Well been 15,000 miles with my PTC tripple lock and Suncoast valvebody. It has always shifted really aggressive into lockup. I was on the way to KY and was only about 30 miles into WV on 64 heading east. Had just topped a hill and the engine revs up and the truck is slowing down. I heard some squaking noise almost like the belt slip when you cut truck off. I quickly got out of the left lane and pulled over at the 153 mile marker. The engine then stalled. I tried to crank and the starter would not turn engine over. I got out to find fluid dripping out of the bell housing inspection cover. I called a freind to come get trailer and my uncle with a 2004 Dodge roll back to haul my dually home. An hour or so later I tried again to crank truck it fired right up but was really noisy so I quickly shut it off. Hmmm must not be flexplate. I think i either broke the input shaft and or converter. Pretty sure it screwed up the pump causing the fluid to run out. Needless to say my uncles 13,000lb rollback with my 7,400lb dually on back pulled off on that hill with no trouble with nothing but an Edge EZ module and no tranny mods. Maybe I should have left the TST at the dealer and bought an Edge EZ. Maybe I should bullitproof my tranny and run both TST R49 and Edge EZ. Guess I will be looking for billet input shaft and flexplate. Question does tripple lock converters ussually lock up really hard when towing? Maybe I need to do something with the fluid pressure release circuit in the valve body or change something in the converter. Any thoughts.

 

Do you have any gauges to see what the temps were @ the time? I know when I have dropped a tranny in other vehicles, it would stall & then once cool again I could start it tight up & even drive it for a little bit.

 

Leon you need to make sure you send the T/C back to joe and get him to cut it open (PTC) clean it out. Hard to say what happend but could of broke input shaft or output, what level on the TST you have it set? one thing for sure I know there is alot of guys just putting in T/C and valve bodys and calling it good with out going thru the trans need to pull the trans apart and look at the clutches my third gear clutches were burnt, here is what could of happend your in 3rd slipping clutches your in tow/haul mode the ecm comands lock up being you have a T/C it hit lock took out a shaft or flywheel now you have to think about this for a min you break the flywheel T/C whobbles trans fluid will leak. you need to get a flex plate look into my gallery not cheap but you wont break it. Sorry to hear about your truck hope it works out for ya

 

Leon, That was the Flexplate, You probably by not immediately turning it off injured the TC and 100% for sure your pump needs to be replaced. Hopefully the bell housing wasn't injured or your starter gear ruined. Been there and done that one. A full tranny rebuild is probably in order as pieces of flexplate have just gone through the system.....was the fluid burned really bad. ks

 

The flexplate can't go through the system. It is a simple disk bolted to the crank with a starter gear on it. It then has bolts that connect it to the torque converter. There are no fluids used on the flexplate so it can't pump the broken materials into the system, no part of the flexplate is internal to the torque converter or tranny. Maybe you meant input shart instead of flex plate. Sense the engine still starts I don't think it could be the flexplate. The torque converter and pump are probably damaged sense I heard a lot of squaking noise just before the engine cut off. I have broke input shafts in race cars on several occassions. The big difference I was in hard acceleration in race car and had no lock up troque converter. When the converter and valve body were installed 15,000 miles ago the tranny was completely gone through and the torrington bearing and spacer replaced in overdrive unit. I will make a bet that the clutches are like new when I take tranny apart and the converter and/or input shaft is broke. The truck is a 2WD so I doubt it is the output shaft. It is possible but based on what I am hearing not the intermediate shaft. Has anyone dealt with Puredieselpower on input shafts and hub?

 

if it is just an input shaft you should be in good shape. As funny as this sounds there has been someone on here that broke a flywheel and they could still get the truck to start must not have broke the whole center out pull the cover off and take a look and see what you find.

 

Years ago when my uncle used to have gas roll backs he used to break the bolt holes out of the flexplate that bolt the plate to converter. But the gear was on the converter on those deals. I guess it is possible to break the bolts or the metal around the bolt holes in the flexplate and have the same results. This would force the converter back into the pump and chew on the converters bolt lugs pretty good. I hear the flexplates on the 2005 trucks are weaker than the earlier ones but I can't visually see any difference. I have seen inputput shafts broke on older model trucks that had a lockup switch used at too low an RPM. The shaft breaks up in the converter and requires the converter sent off to be repaired. I'm ready for whatever but I want to soften that teeth rattling lockup or overdrive application so this does not happen again. It can't be good for my trailer either.

