4L60E trans issue.

[Jamie Hoffman]

I might have messed up. Did an oil change and trans filter and fluid change on my truck yesterday. Truck is a 2000 S10 4.3 w/ 4L60E w/ about 192k on it. Right off the bat, let me just say I don’t know jack about transmission repair. So I was nervous going into this, and that tells me I should have just left it alone. Anyway, I just want to make known what I think I may have messed up. Before reading to find out whether it needed to be replaced or not (and multiple places said to just leave it), I went to try and pry the old filter seal out of its bore. I fear I may have scratched/dented the bore with the pick I was using. Second, right below the bore where it meets the valve body, the pick for the old seal may have hit something, as there was a hole in there between those where it seems like some gasket would’ve gone. And there was some gasket laying beside me on the towel I was using to mop up the ATF that escaped the pan I was using. But I’m not sure whether or not that was pan gasket I scraped off, or what. Also, the fluid level seems strange to me. Just as the manual says, I start it, let it get to OT, take it through all of the gears ending with park, and then check the fluid. But when I check it, there seems to be fluid in the hot range where it needs to be, but not below it in the cold range, as if the fluid is magically skipping over the cold range. I couldn’t get the fluid level figured out, so I just took it for a short drive. Trans was shifting much smoother than it had before, but after getting to about 45 and hitting 4th gear, the truck started jerking, and I could watch the tac go up and back down again, like it would catch 4th and then slip out and go back to third. Seemed it couldn’t decide what gear it wanted. Brought it back to the house, worried as could be, and got to thinking, and I knew for a fact that I couldn’t have overfilled it. When I dropped the pan, and it was slam full of fluid. and I’ve only put about 2 qts back in since I got everything reassembled since the fluid looked like it read fine. So when i got back here, I put another half quart in, and I’m going to check the level again later before work. But my main concern: Is there any chance I just killed 4th gear, or the trans itself? Help is much needed and appreciated.

Topic

[college man]

You may not have seated the filter right. which will not give to a solid fluid pickup.

[Nicholas Clark]

I agree with CollegeMan on this one. If you didn’t seat it right, it won’t pull the fluid. Then it won’t shift right, etc. Make sure you get a good gasket and filter parts.

[transman304]

Make sure you have the correct filter. Early used a shallow pan and later use a deep pan. 1996 and up will be the deep pan. The piece of gasket material you found will be from the pump Gasket it won’t hurt a thing. The gasket just bridges the opening where the filter goes. does not seal anything .

[jerry lee]

not full of oil , clean your stick slap it on your headliner to get some fine dust check oil,if its not on the bottom of the stick, needs oil

[Author]

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