4l60e goes forward on all gears and has trouble shifting
11-17-2018, 02:55 AM
#1
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4l60e goes forward on all gears and has trouble shifting Alright, I've been absolutely stumped.
My parent's 2001 Chevy Tahoe 5.3L 2wd (180k miles) recently lost its reverse entirely a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, my mother heard a loud clunk and found she couldn't shift to reverse anymore.
I was able to easily diagnose that the stupid drive shell in that damned 4l60e failed (I was betting the spline extension had sheared off), and told them I'd help rebuild it. We ordered a rebuild kit and other parts as necessary and took it apart. Well, it was indeed the drive shell, though it wasn't that the spline extension had come off, there were just no splines left to grab. Rebuilt the thing, put the torque converter back in as I was supposed to (3 clunks and I also measured from bell housing to TC), made sure to space the torque converter and the flex plate within the acceptable range using a couple of spacers on each of the three bolts (is now spaced at 0.15in), hooked everything back up, and added 12ish quarts of fluid.
We start the engine and terror struck. Shifting feels like nothing happens, however the shifter cable clearly pulls the shift lever when switching gears. No matter what gear I switch to, the vehicle only wants to go forward.
Park works.
There are no code readings.
I've checked to see if the pump works twice, once by dipstick, and once by actually disconnecting the transmission cooling line from the radiator (the bottom fluid-out line where it first connects to the radiator) and connecting a hose to it to see if fluid came out when the engine was on (it spewed quite a bit).
Sometimes you can feel it shift gear to reverse for just a moment before it quickly ceases.
I've done everything I can think of before I drop the pan tomorrow and check to see if maybe the connection to the valve next to the parking pawl came loose.
If the valve is still hooked correctly, I have no idea what else to do besides drop the transmission and poke around in it again, even then, I don't know what's wrong. My dad has it in his head that it might be a solenoid issue, but I thought that even if I ripped out the wiring harness it would still shift to reverse and 3rd manually.
Does anyone have any idea as to what other problem there could be?
Apologies if I missed any important information, I'll be happy to supply it. I'll also be sure to update the post after a solution is found.
My parent's 2001 Chevy Tahoe 5.3L 2wd (180k miles) recently lost its reverse entirely a couple of weeks ago. Apparently, my mother heard a loud clunk and found she couldn't shift to reverse anymore.
I was able to easily diagnose that the stupid drive shell in that damned 4l60e failed (I was betting the spline extension had sheared off), and told them I'd help rebuild it. We ordered a rebuild kit and other parts as necessary and took it apart. Well, it was indeed the drive shell, though it wasn't that the spline extension had come off, there were just no splines left to grab. Rebuilt the thing, put the torque converter back in as I was supposed to (3 clunks and I also measured from bell housing to TC), made sure to space the torque converter and the flex plate within the acceptable range using a couple of spacers on each of the three bolts (is now spaced at 0.15in), hooked everything back up, and added 12ish quarts of fluid.
We start the engine and terror struck. Shifting feels like nothing happens, however the shifter cable clearly pulls the shift lever when switching gears. No matter what gear I switch to, the vehicle only wants to go forward.
Park works.
There are no code readings.
I've checked to see if the pump works twice, once by dipstick, and once by actually disconnecting the transmission cooling line from the radiator (the bottom fluid-out line where it first connects to the radiator) and connecting a hose to it to see if fluid came out when the engine was on (it spewed quite a bit).
Sometimes you can feel it shift gear to reverse for just a moment before it quickly ceases.
I've done everything I can think of before I drop the pan tomorrow and check to see if maybe the connection to the valve next to the parking pawl came loose.
If the valve is still hooked correctly, I have no idea what else to do besides drop the transmission and poke around in it again, even then, I don't know what's wrong. My dad has it in his head that it might be a solenoid issue, but I thought that even if I ripped out the wiring harness it would still shift to reverse and 3rd manually.
Does anyone have any idea as to what other problem there could be?
Apologies if I missed any important information, I'll be happy to supply it. I'll also be sure to update the post after a solution is found.
11-17-2018, 07:28 AM
#2
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The first thing that popped into my mind is that the link too the manual valve is not hooded up but then you said that it felt like it would shift into reverse. I would hook a pressure gauge to the line port on the driver's side of the transmission and read what the line pressure is. The snap ring that holds the boost valve in could have not been seated correctly and the boost valve is laying in the pan.
You are correct you should at least have reverse or 3rd gear even with the transmission harness unplugged. So I doubt it is an electrical problem, such as solenoid. Your problem is mechanical.
You are correct you should at least have reverse or 3rd gear even with the transmission harness unplugged. So I doubt it is an electrical problem, such as solenoid. Your problem is mechanical.
11-17-2018, 09:06 PM
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The first thing that popped into my mind is that the link too the manual valve is not hooded up but then you said that it felt like it would shift into reverse. I would hook a pressure gauge to the line port on the driver's side of the transmission and read what the line pressure is. The snap ring that holds the boost valve in could have not been seated correctly and the boost valve is laying in the pan.
You are correct you should at least have reverse or 3rd gear even with the transmission harness unplugged. So I doubt it is an electrical problem, such as solenoid. Your problem is mechanical.
You are correct you should at least have reverse or 3rd gear even with the transmission harness unplugged. So I doubt it is an electrical problem, such as solenoid. Your problem is mechanical.
The link to the manual valve popped out and I could see it hanging down as soon as I dropped the pan. Putting that back on while on my back was a pain, but I managed to do it after I removed the manual shaft and pushed the parking pawl up towards the transmission which gave me just enough room to seat the link into the valve. It looks like that time I felt it shift into reverse was the exact time the link popped off of the valve.
Tahoe shifts again, just have to make some adjustments. Thanks for the suggestion!