 

When My flexplate went it I was going 75mph and up a hill towing an empty trailer ... by the time I figured out that the tranny wasn't working I'd gone about a quarter of a mile. The flexplate bent 3 lugs forward and pulled two back. The 3 forward lugs cut a perfect circle through the bell housing and completely shaved off the starter cog. The Torque converter was roasted and pushed the pump back into the tranny, The direct clutches were shot and the others were just worn. The filter had lots of metal on it and there were aluminum and metal bits all through the tranny. So ya I know the flexplate isn't internal....but when everything else goes it quickly fills the tranny with crap....most likely from either the pump or the torque converter. If your fluid is clean and there is no crap on the vb filter you may be lucky. I was lucky enough not to have a built tranny to spoil but it was expensive. Make sure whatever flexplate you go with gives you enough space for the torque converter. ATS billet and Suncoast laminated are the top of the heap and both are SFI certified. I hope your TC isn't roached. If it was a clean break and the inner and outer "rings" just sheared off you should be good. If the lugs are pulled or bent....not so good. ks

 

The flexplate didn't screw the tranny. But the tranny got screwed because of what the converter did when it got driven into the pump. My starter cranked the engine after things had cooled down. But things were not happy. If either the flexplate or input shaft is broke I am going to replace both. Still need to do something about the hard lockup of overdrive problem.

 

Got tranny out and the input shaft is in 30+ peices. The flexplate however looks fine but is coming out. Hard shifts into overdrive have been one too many. Going to lower line pressure to soften this shift until someone comes up with something to correct this problem.

 

Well it has been some time sense breaking the stock input.

I was in a hurry so we got a low stall single clutch converter to use while getting the PTC tripple reworked.

A year later the tranny got hot pulling a rough hill at very low speed. So I pulled the tranny and checked everything out. The paint on the converter was burnt off so we put the tripple lock PTC back in.

5,000 miles later the truck is jumping while in low gear. Can put in low one applying low/reverse band and it quits. Is it the sprag or the forward clutches?

Milked it for several trips and then it let me down. Wrong off the billet input shaft. Stator support on the pump broke off also. After pulling the tranny apart found the forward clutches burnt up.

We think the shaft was cracking and tranny started loosing pressure. This caused the premature clutch wear in the forward clutches. Funny this jumping while in low gear would smooth out at higher RPM or throttle pressure. All the other clutches look fine other than the metal enbedded in the disks.

I do not race or hotrod. This is my tow vehicle. Kinda upsetting that the tranny has been out once for upgrades and three more times for repair. I like the PTC converter but I think it's low stall speed and very effective lockup are part of the cause of broken input shafts.

Leon

 

I can't speak for other products, but my Goerend converter and valve body are awesome. Nice smooth shifts at mild throttle. Firm up nicely at WOT. Converter lock is veeeery smooth. In fact, much smoother than stock. I couldn't be happier with my trans mods.

Maybe you should give them a call?

 

Hey Leon did you check the overrunning clutch at the rear of the tranny before the tailhousing/4th gear? If it jumps in 1st gear while in drive, but not in low 1st gear, the only difference there is that the rear "clutch" in 1st gear drive is the overrunning clutch, and the rear "clutch" in 1st gear low is the band. I know that the overrunning clutches have had problems because the geared outer surface that locks it into the tranny case can overcome the teeth that are machined into the case to hold the clutch in place. Then the overrunning clutch just spins in its bore. I know in older torqueflites that whenever you had a tranny or driveshaft blow up, you always had to replace the overrunning clutch because the strain of the breaking parts would spin it. And once it's spun, it's toast.

As for the jumping smoothing out at higher throttle pressures, any fluid pressure against a clutch is going to increase with higher throttle pressures-so it'll stop slipping.

Hope it all works out for you, man. Let us know what you find.

 

I looked at the sprag(overunning clutch) it is not loose or disturbed. I had been told part of the overdrive bolts into the sprag. That is not true. I assume you could get a bolt in sprag but, the bolts are very small on repair sprags. I have spun many sprags in 727 trannies drag racing my Barracuda so I know what it looks like when this happens. I have never known a sprag to fail one time and work the next but anything is possible.

Curiously the 904 trans uses a pinned in sprag clutch. I have looked into pinning the clutch in this 618 tranny.