Trans. woes.....again.

[adrenalnjunky]

Well,

Sept 9, 2005, with 56K on the stock Tranny, I lost 2nd, 4th, and reverse one day - out of the blue.

Reputable local place diagnosed it as a broken shell with nothing more than my description. Say they see them all the time on the 4l60. They had me a rebuilt installed in 4 hours and $1500 lighter.

Fast forward to today:
Exact same scenario. Pull into a parking lot, and pop, weird whining, and then the truck dropped out of 2nd and back into 1st. Another 100 yards and the whining went away, but now all I have is 1st and 3rd gears again. Was a few blocks from the Trans shop - and same deal. Now the price is $1500 before tax, so ~$1700. I'm thinking about buying a rebuilt and doing the R&R myself. Seems to be the path to save me about $700-900 on the whole deal.

Interesting side note - this is one of the biggest shops in northeast LA, and have been in business since the 30's. The guy says he sees more 4L60 problems with the s-series than he does with the Sierras/Silverados unless the fullsizes have been lifted and running bigger tires etc. He also said that in the last year or so, there have been newer heat-treated internals brought to market that weren't available previously, and should build up stronger. He also said some of the 4x4 guys are having shells installed that they call "The Beast" that is designed for serious stress. Anyone heard of that?

Makes me miss the 700 that was in my 89 Jimmy - 210K + on that trans with no maintenance.

[HenryJ]

... some of the 4x4 guys are having shells installed that they call "The Beast" that is designed for serious stress. Anyone heard of that?

Yes.

[killian96ss]

The "beast" sunshell is a heavy duty sunshell that is reinforced in the spline area to prevent cracking and stripping which is a common problem in all 4L60E's.

If you ever rebuild a 4L60E or have a shop do it for you make sure they upgrade this weak link.

Steve