I had the 1 ton all loaded up and we made it from Portland, OR to Alturas, CA before our trip took an unexpected detour. As we pulled into Alturas I heard/felt a bang/grind and we could move no more. I looked under the truck to see oil flowing out in a steady trickle. I couldn't put it in any gear.

We got the truck towed to a mechanic, and my TT to a local trailer park. Now, I'm 600+miles away from home and another 300 away from our destination. In the morning I spoke to the mechanic and just asked him to get it all running in a week. He assured me he would take care of everything.

We rented a WAY to small Uhaul with NO trailer brake controller and proceeded to haul all our supplies and the trailer the rest of the way to Black Rock City. Climbing and descending hills was a frightening experience, but I went slow and somehow we survived. I was out of cell, email, and all other forms of communication the entire week. It was wonderful.

We returned to Alturas a week later, which was Monday and Labor day. The shop was closed, but the truck was sitting out front with an invoice for $2700 for a rebuilt transmission and new clutch. There was a box of gears that had been removed in the bed.

I was an adventure. I'm sad the truck let me down but at least we got home.

Questions:

A week before the trip I changed the tranny oil with Walmart 5W-30 synthetic motor oil. I overfilled it 1.5 qts. Do you think this had anything to do with the failure? I smelled oil for about 15 minutes before it blew, could the overfill have caused a seal to fail?

He put "Synthetic gear oil" in my tranny according to the invoice. Is this bad?

The transmission will grind going into 3rd until it warms up, then it's fine. I suspect this is because it has the wrong oil in it. Does that sounds reasonable?

I had to haul everything home on a freshly rebuilt transmission. If the wrong oil was in it, would that have hurt anything? I was pulling pretty hard up some of those passes.

Is there a break in period on a rebuilt transmission?

I'm now very paranoid about overfilling my transmission. Should I worry?

--Chris

 

If you were smelling oil, it was probably leaking out of somewhere, causing your tranny to be run dry.

Ive had mine over filled for a long time. Most people here have for that matter.

Chances are when he rebuilt the trans, he only put in what he had to. It shouldnt grind into 3rd. Mine is not smooth into 3rd, and its old. I guess what you call grinding and what I call grinding could be 2 different things also. Mine "chatters" into 3rd. An actual grind isnt good. (worn syncros)

Clutches range from 250-1400+ bucks for these things. Could be anything. Most likely a 12" replacement.

 

needwordsoutsidethequotes

 

I have three Getrags, all running FIVE quarts 5W-30 for a LONG time, one has full-synthetic 5W-30, the other two plain old 5W-30 oil.


None of these has ever shown the slightest drip after many miles of HEAVY towing.


All shift better than most new trucks; none of them "grind".


I agree that you had some other issue rather than the overfill.