Transmission Slipping... what to replace?

[coreyapotter]

I have a 1992 4wd auto. When I put it in drive, the engine will rev to about 4-6000 RPM and then abruptly jerk into gear, once in first gear it will do the exact same thing into second, all the way to O/D. Once in gear, everything runs fine, but between gears it misses totally before jerking into the next.

I took it to a transmission shop but they guy was totally unhelpful, he rode in it with me for like 50 ft, and said "its definitely the transmission... you're going to need to replace it."

I am up for replacing the transmission myself, but I don't know enough to truly diagnose the problem. I am afraid I will spend $600 on a used transmission and end up with the only problem being in the torque converter, or a solenoid, or something else. Is it even worth replacing the transmission without replacing the TC? Could anything else cause the type of problem I am describing?

 

[coreyapotter]

original thread

here is my original thread from 2 years ago...

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/problems-warranty-issues/32088-transmission-slip-miss.html

 

[turboSR5]

I know next to nothing about transmissions, what I would advise you to do though is find a different shop to take it to. I had a similar experience with a shop before, I immediately drove to the next trans shop and had a much better experience that ended up saving me around $500 at the time.

 

[fourwd1]

I know a little about auto trannies, and I looked at the FSM.
Some possibilites are the the shift linkage, throttle cable (aka kickdown cable), or a problem in the valve body. The valve body is where most of the components that control shifting are (valves, solenoids, etc). The valve body can be removed and serviced with the trans installed (it's basically above/in the pan).

But back to basics, what does the trans fluid look like? Good fluid is a bright cherry red, old fluid is darker red, and bad/burned fluid is more brown, and if burned smells burned.

 

[coreyapotter]

Transmission Fluid

Here is the fluid from the transmission (on the right) compared to new fluid (on the left). The old fluid is very thin, does not have a very strong burnt smell, and still has a red tint, but is pretty brown compared to new fluid.

Any thoughts on the next step?