Well, took the truck out to go fishing the one day. Stomped on it to pass somebody, and it revved the whole way to 6k rpms before it shifted, which kind of alarmed me as its stock and out of the 3 rams I've had, I've never seen one go that high. I though it was just a fluke and kept driving.

On the way home, it started slipping horribly. Was grabbing random gears and barely moving. Pulled over, and was a quart and a half low on tranny fluid. Crawled underneath and sure enough there was fluid all around the pan gasket.

The following day I dropped the pan, replaced the filter/gasket, and filled it up. It's been fine since, but very seldomly I will get a random shutter (torque converter shutter?)..It's happened under a load or not under a load, even with the throttle not being used at all. But usually when it occurs it does it two or three times in a row and then stops, and it won't happen again for a while. In 25 miles it might act up once, then be fine for another 30 miles..

My question is, is it a torque converter issue? The fluid is warm, but not hot, has no burnt smell to it whatsoever, and the color looks good. The truck only has a little over 100k miles.

Thoughts? I was planning on selling the truck to buy a cummins..Really hoping it's something minor. I thought about running something through the tranny to see if maybe the valves were clogged or something, but since it is completely full, and I just dropped the tranny pan last week...

 

The governor pressure sensors in these trucks tend to not work well at large throttle openings..... and that is probably what you saw when it didn't want to shift....

As for the other problem..... its possible you may have done some damage.... have you adjusted your bands in recent memory?

 

I had never had an issue with it not wanting to shift until that night. I figured it was due to the tranny fluid being low. I haven't had this truck very long, but the previous owner seemed to take pretty good care of it, and I wouldn't doubt that the tranny was probably serviced before. It's just strange -- the truck was fine until the tranny gasket went out, and after replacing the fluid/filter, now it does the strange shuttering thing. It still shifts good, fluid looks great, just kind of confused as to what caused the shuttering. I have my doubts that the bands or a sensor just went out like that, and it does it so infrequently, it's hard to look into it much.

 

The pressure sensor didn't 'go out', per se.... that is standard behavior for them. At large throttle openings, they don't work like they should. Even new ones have the same problem. There are upgraded aftermarket units though.....

Are you sure it is a trans problem, and not just an intermittent engine miss?? When do you feel it most? (what speed?)

 

Understood.

I was wondering the same thing. It occurs most of the time at very little throttle, but has happened at idle or moderate throttle as well. It feels too rough to be a miss IMO, but I changed the plugs/wires today as I was thinking the same thing. Just seemed strangely coincidental that it occurred right after I dropped the pan.

After seeing the first plug though, I knew they had been in there for a while (prob since 1999?)..They were probably the worst plugs I've ever seen -- and I work at a parts store, so I've seen a lot. The cap/rotor looked like they were ok.

I have one plug that would not come out - and when I say not come out, I mean that the spark plug socket simply would not press onto the plug the entire way..There was a fair bit of dirt/etc in the tube though on that cylinder, so I am going to try blowing it out w/ compressed air tomorrow and see if that helps.

 

Good Plan. Let us know how it turns out.

Good Luck.

 

pull the spark plug heat shield tubes out of the head and throw them as far away as possible.

then blow out the plug area and see if its not about 1000 times easier.

take care that your plug wires are fastened down, so they don't fall down onto the exhaust manifold and melt. wire ties work good if your plug wire holders are broken or missing.

 

Do the tubes just pull out? A pair of vice-grips will work fine?

I blew all of the tubes out w/ compressed air and it didn't change a thing. The socket will not grip on to the plug.. Gonna see if my dad has any ideas.

 

heat shields should come out with vise grips. they can be stubborn at times and a little lubricant can help.

 

Well, that didn't go well. It didn't seem to even budge - its pretty gaulded up in there. It's mangled as hell and still in there.

Anybody have any other ideas than vice grips and PB blaster? Also tried wedging a screwdriver and trying to get it to slide out -- no go.

On another note, the truck is running way better with new plugs/wires -- I haven't had it shudder yet since - I'm wondering if it actually was a misfire even though it wouldn't throw any codes.