one with 400+K on it.
Probably sounds stupid I know however before you judge...hear me out.
I have a '98 limited "junker" that I picked up for scrap prices that I actually drove (all be it, it had a blown rear diff) so I knew the tranny was fully functional. I was able to gain the experience of pulling out the old tranny to take to the tranny guy who is going to just do a swap for me.
It was a bit of a job as the truck has been sitting in the field for the last 2 yrs but over all I was somewhat impressed at the level of corrosion the "junker" exhibited.
Found out there was a new rack installed in the junker and I was able to pull the Cat and O2 sensor off without difficulty.
Very impressed that the crossover manifold nuts were not corroded but not very impressed at the ease of getting to them.
Turns out I did not need to remove them after all because when removing the tranny and xfer case as a single unit, and the cat removed, the whole engine/trans assembly will tilt down enough to get at the top bell housing bolts.
Anyhow...took the used tranny over to the shop where my DD is sitting and he will allow me to assist him do the swap and charge me $500.00 + fluids.
Not a bad deal at all IMO considering he has hoist, tranny jacks and a warm place to work plus all the proper tools. It will be a snap after pulling one out while the truck is sitting on jack stands virtually outside.
At worst case, the "new" used one will get me through for a while and I'll have a core on hand that I can get rebuilt if the used one fails in the future.
Not only that, it has motivated me to start stripping down the "junker" and putting the parts in under cover on a shelf rather than letting it rot into the ground.
I'll let everyone know how it turns out.
I went to a trans specialist and he looked , listened, read the OBDII ports, test drove it and said bring it back when it's acting up so I can read error codes...if any. I kept "nursing" it along.
It reached a point to where it was very sluggish on cold start-up and did not want to engage 1st gear at all now that colder mornings are here where I live until I rolled down a slight incline in my driveway and got "rolling" where upon it would D/S into 1st gear from ?? 2nd or 3rd ?? and after a little warm up seemed to act fine and normal...Except..
A week ago on a particularly cool (below freezing) Saturday night, jumped into my truck to get home from the deer camp and I couldn't get any gear to engage. Put the truck into low range and was able to get it up the trail to my home about 1/2 mile away but not without some major slippage going on in the tranny.
Back to the transmission shop we towed it who had, in the meantime consulted with a buddy of his who works exclusively on toyota trannys.
The explanation he was given was, and forgive me, I'm auto trans illiterate is the clutch packs will wear to a point to where the pump cannot supply the pressure needed to "lock things up" and appears like a pump failure has happened.
So... with the absence of a few thousand dollars to throw at it, I proceeded to take a gamble and replace it with a used one with 400+K on it.
Probably sounds stupid I know however before you judge...hear me out.
I have a '98 limited "junker" that I picked up for scrap prices that I actually drove (all be it, it had a blown rear diff) so I knew the tranny was fully functional. I was able to gain the experience of pulling out the old tranny to take to the tranny guy who is going to just do a swap for me.
It was a bit of a job as the truck has been sitting in the field for the last 2 yrs but over all I was somewhat impressed at the level of corrosion the "junker" exhibited.
Found out there was a new rack installed in the junker and I was able to pull the Cat and O2 sensor off without difficulty.
Very impressed that the crossover manifold nuts were not corroded but not very impressed at the ease of getting to them.
Turns out I did not need to remove them after all because when removing the tranny and xfer case as a single unit, and the cat removed, the whole engine/trans assembly will tilt down enough to get at the top bell housing bolts.
Anyhow...took the used tranny over to the shop where my DD is sitting and he will allow me to assist him do the swap and charge me $500.00 + fluids.
Not a bad deal at all IMO considering he has hoist, tranny jacks and a warm place to work plus all the proper tools. It will be a snap after pulling one out while the truck is sitting on jack stands virtually outside.
At worst case, the "new" used one will get me through for a while and I'll have a core on hand that I can get rebuilt if the used one fails in the future.
Not only that, it has motivated me to start stripping down the "junker" and putting the parts in under cover on a shelf rather than letting it rot into the ground.
I'll let everyone know how it turns out.
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