Transmission help

[Aznwolf118]

Hello,
Just had a big transmission failure.

Was driving from Bay Area to Seattle and it died 400 miles in to trip.
Need help with a quick diagnosis since the truck has been towed to a dealership and I am pretty much stuck in Seattle now, thank god for AAA premier membership, that 200 mile bonus tow was money.

Question I have is what would cause it to act like it has no gears.
Drive, low, low2, and even reverse won't move the runner, it just revs.
Motor starts fine and idles great. Could the super charger have cause some premature wear or damage to the transmission.

Any ideas since the dealer wants an answer on what to do tomorrow.
Just asking cause I got the standard dealer answer of replace the whole thing stem to stern and you don't even want to know what they quoted.

 

[jsukey]

Did you hear any noises before it gave up? When you say it died, did it just start slipping and then nothing...or it just gave up all at once? Don't think the supercharger would have anything to do with it...that would have started with a gradual slipping. Did you add the SC, or was it factory? Did you pull your dipstick and check your fluid? Smell burnt? Bright red, or brown? How many miles?

 

[Aznwolf118]

Line pressure was good, no burnt smell on fluids. No codes. Temps never exceded normal. Always serviced by dealer. Just topped 125k. 4wd 2002 sport edition. Have a tru cool 4544 installed inline for added transmission cooling.

It shuddered at freeway speed approx 70mph and gave up at once. Was a little thud pulled over And when I tried other gears no movement but rev's freely. I let it sit for a 1 hour and motor started rite up, but wouldn't move in any gear.
Even reverse which seemd odd.

Super charger and 7th injector was factory installed. Wanted the warranty that came with them.

 

[jsukey]

That is very odd. The auto transmisson behind the 3.4 is a very reliable one, even with abuse. I'm not a transmission guru so someone else will have to chime in. I just thought I would get the details out there so others will chime in. Some people on this board get annoyed if you don't give them details about about your vehicle. Is it 2 or 4 wheel drive?

 

[jsukey]

Well, I did a search around Seattle to try and help you out. Not sure whether your 2 or 4 wheel drive is the only problem. Found 2 transmissions on Craigslist, but I believe they are both 2 wheel drive. What sucks about your situation is that you don't know exactly what went wrong. Did the dealership just try to quote you on a new transmission, or did they actually drop the pan and try to figure out what went wrong? I personally would want to see if there are any parts in the bottom of the pan. 125K is nothing for these transmissions if they have had the slightest bit of care thrown at them. The other thing that is going to suck is that you have a SC, so just throwing in a Craigslist transmission (if it can be found), won't be a complete fix. You have a throttle body that has been revalved to handle the harder shifts because of your SC. Whoever does your transmission swap may just be able to swap the two, but care needs to be taken to make sure the original failure wasn't due to that. If it is determined that catastrophic failure has occured, as much as I hate to say it...I would let the dealership handle it. Either that, or find a used tranny and let a reputable shop swap it. I've read horror stories of people trying to rebuild these transmissions. From what I gather, the tolerences set forth by the factory are so precise...that it is almost impossible to get a quality rebuild from a secondhand shop.

Here are the 2 transmissions I found:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/pts/3350645515.html
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/pts/3361566225.html

 

[jsukey]

Crap, just saw that you are in fact 4WD. Sorry I missed that.

 

[jsukey]

Just curious...have you checked to see if it was your transfer case?!! Checked the linkage to make sure nothing came loose?

 

[the great him]

yeah almost sounds like the tcase is in neutral...

 

[jsukey]

That's what I was thinking Mr. the kid!

 

[the great him]

if he has fluid in the tranny even if its burnt or low, he should be able to at least get the truck to move, especially after letting it sit for a while and "cool down"


he could of also sheared the pinion and the drive line is just freely spinning -although this is highly doubtful as i have only seen this happen a couple of times and one of them was on a drag car and the other was a big truck

 

[Singtoe]

Take the 4runner to a transmission shop. The dealer will charge way too much.

Diagnosis this on the net might be useless. Unless it just happen to pop in to Neutral, everything else will require a wrench to fix.

Possible situations:
Transfer case in neutral
oil pump is bad
torque converter is bad
input shaft broke
planatory gear exploded
output shaft is broke
transfer case shaft is broke
valve body is bad

 

[Jon]

:iagree: But forgot to mention that with the added torque of the S/C it's a definite possibility that the clutches are smoked. Just like I did to mine. I'd drop the pan, change the filter and refill with new fluid. Mine worked for a lil while but ended up swapping for a 5spd.