pete97

I'm new to diesels and I have a guestion about the way it has been running. I'm not sure if the tranny is slipping or not. I have had the truck 2 weeks and the previous owner has had it since it was new. He had all the required maintenance done including changing the tranny fluid and filter at 50,000 and 100,000 miles. There is 140,000 on it now and the fluid is still new looking. The truck pulls pretty good once you get it to about 50mph and the converter locks in. Till then it is really slow and I can't tell if it is the tranny. I put a load of wood in it the other day and turned onto my street which is a hill and it felt like I was going to get up it. I was going about 5mph. No mod's to the truck and there never was any done. Any suggestions would be greatly appriciated. Thanks Pete

RCW

Given the mileage and your symptom of being a bit of a slug until the torque converter locks, I would bet your converter is slightly ballooned. That is a common problem with the OEM converter after a life of use, or even after one time of getting one stuck and trying to rock it out and getting a bit aggressive with the throttle.

There is an excellent article here in the Tech Facts tab above, then go to the General Information section and read the article on automatic transmission explained.

I have serviced a number of automatics the same as outlined in that article, with the exception of installing a decent heavy duty aftermarket converter, and have seen several run well over 250,000 miles with no problems on a stock truck.