1997 Chevy Silverado Tranny problem

[zRobx71]

I was at the bank today and when I put it in reverse to back out, the car jolted and then it rolled forward slightly while at the same time sounding like there was grinding. I immediately put it back into park and the noise stopped. Then I tried to reverse again and it started making a clicking and whining noise and wouldn't back up. It sounded like it went into gear but it won't move. I was able to get it pushed out with the help of some friends and the drive still worked. So I was going down the road and got up to speed and the shifting was significantly delayed. It's an automatic by the way. So I tried to take it on the highway and it won't shift out of 2nd gear or 3rd. I know for a fact that overdrive isn't working so i'm doing 50mph down the road and hitting 2500 RPM. I don't know what the deal is but for about 8 months there has been a rumbling vibration when it tries to go into overdrive and when I accelerate quickly I force it to downshift and the rumbling goes away but it still shifted into overdrive when it got passed the rumbling and vibration. Any ideas on what happened? It's a 1997 C1500 2WD 5.7L Silverado.

[j cAT]

your gonna need a rebuilt tranny.

the issues you have appear to be a very worn out transmission.

[zRobx71]

I took it to a transmission shop in town and they said it was my sunshell. I told him how many miles it had on it and he said it would just be best to rebuild the transmission for $1900 or get a rebuilt one from GM for $2200. Being how I don't have the funds for this right now I guess my truck will be sitting around doing nothing for a while...unless anyone has any better ideas?

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by zRobx71

I took it to a transmission shop in town and they said it was my sunshell. I told him how many miles it had on it and he said it would just be best to rebuild the transmission for $1900 or get a rebuilt one from GM for $2200. Being how I don't have the funds for this right now I guess my truck will be sitting around doing nothing for a while...unless anyone has any better ideas?

the sunshell does break if the vehicle is worked hard. in 1999-2003 or so GM used sun shells that were not properly hardened. these would break when under warrantee in most cases.

with this failure the transmission needs to be cleaned, all solenoids replaced. torque converter replaced with a conditioned unit. the lines /radiator tranny fluid cooler needs a flushing.

if not properly cleaned it will soon break again. also if you repair this you must get a 1 yr warrantee with check ups to ensure the rebuild is ok.

no warantee means a poor quality job/parts. lots of chinese cheap crap parts out there.

you could get a scrap yard tranny cheap. but you still will need to flush out those lines etc... keep the old tranny. when you have some money have it rebuilt. then have them install it.

[zRobx71]

So how would I go about doing those things? Or should i just tell the technician to do it?

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by zRobx71

So how would I go about doing those things? Or should i just tell the technician to do it?

some repair shops that replace engines/transmission from scrap yard on a regular basis usually have a good working relationship.

you could have the shop do the scrap yard tranny swap and have them flush out the fluid cooling system including the line in the radiator.

keep the old tranny so that you can have the transmission shop rebuild it when you have the money. then when its done they will install and you have little down time.

[zRobx71]

I cant afford a scrap yard transmission either. It's $1200. I'll just save up to rebuild my tranny and then will I still have to get it flushed and stuff?

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by zRobx71

I cant afford a scrap yard transmission either. It's $1200. I'll just save up to rebuild my tranny and then will I still have to get it flushed and stuff?

like I said it all must be flushed ..................... when the shell breaks crap is every where !

1200 is way to high for a scrap yard tranny. where did you get that price ? call around . you may be in an area that is isolated and not many live in that area. near the larger cities you will get a better price.

farm country truck parts are over priced .

[zRobx71]

Well they were going to install it too along with some other stuff that I dont remember.

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by zRobx71

Well they were going to install it too along with some other stuff that I dont remember.

get the full details in writing on what there gonna do, and how much and also the warantee and whats included.

they refuse just leave .

[zRobx71]

I'm taking my truck to a larger town to get it rebuilt for $650 instead of $1900. This one comes with a 1 year warranty too. I don't know what the transmission place in my town wanted $1900 for...seems a little overboard now that I know I can get it rebuilt for so much cheaper and with a longer warranty. Thanks for the advice about looking out of town.

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by zRobx71

I'm taking my truck to a larger town to get it rebuilt for $650 instead of $1900. This one comes with a 1 year warranty too. I don't know what the transmission place in my town wanted $1900 for...seems a little overboard now that I know I can get it rebuilt for so much cheaper and with a longer warranty. Thanks for the advice about looking out of town.

so I guessed correctly that you do live in the outback areas. I have heard of other forum members that had this high price repair in farm/ranch areas.

post back your repair results. good luck I hope you got a good shop.

650.oo does sound a little low. most would charge about 1200.oo.

[zRobx71]

I will post back. I also just replaced the radiator, the lower hose that connects to the radiator, and the heater hose so everything should run smoothly. I will be taking my truck to the shop on Thursday and will probably get it back around Monday or so, then I will let you know how it works.

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by zRobx71

I will post back. I also just replaced the radiator, the lower hose that connects to the radiator, and the heater hose so everything should run smoothly. I will be taking my truck to the shop on Thursday and will probably get it back around Monday or so, then I will let you know how it works.

good thing to replace the radiator/clean new coolant for proper temp control with you high temps in the warm weather.

you could also install a external transmission line cooler filter. these work good to capture and particles loosened up by the part failures and rebuilding of the tranny. ask the guy about this.

[zRobx71]

Finally got my truck back after 3 long weeks. I picked a bad time to get it to this mechanic because of Christmas and New Years but I finally picked it up today. It runs better than before...lower RPMs and temperature stays way lower. I also had a radiator with a cracked tank and a torn heater hose. I replaced the radiator myself but was unable to remove the heater hose due to a broken connector as expected. The guy that did my tranny also connected the heater hose for me but told me he would do it for free, when I got the receipt there was a $75 charge which I think is a little overpriced but it's in the past. I got a real good chance to test out the new tranny because the mechanic I transported it to was about 50 miles away. It runs great but this is only day 1...I may be paranoid but I think I felt a little jolting going on when accelerating but I'm still determining if it's me or the truck. Originally it was supposed to be a $650 repair which is abnormally cheap for a rebuild...when I dropped of my truck at his shop...he told me that $650 was for parts only and that he would charge another $350 for labor equaling $1000. I paid him 50% upfront which probably was not such a good idea being how it took him 3 weeks to do it. So everything is running smoothly and decent for now...I leave the contact info for this mechanic for anyone who is near him because $1000 for a tranny rebuild is pretty cheap although he may have pulled the price out of his ***.

Burgess Auto Salvage
9108 HWY 87
Lubbock, TX
806-745-1212