Long Haul St. Louis, MO to Del Rio, TX

[Shuck]

All,

I'm getting ready to make a long trip (moving) to Del Rio, TX. I'm leaving Wednesday and arriving Thursday night.

Anyone available along the route should I encounter 6.5 related woes? My truck is a 95 K1500 with 197k on the clock and I'll be loaded heavy with about 4000lbs behind me as well. So far it hasn't given me much trouble, but you never know when one of these is going to act up.

If anyone had a contact number should something crazy come up, I would really appreciate it. I'll be driving through Springfield, MO and Dallas, TX along the way. You can contact me via e-mail (ryan@shucknet.com) or cell phone (314-324-5104) if you're interested. I will try to have an emergency six pack on board in case assistance is needed =).

Thanks!
Ryan

[john8662]

I'm in the Panhandle of TX, I don't know if you're going through here or not, but if you need some help along the way, I'm willing the lend a helping hand..

[ 10-10-2005, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: john8662 ]

[DChristie]

I'm in Houston, only about four hours out of Dallas. So if trouble strikes in this area I'm not too far away.

DChristie

[Cowracer]

Originally posted by Shuck:
All,

I'm getting ready to make a long trip (moving) to Del Rio, TX. I'm leaving Wednesday and arriving Thursday night.

Anyone available along the route should I encounter 6.5 related woes? My truck is a 95 K1500 with 197k on the clock and I'll be loaded heavy with about 4000lbs behind me as well. So far it hasn't given me much trouble, but you never know when one of these is going to act up.

If anyone had a contact number should something crazy come up, I would really appreciate it. I'll be driving through Springfield, MO and Dallas, TX along the way. You can contact me via e-mail (ryan@shucknet.com) or cell phone (314-324-5104) if you're interested. I will try to have an emergency six pack on board in case assistance is needed =).

Thanks!
Ryan Of course, you will still root for the Cardinals, right?

Tim

[DChristie]

Of course, you will still root for the Cardinals, right?
That's moo point. You know, moo, like a cows opinion, it just doesn't matter.

Go Astros :D

DChristie

[Shuck]

Heh,

Well, I WAS rooting for the Cardinals, but they pulled out the playbook from the World Series last year and stunk it up again.

Oh well, now that college football has started, all other sports fade into the background. Go Huskers!

[Shuck]

Also, to update on the trip...

My wife and I made it, but not without incident. First off, we found out my dad had to go in for emergency heart bypass surgery while we were enroute, so we left the trailer (boat and some stuff in it) at a friend's place north of Dallas so we could make better time to Del Rio so I could get my wife moved in and I could catch a flight. We got to Del Rio without any vehicular troubles (thank God).

However, last weekend, we went back to Dallas to pick up the boat and things started to act up. We went north out of Del Rio through San Angelo for a change of scenery. On our way out of San Angelo, my tach dropped to 0 RPM and my speedometer slowly crept up to and pegged at 100 mph. Also, the gear lever indicator for the transmission went out. I figured I had some sort of wiring problem and used the GPS for speed and continued on. After about 3 minutes of driving like that, the transmission popped out of OD and spun like it was in neutral. I downshifted to D and it worked for about 45 seconds and then did the same thing. This is all before we picked up the boat - empty and unloaded. So I pull over and start digging around for loose connections, broken wires, etc. After checking everything I can think of, I pop open the glovebox and unplug the PCM for a minute to reset it as a lst resort. Plug it back in and start it up - o RPM still. Then I get one last hunch - to check the transmission fluid - since it was popping out of gear. It wasn't even on the dipstick!

I had a trans temp gauge installed before my trip and I think they forgot to replace the fluid. Well, I limped back into San Angelo in 2nd gear and the first convenience store only had Type A transmission fluid. Limped another 3 miles further to the next stop and found some Dexron III. A really nice guy who was filling up overheard me ask the cashier if there was a service station with a mechanic anywhere near (it was Friday at about 6:30pm) and happened to know a thing or two about the 6.5 and the 4L80E. He said that if the D and OD solenoids can't hold, the PCM will do some weird stuff (like what happened to my dash) so it was likely the low fluid had caused that. I added in the 2 quarts and went on my way. It fixed the problem - temporarily. I bought 2 extra quarts in case there was a leak and ended up putting one of those in later when it started slipping again. I'm not convinced there's a leak because there's no puddle or evidence of leak, it may have just been that low.

