Hi all, without getting into too much detail, a couple weeks ago i managed to clip a divider while making a left turn, and in the process i ripped open my derale tranny pan. Within no time, the tranny was empty and obviously disengaged. I had to leave the engine running to effectively steer it into a shopping center to park it, but besides a couple quick taps of the gas to verify that the tranny was lost i didn't rev it.

I replaced the pan, and thus far all seems well. No pump whine, no slipping gears. I'm thinking i lucked out pretty good. Since the gash was so big it emptied in a couple short seconds. Do you think this would have been fast enough to let the hydraulics disengage quickly enough to keep the clutches/bands from wearing? How about the pump, did idling for (guessing 15-30 seconds) empty perhaps wear the hell out of it?

Basically i just want some expert WAGs on how much/little time this tranny has left. I have a SLP shift kit and 2800 vigilante ready to go in. I'll wait until at least spring at this point to make sure it stays together. I'm just curious if i have definitely caused a huge amount of wear and i'll only be asking for more trouble if i ask for more than basic function from it? If so, perhaps a preventative rebuild would be a better option come spring, instead of waiting till (if) i blow it?

 

well, due to the realtively short span of time that it was running, I doubt you hurt anything seriously, but if your tranny has more than 75k miles, I'd recommend a rebuild if you're planning on a shift kit and higher stall converter. That way you don't have to pull it out again. should be ok until spring.

 

The tranny was rebuilt 30-40k ago at a dealer (got service records w/ car), and was/is basically perfect. Perfect, smooth shifts at part throttle, and reasonably tight at WOT. The only problem it's ever had is a very intermittent tendency to not shift 2-3 at WOT, which i was hoping the shift kit would help.

 

From what you've said it sounds like your trans is going to be ok.
The transgo shift kit is better at addressing your intermedent shift problem. (TV valve fix). Also be sure your fluid level is "full when hot"
this is critical on these trans. Under hard acceleration the fluid sloshes to the back of the pan and can partaily uncover the filter. I run and extra 1/2 qt of ATF and that got rid of that pesky 2-3 wot shift problem after installing a shift kit.

 

if im over about 4200rpm my tranny wont shift till i get to 4000k...heard this was normal for this trans...