my 98 lt runs great and normally drives great even though it has 289000km on it but recently if i do a longer drive 30mins plus and then start going in town it shifts so hard into second it will slide the truck sideways in the snow. but if i just do a short run around town it shifts fine.

fluid is at a good level but slightly darker then what i would like but i couldn't figure out that stupid linkage blocking a few bolts on the tranny pan.

any ideas on what could be wrong?
any ideas on how to get that stupid linkage off so i can replace the fluid?

any help is appreciated

 

The linkage just bolts on, but the bolts can be somewhat difficult to get to.

As far as what is wrong, a 2nd gear flare could be a number of things. A worn valve body would be one guess. How suddenly did this problem occur?

 

long highway drive i lost O/D w/ cruise on, dropped to 3rd was fine popped back into D and it was fine pulled in to the next rest stop tranny was way down so i topped it up about 1.5 liters and hasn't went down since but this issue seems to have steamed from that and it worries me.

 

any other thoughts??

 

The 98 trannys 4L6E with milage of 170.000 and up are knowing to have issues.... however if you do not deal with the issuse how it will cost you a total tranny rebuild.

Knowing issues from starting point to when things are cooked:

1) OD valve starts to act up, it will leak fluid... and it will start buzzing. this will cause the over drive clutch lock to start sliping and cooks the concerter and clutch packs.
2) the main tranny valve body starts to act up... by this it will actually bleed tranny fluid from the valve body back to the pan. this will cause in correct shifts either slow shifts or hard shifts. If this is NOT corrected it will cause the clutches to slip and tranny fluid to heat up.... and if not fixed it will wear the cluches out.

Here is the fix for you... when you get your tranny rebuilt... DO NOT GO TO A NATION WIDE CHAIN or ect... go to someone that rebuilds trannys and builds trannys for race cars!

you will need the following done and you will never have a problem again.

- heavy duty converter

- AFTER market Over drive silinoide (stock ones will srew up and are no good!!!!)
- Trans-Go Jounior shift kit

- Servo unit from a Corvette (these apply more pressure in to the clutch packs!

- Clutch packs them selfs replace with after market ones.. BUT INSIST that you they are stacked! The stock 4l6e trannys are not built the same as the full sized pick ups! and that is why they die...... on blazers or jimmys the 4l6e trannys have less clutches in the tranny then the pick ups... SO GET THEM PACKED!!!

- DRIVE DRUM... the drive drums in the 97 - 2000 blazers are made from a soft and very weak metal... the usally either stip the splines or they crack and brake the drum off... get a good hardened steel drive drum.

- Main Tranny Pump: have a heavy duty main front pump installed. this will provide more fluid and more pressure then stock. allowing things to run alot better and smother.

- Lastly... cut the tranny lines off at the rad and have them pluged. You will then install a good alumiun tranny cooler. this will ensure that your tranny will have a very long and much happyer life.

NOTE: the Blazers and Jimmys are equiped with a progressive learning computer: LOL beleve it or not.... these computers are very smart. The will learn how you drive and adjust how the engine and transmissions run, shift, and react to your driving..... harder you drive them... the more the computer opens them up... with this said... drive them hard and the transmission will start shifting at 5,000 RPM for first gear and it will shift hard.... second gear will shift at about 3,500 - 4,500 RPM and ect.... but will be smother shifts the higher the gearing.

However to get the best gas millage out of the blazer and jimmys or at least the 98 with 4x4 and 4 doors... dont go light foot off the line but give her some gas... and she will till she is up to 20 - 30km and back down a little... and you will find things will run better and will use a little less gas.


I hope that this information has helped someone out... and I promise you if replace the parts as I said in your trannys you will have a whole new truck!

 

thanks for your info JTECK wanna rebuild a tranny? lol i haven't heard a good thing about a single tranny guy within 200k of me and i dont think i would trust anyone to follow instructions like that. so i was looking online and this company http://www.eatmyshift.com/ caught my eye if i bought one of there heavy duty 4l60e's would i not be good? seems like a pretty good price as well considering im paying about 2-300 dollars less for an "unknown" junk yard tranny.

 

Check out monstertrans.com. They have some pretty good prices for rebuilt and upgrade transmissions.