Anyway, we got to Dallas and picked up the trailer. We made it about 20 miles and we stopped at Best Buy so I could pick up a few things. I hopped out of the truck and noticed the faint smell of burnt rubber. I knew I had to brake pretty hard on the last exit, but it didn't seem right, so I walked around the rig and noticed the left trailer wheel was sticking out past the wheel well and was rubbing. Apparently, when our friend moved the trailer on his farm, he backed the trailer through a ditch (not knowing it was grossly overloaded) and it broke the outer bearing on the side that went into the ditch first. I was very thankful I caught it before the wheel flew off, but it took us a good 4 hours to find parts and get it fixed. Wes at Precision Auto in McKinney was very gracious to give up his Saturday afternoon to help me out.

Anyway, do the most part, we made it fine after that. A few more times the tranny acted up, but only after stopping. If I let the truck idle for a bit, it would come back to life. I'll figure out that problem next weekend =)

[stingthieves]

On our way out of San Angelo, my tack dropped to 0 RPM and my speedometer slowly crept up to and pegged at 100 mph. Also, the gear lever indicator for the transmission went out. I figured I had some sort of wiring problem

Yep - Similar drama happened to me this spring. A fellow told me that the 4LE80 takes a voltage sample as soon as the ignition key is turned on - see the shift indicator light up??? Sometimes I flip the key to on too quickly and it does not see enough voltage because the glow plugs are drawing and I will get a 2nd gear travel speed. I have to pull over and power cycle again. I changed my ignition switch - allegedly an issue and try to actuate the key a bit slower - Solved my trans issue! Rick

[JohnC]

Tach, speedo, trans range indicator and shift solenoids are all powered by a separate circuit in the ignition switch. If the PCM doesn't like the voltage it sees on the solenoids, it locks out that function. Worst case is it defaults to 2nd gear only and no TCC lockup. It can detect theses problems at any time, but often it happens at power up. Check the voltage on the trans fuse. My guess is it's flakey.

Also, read the codes...

[Cowracer]

I dunno...

Both Stingthieves and Shucks problems sound like the classic Output shaft speed sensor problem. The big clue is the flaky speedo. the VSSB gets pulses from the output shaft speed sensor.

The 4L80e uses input and output shaft speed sensors to determine slippage during shifting and it adjusts line pressure accordingly. If either sensor fails, the ECM commands a limp mode.

Limp mode will keep the tranny in the current gear (no up or down shift). Coming to a dead stop will force a first gear start, and if you rev the crap out of it you will get an EXTRMELY hard 1-2 shift about 300 rpm deep into the red zone. I suspect these function are designed into the valve body and operate independently of computer control.

The shaft speed sensors are proximity type sensors picking up a toothed wheel on each shaft. Metal shavings inside the tranny can (and do) get magnetcially attracted to the sensor housing. These accumulations can get heavy enough to interrupt the sensors operation.

Cleaning the sensors can help, but I found it best to replace them.

Tim

PS DChristie, HOW BOUT THEM 'STROS? Folded up like a lawn chair, huh? tongue.gif

[DChristie]

Yeah yeah yeah, I still say it's a cow's opinion... It don't matter.
However, the Sox were very gracious in complimenting the 'stro's abilities. They are very definetly a group of winners all around

Hope to see you next year...
:D
DChristie

[DChristie]

Yeah yeah yeah... I still say it's a cow's opinion... It don't matter.

However the Sox are true winners all around, and very gracious in their comments about the 'stro's abilities.

Hope to see 'em again next year

[stingthieves]

Thanks Cowracer

[JohnC]

Originally posted by Shuck:
On our way out of San Angelo, my tach dropped to 0 RPM and my speedometer slowly crept up to and pegged at 100 mph. Also, the gear lever indicator for the transmission went out.Power!

[Shuck]

All of this is good info. A little more information on my situation. This problem will usually go away if I let the truck idle for a while or I drive around in 2nd gear. Eventually, the tach and speedo will come alive and I know at that point I can shift into D or O/D. Does that help narrow it down any? Given the timing of my scenario (with the low tranny fluid) it would seem odd (but not unthinkable) that the ignition switch was the culprit. However, before this was happening (since I've owned the truck) I have had problems with the speedo flickering up and down from time to time as well as the indicator light going out, but it hadn't affected the transmission operation until now.

Ryan