My stock trans gradually starting doing nothing but reving in D and OD. It started out sporadically but now there is basically no D or OD at all. It smelled like clutch and there was some smoke coming out of the trans fluid dipstick when I pulled it out. The trans has 130k or so on it. The problem started after I put a cam in the car, I got a mail-tune and it didn't impact the issue.

So basically my questions are what went wrong, how hard, and how expensive is it to fix? I have just over $1000 to spend but I am also wanting to get a torque converter.

 

do you still have 1st. and 2nd. ?
if so, can you start off in first and manually upshift thru the gears to get D(3rd.) and OD(4th) ?

 

sounds like the usual case of a wasted clutch pack.

 

Smoke out of the dipstick. Lets not play guessing games over the internet, the trans needs to come out no matter whats wrong with it.

If you only have $1000 and can't build it yourself, it looks like the car is going to be down while you save up more money for a transmission thats built right.

 

I goes 1-2 then barely catches D for a second then revs like neutral.

 

Yea it was going to be coming out for a TQ anyway. I was wondering if it's a job I could do myself or if it really needs gone through by someone who has done it before. Its crazy because I didn't think an auto could have that manual clutch smell but it was unmistakable. Not a ton of smoke coming out but enough you could see it.

 

Like the others said, it's a common problem for the 3-4 clutches to go out first. Especially after you added power.

You can build a decent transmission with $1000 worth of parts, but if you've never done it before and make any mistakes it could cost you more.

It depends on your mechanical ability whether you can build it or not. I'd recommend going through it 100%.

If you google 4L60E rebuild, build, etc, it seems every automotive forum has someone who's done it and took pictures.