experimentalist

Hello!

Banging my head on this one guys, I've got a 97 k1500 with 4L60E and NP243C transfer case.

Just rebuilt the trans, put in new sunshell, gaskets, rings, planetary, and converter. Reinstalled it the other night, truck starts up OK, no codes thrown, no check engine light, etc, Truck is in 2hi but when I press 4lo/4hi it seems to engage correctly. All wiring seems to be OK, although I had to correct two broken wires during the reinstall, one broken wire at the top of the transfer case, in a 3 wire molex, with a light blue and a white/black-line wire. I also had to repair the 12v feed (brown) wire to the front axle actuator. You can see the trans-case broken wire in this pic: https://i.imgur.com/A8Xd5NK.jpg


On to the issues at hand:

When I put it into R, nothing. Slip it into D, nothing. I cant seem to go forward or backwards. Engine revs up nicely, sounds OK, except for a wicked squeal out the front end, and some sort of knocking sound (yikes) but this truck hasnt been run in over a year and a half, and honestly, I just assume thats the sound of really really old gas being burned

Yes, I bolted the flex plate to the converter. I dont recall the gap, but I remember it being pretty tight.
Yes, It has a filter, and its new.

This is my first rebuild, so of course, I had to screw it up

I did slip the converter on, and spin it, and ensure it was seated properly. The bellhousing bolted up beautifully, the converter bolted to the flex plate no problem, so I think it's seated properly. I also added fluid to the converter before I slipped it on, about a quart of DEX-III.

Dunno what the issue could be here. Any advice?

I've got a oil pressure tester kit coming tomorrow morning, so I'll tie into the pressure port and get some PSI readings of it in the various gears.

I noticed something when I was putting fluid back into it, that I only got about 8 quarts into it, and it was full... like way above full. I had read it needed 11 quarts of DEX-III. I've run the truck for a good 10 minutes and re-checked the fluid level, and its showing a good 3 inches above the full line. Should I siphon out the overfill? I had presumed it would go down after it started to circulate. It hasnt. This may be a large clue to the issue.

My haunch is that its no/low pressure from the front pump assembly, but im pretty much basing that on the fact that when I did the rebuild, I opened up the pump and immediately thought "I shouldnt have done that" -- If I remember correctly, I swapped whatever gaskets/o-rings I had on hand from the rebuild kit, and put it back together and put it back in the trans. I have no experience to draw from, to know otherwise, at this point

If its not the pump, I'll see good PSI (60+ PSI right?) even in park, I think.

If the pressure is bad, should I start by looking at the front pump? I'd just get a rebuilt one this time, and not mess around with it.

If the pressure is good, should I look at the torque converter next?

I bought it remanufactured from eBay... probably an error on my part. No idea if it ever really worked. It looked nice though lol.

Getting myself ready to pull this whole thing out again and do another teardown and rebuild to double-check my amateur work, but i'd rather not if if it turns out to be something simple and dumb on my part.

Learning a lot of lessons here, loving every second of it, even if it sucks that my truck is still down.

Thanks for the advice!