Major Transmission malfunction! Was fine, now barely made it home 2 miles!

[CowboyErik]

Scott, thanks, I actually used 4 truck stands, and used my 2 floor jacks; wanted to be safe; I used one jack at the front of the car at the skid plate, and my 2nd jack to lift the transfer case; I took the skid plate off the crossmember to reveal the lower transmission mount bolts cause I noticed the space created when I supported the transmission; so I took the crossmember skid plate off and unbolted the lower tranmission mounting bolts that gave me about 2 more inchs of space between the cross member and the rear most transmission pan bolts, a flexible 10mm head made them easy work; got all the pans off; I have obviously never done this before, I had my shop to it in 2007-08, then I did a fluid, small pan and intercooler drain/fill between now and then; this was a hard day; VERY LITTLE METAL IN MY PANS; NO CHUNKS! MAGNET HAD NORMAL AMOUNT OF residue on it as I have seen in my Nissan and Buick pans when I've done those pans/filters; alot easier I must say

[Mile High VX]

You did make sure that you ran through all the gears, got up to temp, and rechecked the fluid level right?

This is an often overlooked step that can cause problems later if not done correctly.

[CowboyErik]

You did make sure that you ran through all the gears, got up to temp, and rechecked the fluid level right?

This is an often overlooked step that can cause problems later if not done correctly.

YEP, I followed a published procedure and an illustrated one on here, "TriAtheletes" I think; gonna put my pans back on in the morning after driping all nite, blow out the intercooler with compressed air and put a gallon of ATF III in it; my written record says thats how much it took last time; cycle, test drive, and may dump it again right away and fill, fluid is cheap, tranny isn't; don't think I'm going to start the car up and cycle gears with pans off; since it's been sitting a week, I am thinking most ATF has dripped out, still dripping now and what is dripping is normal color, normal smell, what was in my pan, was black nasty! Keeping my fingers crossed that this GM transmission is over-engineered to with stand a few miles of abuse, else, I'll be swapping in a salvage yard tranny; dozens available locally since it's a common transmission, cheap, 30 to 90 day guarantees but $400 to swap in, fill and test, if fails, swap again, in the computer industry, we call it "SWAP TIL YA DROP!"

[CowboyErik]

Well, the bottom of the pan was black; but no loose metal; the magnet had what I think is a typical amount of residue on it, no chunks; I think my intercooler (cheap to replace new under $100); let go, and that leaked out quarts of fluid and I didn't know it, my "check trans" light came on only the last 2 minutes of my drive home though the clutchs/drive engage was acting up for several miles atleast, I wish I would have just parked it; letting it all drip out; DOES ANYONE THINK THAT WITH ALL THE PANS DOWN AND THE INTERCOOLER DISCONNECTED THAT I SHOULD TURN ON ENGINE AND CYCLE THRU GEARS TO GET MORE FLUID OUT!?!??!!?