It had a slight whine a few months ago. I dropped the pan and it was pretty clean- not much clutch material at all. I put a filter/fluid and added a trans cooler at that point and it ran quieter and smoother. Total mileage is @70,000

End of last week the whine returned and much louder.
It gets louder with RPM.
Even whines in park .
It shifts into all gears.
It hesitates a second(a few seconds and needs a little rpm) before engaging into gear(drive/reverse) as if it is waiting on pressure).
Even seemed to do that a few times yesterday under very light throttle as I pulled the plug and swapped fluid a couple times as a method of flushing.

Pretty sure it's toast and looking for help I do have a 97 trans out of a 6.5l truck I could swap in but do not have a short hub converter that the trans requires.

Thoughts?

 

Sounds like it could be the pump.

 

Yep.. that's my thought. I would never consider just reworking or swapping pumps but don't want to have the truck down as sharing the wife's car isn't going to work.

Considering swapping the good 97 in unless there is some compatibility issues I am unaware of.

I also need to find a good or reman'd stock stall short hib converter . Any recomendations that can get me one to ne ohio within a couple days? Reasonably priced

 

I wouldn't be afraid to replace a pump/converter/cooler to make a repair on your vehicle. If YOU know all the gears still work, no clutch material in the pan, and it seems to be a pump, it probably is.
A GM dealership would replace the pump only for warranty.

I would do the converter and cooler as well because the metal from a failed pump goes into the converter and cooler.
It lubes the trans and then returns to pan where it is filtered.
There could be some damage to the bushings/plaets but chances are it's all OK.
A full rebuild would be ideal but not necessarily required.
Call Lonnie @ Extreme Automatics and maybe he can source a converter for you quickly/locally.

 

Here is an update
I checked the connections, double checked the shifter linkage to trans lever locations without finding any noticeable issues.

I decided to try to look into things further. I ran a line to a gauge attached near the driver side mirror(redneck, temporary, but functional as I wanted a little more info before I tore things apart)

idle in park @ 110 cold 100warm
unplugged EPC and in P @ 165-175

P@ 100
R initial spike 140(1sec or gauge bounce) settle 120
N@100
D initial drop to 60(1sec or gauge bounce) settles 80 and rises with throttle approx 160driving down the road 25-30% throttle
3 80 and rises with throttle
2 80 and rises with throttle
1 80 and rises with throttle

To me those look pretty good according to the book they were in the spec ballpark. Drove the truck around and it felt "normal" Drove to work today w/o issues. I am going to keep driving but at this point I feel it was a stuck valve, blockage, electrical in nature, or possibly one of the connections and grounds I looked at.

EDIT wanted to add the whining is back to normal and not the level it had been for 4-5 days

Not at ease with the trans w/o finding a smoking gun but am driving it.

 

It could've had a stuck pressure regulator, and the pump was struggling to keep up (hence the whine).

 

It gave up the ghost.

Sunday while driving home the whining returned, under load it would shift and drive but once idle/coasted it lost pressure and I'd find a spot to coast into/off the road(some of the time). A few shudders here and there. Would sit a few minutes and make it another 1/4-1 mile and coast off again. Like neutral nothing with occasional shudder if I gave some rpm.. From a start it wanted rpm to get the cluthc packs tight and moving.


I picked up a good 4l80e out of a 98 5.7 1 ton with 80,000 miles tonight. I am considering a swap (trans and converter) tomorrow. I believe it is a straight swap (ie no need for anything but the trans and converter) Correct?

 

Yes it will bolt up exactly for the most part. The only issue I see is that you will not have a 12 o'clock bolt hole using that earlier case.