Transmission slowly dieing?

[moosed]

Have a 1987 F250 with a Western plow. Had the transmission (C6)rebuilt in September of 2004. The truck is having problems going up hills (not plowing up hills, just getting up hills). I have a pretty steep driveway and almost couldn't make it back up after a day of plowing!. The truck revs but the wheels just don't move, after awhile (5-10 seconds) it start to move ever so slowly.

Plowing on level ground is no problem, no straining that I can tell.

Brought it back to the shop (local independent with a Great reputation) and he tells me that the transmission is fine and that it's an engine issue.

I'm no mechanic but it seems as if the engines is reving and the wheels aren't turning its a slipping tourqe convertor or some other transmission problem.

Any ideas or help would be great.

Tony

[wyldman]

Sure sounds like a bad trans.The RPM's should go up slightly when accelerating up a hill,but there should be some actual acceleration along with the RPM increase.

[John DiMartino]

Tony, It could be low gear slipping, the torque convertor has an internal stator issue or the tc ballooned(very unlikely), or the governor has something in it,and it is starting out in 2nd gear.Starting in a higher gear will make the torque convertor work much harder,and have to flash higher to get the truck moving. Can you feel it run thru all 3 gears?.Next time it does it try grabbing the lever and pulling it into manual low,see if that makes a difference.Do you have a tachometer, if so how many rpm is it revving while its still sitting still?

[moosed]

John,

When on level ground or just driving around, yes I hear and feel the transmission shift. When plowing I'm alway in 4 Hi and in 1st.

I really don't know where to go with this, have someone looking at the engine and exhaust system and if they check out what's next?.

Another thing the transmission guy mentions is he feels that I have way to much weight in the back. I have maybe 600 pounds and I feel that this really balances the truck out pretty good. Are you guys running with balast and how much?

Thanks for the replies.

Tony

[Pelican]

If your linkage is worn or out of adjustment, even though it says first you might actually be in second like John suggests. I had that happen on a very similar truck.

[moosed]

Update on this F250: the transmission fluid is now dark black instead of red in it's recently rebuilt transmission. When we dropped it off at the shop that rebuilt it yesterday, we were told that *if* it were the transmission, most likely we would need a "low rev" torque converter if the transmission was having difficulty driving up hill.

Does this make any sense? The upper limit of speed on this truck would then be about 60 mph, he says. With the previous "bad" transmission, this truck was driven to the transmission shop at speeds greater than 60.