A friend just got a good deal on a truck with a bad transmission. The truck would not move in any gear.

Pulling the pan rewarded us with a ton of gunk in the bottom and what has to be the nastiest filters I've ever seen.

The transmission is full of a heavy varnish. Every surface is brown. The fluid was not red. It looked more like fairly fresh engine oil

The friction materials all look serviceable and there are no signs of heat. The fluid does not smell burned. It smells like a lubricant but I can't place the exact aroma.

There are heavy deposits of gunk on everything. The end of the pinions on the planetary gears are rusted.

Here's a link to a large by huge pic showing the condition of the transmission.

Any ideas on why it's in this condition and what the fluid might be?

Maybe it was flooded? Improper lube?

It's getting all new friction materials, seals, and bearings. There is very light pitting on the pump gear and rotor so we'll swap those too. The converter has already been rebuilt a bit tighter than stock.

 

off brand cheap low grade fluid saw it several times years ago. mostly with type a fluid

 

That is ugly,
Has the heat exchanger been disconnected?
Maybe water or coolant in the ATF, or just poor maintenance habits over time, how is the rest of the truck?

 

The rest of the truck is well used. Mechanically, it seems to be in good shape. The body is a bit rough and the interior is bad.

I believe the heat exchanger was still in use.

The front drum has a good amount of fairly light surface rust as you can see in this photo

That's the only working surface with signs of rust. The other parts that show rust are non-contact surfaces.

 

Looks like the oil got pretty hot or it was never serviced, the rust could just be from the unit sitting for a long time/condensation. When these things sit most of the fluid eventually drains out of the innards into the pan, anyone who`s ever changed a dipstick or kickdown shaft seal can relate with the "my trans only drips if i let it sit for a week" type of scenario. If there was water, like flood water or any great quantity that fluid would look like a mix of strawberry and chocolate nestle`s qwik.

 

There was no milkshake involved. Sadly, there was no red fluid involved. It was all light brown as seen in the two photos.

 

I would agree with degraded cheap ATF fluid. Probably not serviced in many many years.

I bought a 87 D250 ram years ago and when I serviced the tranny it looked like chocolate milk...and was one of the most foul smelling fluid I have ever come across. Thing is it drove great. Changed fluid and filter and ran it for a couple weeks....changed everything again...then ran for about 6 months....then changed it all one last time. Ran that truck for years...pulling cars on trailers etc...that 727 never missed a beat!