hi, i have the 42RE transmission in my truck and got the tranny flooded with water. i dropped the pan on it, replaced the filter, let it drip for a few hours, n sprayed it as clean as i could with brake cleaner. after topping atf off i than flushed the tranny 3 times untill atf came out the machine was red. everything seems ok for now but i think i may have damaged my overdrive gear. does anyone have any advice on what to do besides replacing/rebuilding trans? is there anything esle i can do to save the overdrive gear?

To my knowledge, once OD and the torque converter start to go, it will take the rest of the transmission.

Your truck didn't look like this did it? I used to have a 99 and this resulted in water in the tranny, had to get the whole tranny rebuilt.

before this happened, sometimes in the OD gear, i could here like a grinding noise. when i let my foot off the gas, it would go away. hasnt done this yet since ive done the work to it. it feels like when it shifts in OD, the RPMs are about 4000 more than before. for example im going 55-60 mph, the RPMs would be around 1300-1400, now its around 1700-1800. havent driven it on the interstate yet. so cant tell u how it rides at high speeds.

@ sully 5981
no iwasnt that deep. my driverside was deep enough that water was coming in my cab. i kept my truck running when i was stuck if that gives u a idea. i drove it 2day n it drove good, shifted good. just that OD gear with the different rpms now.

If your RPMs are that high at that speed your OD isn't engaging at all. Next time you drive it, hit the OD OFF button on your shift lever, see what happens.

Two ways I can think of that water got into the trans - first way was the one Sully5981 describes; the other way is a leaky capillary tube that sits in the radiator and is part of the radiator trans cooler setup - if that tube is allowing the water/coolant into your trans, you will need to replace/repair the radiator or bypass the radiator based trans cooler for a fully external trans cooler.

thats the 1 thing i did. it downshifted when OD was off. it upshifted when turned back on. maybe the new filter? it was OE. truck has 135000 miles on it.

@ atomicdog
when i was stuck, the trans cooler lines were NOT submerged. im starting to think it maybe was the dipstick tube gasket or the trans breather hose is cracked.

Sounds more like you are getting TCC engagement. Should be around 1500 RPM at 55 in O/D with TCC engaged.

Try driving at 55, see where your RPMs are at, and LIGHTLY step on the brake. See if RPM jumps a bit. (I bet it doesn't. )