I have a 1998 4x4 blazer, LT. I have been having to fix one thing after another since I bought this a few years back. Now the transmission is going crazy on me. For a long time, its been not wanting to go into 5th gear, ONLY when floored. I.E. when I have to really step on it getting onto the highway, or when it drops a gear to pass someone.
I drove it all the way from dallas TX to monroe LA (about an hour east of shreveport) with no problems whatsoever! but as soon as I got off the highway in monroe it wont go above third gear, then another 10 minutes down the road it wont go past second, then I barely limp it into parking space in first gear. Then it wouldnt do anything. I tried to move it and it wouldnt go in reverse. I killed the car, and restarted it later that day and it went into reverse like nothing was wrong, then after a minute just nothing.
When it is messing up, theres no grinding or anything. just acts like theres no higher gear or if in 1st/reverse just acts like its in nuetral

There seems to be plenty of transmission fluid, nothing leaking.
Do I just have a bad transmission? It has 160k, I got the vehicle at 149ish about two years ago.

If its somethign to be fixed? Whats the best route? I would like to just be done fixing the stupid thing. I just paid 1k for injector system replaced, last year was catalytic convertor and muffler, before that was starter alternator and distrubutor, etc.
Thanks for any advice!

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you have a manual transmission as you stated fifth gear, so...

take a look at replacing the clutch rather than the tranny. Sounds like the clutch discs are slipping when heated up.

Always helps to state exactly what you are driving rather than have us guess, just an FYI.

 

no it's an automatic I wasn't thinking about it my other cars are all stick.

 

Then you only have 4 gears.

 

yeah I know I said I was thinking of my other car it was late when I wrote it

 

VSS has a lot to do with transmission operation. Verify your speedometer is working and is correct. After that you may need to check the connector on the transfer case output. Make sure the wires are not smashed, cracked, exposed, and that the connections inside the connector are not corroded. These wires go from the transfer case output all the way up to the ECM, so you could have a problem anywhere between as well. A small drop in voltage in a 5V signal is a big difference that can result in little to no transmission operation.

 

I have a 1998 as well and just had to deal with a similar issue. What it turned out to be on mine was the shift silanodes inside the transmission. Theirs two of them and they'll only run you about $10-$15 each. Not even hard to replace. They tell the transmission when to shift gear. As they go bad, you will shift randomly or not at all finally. Alot cheaper than a new tranny.

 

im going to try to go that route tommorow afternoon. Do you by any chance have a part number?

 

Do you know when the tranny filter and oil were last changed out?

 

Not sure, I know I have had it done since I bought it but it could have been a few years. I went to autozone and oreillys but neither of them knew a part number for the solenoids