Yesterday my van was driving like it was stuck in 2nd or 3rd gear for most of the time I drove it. Get up to around 30mph runs ok not full on though. believe it or not I made home to my driveway and couldn't get it to go no more (how often does this happen?). Started it this morning and was able to get it further up the driveway. started analyzing. Pulled rear part of split driveshaft, jacked up rear end, turned the yoke on the rear end all seems fine, turned other half of driveshaft going into tranny in all gears and turned ok (slightly better in one direction than the other), pulled the drums on rear and all seemed normal, put it back together and tested forward gears still seemed like the parking brake was on or something. Later pulled pan on tranny, fluid reddish brown of course, fine sludge on magnet (average amount for 148,00 miles, magnet just covered over) never notice any slippage, have noticed it seemed like the torque converter would never drop out at a complete stop (motor would bog down like it was still under a load, instead of like a nuetral), heard a loud pop about a week ago when on the interstate and i had let off the accel., wasn't sure if it were me or someone else, I did notice gas mileage was getting worse during the last week. All signs seem to point to a bad torque converter from what I have been reading All Day Today. Never had a torque converter go bad and never seen these symptoms before, I'm clueless. Anyone know the answer to this issue, I would greatly appreciate any info. considering buying a new TC but would hate to waste the money unneccisarily. Thanks in advance.
Forgot to mention; When I had the driveshaft lose I ran it through all gears and driveshaft turned with no load, didn't hear anything abnormal, actually couldn't tell it was turning until I looked underneath. since it's a 1990 I'm assuming it's a 3L80 (turbo 400) short tail, single wire TCC solenoid, not sure if it's HD or not (don't know how to tell). measured the TC best I could while still mounted at 12". I would think being a 1 ton 15 passenger van it would be HD. I took out all the seats when I got it and use it as my work van ( I have a lot of tools)