I just got done swapping on my winter wheels at my in-law's place (where my tools are) and and headed down the highway about 4:30-5:00, with my 2 year old daughter asleep in the baby seat next to me, and that's when it happened. I'm about a 1/4 mile from my exit, I give it a little gas when all of a sudden the RPM's pin, just like that. I let off, try again, same thing, RPM's are going up and the truck is slowing down. I'm able to get the truck to crawl to the exit, made it over the highway and coasted into a parking lot. Thank God my daughter's still asleep through all of this. Smoke is coming from under the hood, and I can smell burnt trans fluid (it's all over the engine, exhaust, hood, etc.) and what smells like burnt a clutch-ish type odor. I pop the hood to find that one of the hoses from my aux cooler has blown off of the hard line back to the trans. I think, maybe I'll get lucky and this is the only problem (but the odor I'm smelling tells me otherwise)...but hey you never know.

I call the wife and tell her to come get me and my daughter, she's only about 5-10 minutes away at home....my daughter didn't wake up until I unbuckled her from the baby seat thank goodness. Go to AutoZone, pick up 8 qts of fluid and a funnel and have at it. Re-attached the hose with a screwdriver I had in the glove box...I have 2 clamps on it BTW, which I cranked down to be safe. The trans took 6 qts but didn't look good when I checked it...there were little chunks of what appears to be clutch material. Oh yea, I'm doing all of this in the dark with temps in the mid to high 30's.

So I figure, lets see if I can get it home....start on my way taking it easy, it's good for about 1/2 a mile and it starts acting up again. I was able to limp it the 2 miles that I needed to get home. Go to check the fluid and find that the trans dipstick appears to have blown out of the dipstick tube. So now I'm wondering if the cooler line came off and blew the fluid out which smoked the trans, or if somehow the trans problem started first and blew the cooler line off as a result?

The trans temp was very cool according to the gauge in the Denali cluster, and like I mentioned ambient temp was in the 30's and I only drove a few miles before this all happened.

So now the truck's dis-abled until I can afford an FLT Gonna have to find a cheap beater to get me through the winter...my neighbor has an 87 BMW with 200k that has new tires, new brakes, a 10k old clutch and slave cyl, and has been well maintained. I hate Beamers but for $800 I may have no choice...don't think I'll find another used car for that price in this good of condition. I'd prefer to find a used Toyota for $500, but if I do it'll probably need 2k in repairs...but I've been with Toyota/Lexus since 92 and can get parts cheap. Not to mention that the BMW is RWD with "summer" tires and I have a feeling that we're going to see alot of snow this year.

Oh yea, and to add insult to injury....I was supposed to go to a 1 yr old birthday party today, but opted to stay home to acess the damage and try and clean some of the trans fluid off the side of my truck and the engine bay. The whole right side of the truck, tailgate, and rear bumper was sprayed with atf. I got some Brakleen and started spraying down the r/r shock, the control arm bushings, the belts, wiring, etc. Don't want the atf contaminating anything. Did the body panels with some Quick Detailer and a microfiber cloth. Anyway, after a good Brakleen bath, I leave the hood open to let the stuff evaporate and get rid of some of the fumes. Come back a few minutes later and there's a squirrel on my engine...I shoo him away and start the truck...it's misfiring I take a look around and find that the little bastard has eaten through the wiring to the #2 fuel injector Not a big deal, but a real kick in the *** after the whole trans deal.

Think I'll probably do a tru trac around the same time I do the trans...don't want my G80 to grenade next and take out a perfectly good FLT at the same time.

 

lol thats funny right there, when it rains it pours...really sucks to hear bout all the problems...

 

Thats no fun, and yes thats a long post.
Was this your stock tranny, how many miles?

dang 60e's

 

That's the same thing mine did and it was the clutches in the TC

 

Stock tranny, 60k on the ticker, I've had 0 torque management for about the last 23k.

Yea, I was thinking torque converter or front pump, then clutch failure to follow. But it may very well be that the tc clutch is what I'm seeing on the dipstick.

 

Sorry about you're luck, Yeah Squirrels love fuel injectors that and nuts. lol

 

Again, sorry to hear about all this bud. I know you'll get it all taken care of and be better than before. Maybe this may be the proper time to swap in your 6.0? Also, good to hear your daughter is safe.

 

I can't say I find pleasure in your pain but the way you wrote that up is entertaining. Sorry to hear about your tranny taking a dump on you with your
daughter in the car. The added concern only compounds the problem at hand but your kids will always come before any truck you own. Good thing you were close enough to home for Momma to help out.

 

Thanks guys, yea I'm glad that I was close to home and my daughter was OK

The 6.0 will have to wait a little further down the line, don't even have the cash for a new trans lol. At least when I do the 6.0, it will have a tough trans behind it

 

Bud, I've posted this before, but why even mess with a 60e? A bone stock nice 80e I think can be had for $1000-1500 which is less than a built 60e and will be stronger in stock form than any built 60e.