Need new tranny.

Well today hasn't been all that great of a day. Went out and hopped in the V6 camaro to drive to work and the starter died on me. Oh well go hop in the Z get about 20 mins down the road and the tranny dies. Havnt fully diagnosed the problem with it yet, but my question is are there any aftermarket or custom built trannys out there that are worth spending the extra to get or should I just stick with the stock 4l60-e? thanx.

Need to make sure it is the tranny, and not a computer problem.
What happend exactly?
---TEX---

I'm fairly shure its the tranny but i haven had much experience with working on transmissions so i could very well be wrong. I'll be breif with what exaclty happened, reverse out of driveway, put in drive, only go about 20 mph out of my neighborhood (only made it to 2nd gear in this time). Pull out accelerate went through 1st fine, shift to second continue to accelerate but it wont shift out of 2nd. Manually shift it into neutral, coast for a second an then put it back in drive, and it still won't shift out of second, do the same thing again but this time it wont shift back into drive at all. Lever shifts but trans. doesn't go into gear. Roll of to the side of the road and put it in park to see if its just a linkage problem, but it shifts into Park just fine and back into Neutral but wont go into Reverse or Drive. Walk home ect. :) Change the tans fluid and filter as it was due for a change anyway. Now the trans will go into gear but at the end of 2nd in wants to slip out into neutral(but lever staying in drive) constantly. Im guessing maybe some peice of pice of crud was int ehtransfluid and damaged the 3-4 clutch. I havent had time to give it a thourgh look ove ror anything. The car ha only 81,000 miles on it so it seems a bit soon for the trans to just go out on it so maybe im wrong, ive also heard that the throttle valve can get stuck on the 93 trans and can cause these same problems, but thats only somthign ive heard in passing. Anyway thats "the long and short of it".

Was there any crap in the bottom of the pan? If 3rd was fried the fluid would smell burned and the pan and filter would have a sludgy film on it.
1st uses the forward clutch, 2nd uses the forward clutch and the 2/4 band. 3rd has its own clutch pack and 4th uses the 3rd clutch and the 2/4 band. If the 3rd clutches are fried it would shift into a "false" neutral. Reverse should work even if 3rd was fried.
Does reverse still work? Maybe we can figure this one out.
---TEX---

Yup, sounds like I guessed right with the 3-4 clutch then because reverse still works, and yes the fluid was burnt looking with some crap in the bottom (nothing big just a some shavings and such but it wasnt much more that any other car I've changed the trans fluid on). If this is the problem would a simple rebuild fix it? I have rebuilt my bro's jeep's engine so i wouldn't think the tranny could be too much harder :) Sorry for all my typing errors in the last post. I was in a hurry. Thanks so much for your help man. Oh and by the way this is a dumb mistake but until you'd typed it out I'd been thinking the 2-4 band appllied to 3rd as well lol . Thanks again.

um, im not a trans guy, and dont know much of anything about the 4L60-E, but when a clutch pack goes, dosnt the trans operate normally up to that gear, and then when it hits that clutch pack, it just goes into neutral, well, acts like its in neutral? like first, second, REEVVVVV!!! rather than first, second, second, second, wheres third??? sounds to me like its a valve problem or something to do with the internals of the trans that controls the gear changing, i would reccomend a rebuilt, but if your looking for a higher quality rebuilt, buy a B&M kit to put in it, the dealership might put it in for you, but probly wont warrantee it. but your best bet is a trans shop, who again, might not warrantee it, well, maybe the work and not the parts. ah well, i tried, probly not helping much. good luck

oh also, i just read again, and hotrod already brought up the thing about the "false neutral" *smacks forhead* ah well, im sick, these things happen.

89IROC--- Hope you get better soon, it's a bad time to be sick w/all the holidays coming up soon.

The good thing about the 4L60E and the 700R-4 is that the main clutch packs are directly behind the front pump. --You pull the pan, -remove the filter-, remove the lock-up solenoid (held in w/two 6mm bolts)-, unbolt and pry the pump out of the housing-, pop the band loose from the retaining pin and pull it out-, grab the input shaft and remove the whole forward/reverse/3rd gear housing assemblies. The other guts in the tranny are a couple of planitary gear sets, a one way sprag, and the lower reverse pack. You don't have to go any deeper to repair a damaged 3rd.

I have done many of these "quick fixes" with good sucess. If only clutches are burned, you can do it fairly easy -- if some gear set is shelled out then every little part needs to come out and be checked/flushed/cleaned.

I wouldn't recogmend a high-dollar shift kit. It might work ok, but I prefer shift kits from a company called Trans-Go. They have a kit that I use on 700s (part #SK700-JR) that are very inexpensive and work well. There is also a heavy-duty 3rd gear kit that works amazingly good too. The stock 3rd pack has something like 5 or 6 plates and this kit packs in 8 or 9, if I remember correctly. It gives an impressively crisp 2-3 shift.
I have done so many of these trannys, I have learned several tricks over the years that a book doesn't tell you.

When I install a shift kit into a Camaro or a 4X4 truck, I remove the springs from the 2nd and 3rd gear accumulators and stack large diameter washers under the accumulator pistons to take the slack of where the springs were.

The springs soften the shift (when it shifts to that gear, it is not only applying the clutches in that pack, but also compressing the spring in that accumulator). With no spring, it gives a firmer shift (you'll have to look in a rebuild book to see what I mean). I really don't modify the reverse and forward packs too much, you really don't want to chirp the tires when shifting into drive or reverse.

I drill out the pressure relief passage behind the front seal and install a new bushing. The bushing has to be Toc-Tited in place and there is another trick that I do to the bushing to keep it from rotating (if you need to know, I can explain it to you). Another important tip -- Use J-B weld to hold the front seal in, that way the cheezzy seal retainer clip can go into file #13 (trash can).

I haven't even come close to explain all there is to do on a 4L60, so if you need more, I'll be glad to shoot you some more info.

Hope it all works out,
---TEX---

Thanks so much for all your help Tex. I really appreciate it. If i run into any problams I'll post on here. Thanks again for all your help.

wow tex, and here i thought you were just a nice guy, and then you go and proove you know more than i do ;)