Rebuilt trans stalls in drive and dies.

[Cakes]

The title is the just of it


I just finished a rebuild on my trans and installed it today. First time doing this but with the help of the ATSG book, Raybestos paperwork, some videos and the forums, I felt confident enough that I’d done a good job.

As of right now I have about 20 ish quarts. Minor spillage when installing the converter and the new Fleece lines I put on weren’t tight enough in some area. But that should still be plenty to not cause any issues just trying to run through gears with the truck in the air.

I had a local company do a rebuild of my triple disc, used the Defeo Xcaliber trans rebuild kit that had Torque Kit and GPZ clutches, replaced all electronics: solenoids, temp switch, NSBU, speed sensors, harness, installed Trans Go and Ratiotek kits as well. All pre existing hardware and cases were cleaned extensively.

I’ve let the truck get to temp at idle. I’ve checked and rechecked fluid levels while tightening up lines here and there. I started to cycle gears early on and had forward motion briefly. I still have reverse. It clunks when going into neutral and stalls, after what I assume is locking up somehow, when going into drive now. Side note that I feel is weird, when in park the rear wheels still spin freely. Never known my truck to do this before.

That’s everything I can think of right now.

 

[Mike L.]

Codes? Can't diagnose without codes. What year truck is it? Since it's your first build, we are going to assume you did something wrong.

 

[Cakes]

Codes? Can't diagnose without codes. What year truck is it? Since it's your first build, we are going to assume you did something wrong.

2003. Oddly no codes were present when I scanned with my v2 earlier. Just checked again with nothing. However the truck ran for a few seconds before wanting to stall, I turned it off before it could. It was in park.

 

[Cakes]

Update. I don’t know how I missed this but my reverse has the wheels moving forward. Neutral has the wheels ever so slightly, and I mean very slight, moving forward. Then when drive is selected the truck dies.

I get that because this is my first build I’ve got a 99% chance I messed up somewhere, I wouldjust like to dial in as to where. On the same note, as much as I don’t want to, I’ll tear it completely down and start over if that’s what is needed.

 

[RMJ_LB7]

Sounds to me like your torque converter is locking up once put into drive which would cause the engine to stall. I am not a transmission guru or anything and definitely Mike L. is the guy to talk to. If it were me I would double check everything is correct in the valvebody.

Mike, if the guys rebuilt the torque converter wrong could it constantly be in lockup?

 

[Cakes]

Sounds to me like your torque converter is locking up once put into drive which would cause the engine to stall. I am not a transmission guru or anything and definitely Mike L. is the guy to talk to. If it were me I would double check everything is correct in the valvebody.

Mike, if the guys rebuilt the torque converter wrong could it constantly be in lockup?

Really hope that isn’t the case though I had a slight concern with not going the Suncoast or Goerend route. I used this company because of trying to stay local with all this crap going on, they do a massive amount of GM (mostly 4l60 and 80) and had done a few Allison’s and some Cummins trans.

 

[Bdsankey]

Sounds to me like your torque converter is locking up once put into drive which would cause the engine to stall. I am not a transmission guru or anything and definitely Mike L. is the guy to talk to. If it were me I would double check everything is correct in the valvebody.

Mike, if the guys rebuilt the torque converter wrong could it constantly be in lockup?

If the converter was assembled wrong it wouldn't cause the tires to rotate the wheels in the wrong direction. The trans doesn't seem to be applying the clutch packs in the proper order which would cause all the issues he has.


I'd pull at least the valve body and check for cross leaks/sticky valves as well the interfaces with the case and see what's going on. I've never had one do what yours is but typically when they don't do as the TCM expects or commands (improper shift etc) the TCM with scream at you with at least one code to point you in the right direction which is why I find it odd that it hasn't thrown any codes.

Really hope that isn’t the case though I had a slight concern with not going the Suncoast or Goerend route. I used this company because of trying to stay local with all this crap going on, they do a massive amount of GM (mostly 4l60 and 80) and had done a few Allison’s and some Cummins trans.

Goerend typically has converters on the shelf, if not they ship in 1-3 days max and that has not seemed to have been impacted with COVID.

 

[Cakes]

I'd pull at least the valve body and check for cross leaks/sticky valves as well the interfaces with the case and see what's going on. I've never had one do what yours is but typically when they don't do as the TCM expects or commands (improper shift etc) the TCM with scream at you with at least one code to point you in the right direction which is why I find it odd that it hasn't thrown any codes.

I’ll be able to drain it here in couple hours and pull it to have a look.

Also, I thought it to be extremely strange not having a single code stored. I pretty much came straight here as I didn’t have any guidance, I’d at least been able to cross reference with the ATSG books and every code definition it has.

 

[RMJ_LB7]

If the converter was assembled wrong it wouldn't cause the tires to rotate the wheels in the wrong direction. The trans doesn't seem to be applying the clutch packs in the proper order which would cause all the issues he has.


I'd pull at least the valve body and check for cross leaks/sticky valves as well the interfaces with the case and see what's going on. I've never had one do what yours is but typically when they don't do as the TCM expects or commands (improper shift etc) the TCM with scream at you with at least one code to point you in the right direction which is why I find it odd that it hasn't thrown any codes.




Goerend typically has converters on the shelf, if not they ship in 1-3 days max and that has not seemed to have been impacted with COVID.

Whoops my bad didn't see that the tires were rotating the wrong direction. Nobody laugh but if the converter propeller was put in backwards what would that do? My only reasoning why I think it has to do something with the converter is because no code like you said.

 

[Cakes]

I’m terrible about finishing posts, just an update that Mike was right and it was mostly my fault in the reassembly process.

Hard parts were fine but I was given a wrong solenoid from the parts store and didn’t realize it because the clerk had written on the box which solenoid went where, I didn’t second guess it. Wasn’t until I checked the ohms that I realized it didn’t belong.

Also, I had placed an old check ball from the previous built valve body, behind a solenoid that didn’t need it.

Through all the start ups trying to chase the problem I put a lot of strain on the pump and when I eventually got the truck running it lasted a couple hours under load and the pump gave out. So I had to drop it again and replace that.

Lessons learned the hard way but won’t forget moving forward. Double/triple check your work on something like this to avoid pulling it out more than once.