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Transmission woes...again

1826 Views 37 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  Maryland dieselnick
The factory transmission lasted 205,700 miles. I replaced it with a BTS at that point. That one lasted to 285,988 with just 80,298 miles. I sent it back to BTS for fixing. Now that one is gone at 425,000 with 139,002 miles on it. I haven't abused these transmissions. I've put in the newer larger oil coolers and I rarely see temps about 160...most of the time I'm in the 140 range due to the colder area I live in. I've kept up consistent fluid and filter changes every 30,000 miles and have only used BTS recommended Shaeffers All-Trans synthetic fluid. I've probably only towed a total of about 2500 miles in all the years I've owned the truck. Its been my daily driver.

Recent saga is that it was running fine up until this morning when out of nowhere it will only engage into reverse. Any forward gears it will just rev up and not move. last summer out in Arizona it puked out fluid out of the transmission just sitting after a day in the heat while visiting there. Its done this before with the last transmission. Never leaks until I get into Phoenix in the summer months and parked it. Leave it for a day or two and there will be a large puddle of fluid under the truck. I fill it back up and everything is good. It has lost about 2 quarts from this heat related expansion.

I thought I was doing myself a favor by going with the BTS transmission but my experience has not been very good up to this point. I'm not sure what to do at this point? What are people recommending for transmissions these days?
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I have watched a lot of Marshall Williams videos on the 4r100, he is in Kentucky.

he has a whole series on how to clean them, and test each and every component to make sure the rebuild is good.

worth a look

sounds like Budget Rent a car time, or Uber
We actually live in Mexico (full-time missionaries down there since 1987). We went up to in El Paso, Texas for a 2 day shopping/supply run when it happened. We're very grateful it happened here and not out on the highway somewhere. We have a safe, comfortable place to be while waiting for it to come back. We're thinking of jumping on the Amtrak to Arizona to visit some family there while waiting. Once there we can borrow a car. Friends let us borrow their car the other night to get some groceries with (I was getting tired of Dominoes pizza for every meal). We're good.
glad you are 'okay' and Dominos pizza?
ummmm, no thanks.

and thank you for the TrueTrac report a few minutes ago.

I used to live in Mesa, Arizona and worked for Phoenix Fire Department 20 years in the IT 911 dispatch department.... my team installed the dispatch equipment in the fire stations, and did all the maintenance & installs for the Laptops in their Apparatus ( vehicles for the non-educated )
looked up Sierra Madre Mtns, Mexico
and got a huge list of places to look, none of them close to El Paso, TX.

you must be up in the northern Sonora area?

thank you for your devotion to the Lord
We're down in the lower section of the state of Chihuahua. Look up Copper Canyon and Tarahumara Indians and you'll see the general area. I'm originally from Phoenix.
ha ha ha, google maps shows Copper Canyon, but won't give me a route to drive over.
looks like that is a once a month trip?


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but the Tarahumara Indians, gave a route, that is much closer


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that is NOT a casual Sunday afternoon drive


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I too, back in the '70s used to go visit in Mexico.

Not anymore
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