Alright so I have been searching for a while now and cannot find the answer to my problem. I towed my boat to a tournament this weekend (its about 4500 lbs) and about 20 mins into the drive, the transmission didn't want to shift into 3rd or 4th gear. After a bit it finally did and I made it to the tournament ok. On the way home, about the same distance, the trans temp light came on and the o/d kicked off (no shifting problems on the way home though). The fluid is good and full. Also, the truck has none of these problems while I am driving around without towing anything. Any suggestions?

 

Don't tow in overdrive. Your truck is NOT designed for that flavor of abuse, trans overheats, and does exactly what you describe. It's a safety feature, trans gets too hot, disables overdrive.

Heat will kill your trans faster than anything else. When you haul your boat, push the O/D Off button.

 

I thought I was supposed to do that! Gosh I'm an idiot. Do you think I hurt anything? As soon as the light came on, I was at my destination so there was no more traveling. Do I need to do anything other than that? Thank you.

 

Since it overheated, you may want to do a fluid/filter change. (heat breaks down the fluid.) If it still works good though, you are probably ok. (but, I would still do the fluid/filter change. Do NOT have it flushed. That's just asking for trouble.)

 

Fixed that for ya!

By the time the idiot light comes on, the fluid is ruined.

 

Thank you guys. Now I just need to search and figure out how to do a fluid/filter change for the first time haha

 

There are service manual available for download in the faq section, grab the 01 manual, that'll be pretty close to your truck. Procedure will be in there. Might be a DIY in the faq section as well.....

 

Since the pan's coming out anyway, you might think about adding a drain plug to it. It's a quick enough job to do that you can install one while the transmission just hangs there dripping. WIth a drain plug you won't paint your forearms ATF red every time you have to go into the pan.

 

It would also be a good idea to remove and clean the Governor Solenoid.

 

alright so I am bringing this thread back to life. I did the fluid/filter change after you guys told me to and everything was going smooth. Towing my boat no problems. Then today while towing my boat about 25 miles, towards the end the trans temp light kicked on again. Overdrive was off the whole time. I was driving 55 mph the whole time basically, around 2200-2500 rpms the whole time. The only thing I have done since the last time I towed my boat was drain some transmission fluid out since I overfilled it by a couple hundred mL when I did the fluid/filter change. The fluid level is right under the max line, right where it should be. Any ideas what's going on? Should I just overfill the transmission back to where it was even though that is not good? Thanks guys.