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BurbMan's avatar
BurbMan
Explorer II
Sep 20, 2013

Lost the Transmission Today - WED 10/2 Update

*Update at end of thread*

Well at 144K miles it finally gave up. Had a great drive today down to Western KY for some camping. Campsite was challenging to say the least...trees on both sides of the road, high blacktop edges to back over but I was getting it done and looking forward to a cold one when I got her in the spot.

Much maneuvering and watching the trans temp hit 220, which it has never done, but one last push and I am in the site. Shift to reverse, and nothing...no noise, no drama, no puked fluid, just no motion....and here is where I am:



I unhitched the TT and Good Sam sent a flatbed to park the TT in the site. I had a tow strap and a fellow camper pulled me back out of the neighboring site. Still have all forward gears, just no reverse. Drove it around the CG, pulls strong and lots of torque, shifts fine, just wont go backwards...

Went in and had a beer waiting for the tow truck



The word from the locals here is to go with a Jasper rebuilt and hav it installed by a local mechanic...apparently the last good trans rebuilder here retired and now there are none.

Anybody know of a good shop in the area that can rebuild a 4L80E please post or PM or text me 631.404.0131 ASAP. I am at Kenlake resort on 80 just west of LBL.
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  • Fordlover's avatar
    Fordlover
    Explorer
    Sep 20, 2013
    campigloo wrote:
    Well bummer. Just to try to ease some of the pain, look where you were when it happened. I've seen worse. My 4L80E went out @ 125,000. The mechanics I talked to all said that is about the life expectancy of those trannys. I put a Ford rebuilt back in mine, but added the Banks Billet torque converter. It made a noticeable difference in shifting and temp. Pricey, but I found it worth the money.


    Impressive. Your GM tranny went south, so you put a rebuilt Ford unit back in. Which Ford tranny bolts up to a GM motor?
  • campigloo's avatar
    campigloo
    Explorer
    Sep 20, 2013
    Well bummer. Just to try to ease some of the pain, look where you were when it happened. I've seen worse. My 4L80E went out @ 125,000. The mechanics I talked to all said that is about the life expectancy of those trannys. I put a Ford rebuilt back in mine, but added the Banks Billet torque converter. It made a noticeable difference in shifting and temp. Pricey, but I found it worth the money.
  • Lantley's avatar
    Lantley
    Nomad
    Sep 20, 2013
    Wow Don I feel your pain! I had the same experience with my X at 109K?. No reverse. $2200.00 later I was on the road.
    144K on a vehicle that tows hard regularly probably isn't bad.
    Of course that's easy for me to say.
  • ls1mike's avatar
    ls1mike
    Explorer II
    Sep 20, 2013
    It may just be time. 144,000 miles behind an 8.1 is a lot for a 4L80E.
    Jasper makes good stuff.
    Monster Transmission makes some awesome stuff.
  • BurbMan's avatar
    BurbMan
    Explorer II
    Sep 20, 2013
    Fluid changes have been regular at 25000 intervals. Trans works hard towing this trailer, so I over service it.
  • wcjeep's avatar
    wcjeep
    Explorer
    Sep 20, 2013
    How many times has the fluid been changed over its lifetime? I'm curious if the recent fluid change knocked something loose.
  • BurbMan's avatar
    BurbMan
    Explorer II
    Sep 20, 2013
    Well, I was working it pretty hard getting into this site...I just changed the fluid with Dex VI and filter in the spring and was thinking it ran pretty great...I'm pretty sure I busted something internally. Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of seafoaming and seeing if reverse comes back....I need to get this TT back home at some point.

    Pretty sure you'll see it out front at Cunninghams in the morning :)
  • Gale_Hawkins's avatar
    Gale_Hawkins
    Explorer
    Sep 20, 2013
    I was reading up on Sea Foam use in automatic transmissions and more specific their red dye version called Sea Foam Trans Tune.The post was about a guy who bought a Geo with no reverse on the cheap thinking he would just replace the transmission at some point but being light he was driving it some and had put in a can of Sea Foam. Some time later he put it into reverse and it was again working.

    Perhaps it was a stuck servo, etc but there is no way of knowing.

    I wonder if it could just be a linkage issue in your case just to go out without any warning?

    I like to run a can for 200+ miles before a bucket flush in MH, Blazer, Escalade.

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