I'm being tempted by a friend with a 99 Silverado that can be had for less than $1k. He claims that it sometimes shifts hard 1-2, but it's been like this for 3 years. Assuming it eventually dies, is replacing an auto trans fairly straightforward? Guessing the easy button is just to buy a cheap reman locally or take my chance at a pull-a-part?

2WD isn't bad. Just, whatever you do, don't buy a Movarus reman. I've become intimately familiar with dropping that trans and reinstalling. pull the y'pipe loose, support trans, remove rear crossmember, remove 7 bell housing bolts and 3 TC bolts and trans pops right out. If E36 M3s all rusty, well it'll take time to get it apart. But if it's fairly rust free, You should be able to have it on the floor in under a couple hours.

They are pretty easy trannys to change. I think the y-pipe needs to come out so it would be a good time to change the broken manifold bolts that it most likely has. I probably wouldn't bother with a junkyard trans if you plan to keep the truck. Either buy a reman unit or take the trans out yourself and take it to a rebuilder, whatever is cheaper.

like mentioned above its pretty easy to do on a 2wd, for the top bellhousing bolts we found it easiest to come from the rear of the trans with a few feet of extensions going straight over the top of trans to get to them.

my buddy went through 13 4l60's in his 2000 silverado (yes... 13 of them). he did 3 before i met him but i helped him with the following 10, needless to say we had a down to a science. luckily they only cost the price of 1 reman trans as it was under whoever he got the remans through's warranty so the next 12 were free.

racetruckproblems

Curious from those in this thread, we have a 2000 Silverado with the 4.8 and 4L60 (I think) with ~185k miles. It makes a strange warbling noise around 1700 rpm, usually a couple seconds before upshifting. It's done this for a very long time. Any ideas what that might be?

glueguy wrote: I'm being tempted by a friend with a 99 Silverado that can be had for less than $1k. He claims that it sometimes shifts hard 1-2, but it's been like this for 3 years. Assuming it eventually dies, is replacing an auto trans fairly straightforward? Guessing the easy button is just to buy a cheap reman locally or take my chance at a pull-a-part?

at that price, i'd pull the drivetrain along with the ecm and all the wiring... part out/scrap the rest of the truck for what you bought it for and have a free LS to swap into something..

but that's just me..

I vaguely remember this problem in a van I had and it was simply the 1-2 shift solenoid. Drop the pan and pop a new one in.

In reply to TR7:

No, no, wait for it to kill hard parts before doing the simple fix.

I've swapped out the 700r4 in my 89 C1500 on my lunch break. Can't imagine a 99 is much different.

NEALSMO wrote: I've swapped out the 700r4 in my 89 C1500 on my lunch break. Can't imagine a 99 is much different.

More than you think. They stuffed them a little tighterthan the older trucks.

Before you replace the tranny, try a good used valve body swap. Hard 1-2 shift is usually a sticking plunger in the valve body on a 4L60E

At the rebuild check how much for labor to RR might be cheaper in the long run. If there is a problem the RR it.

NEALSMO wrote: I've swapped out the 700r4 in my 89 C1500 on my lunch break. Can't imagine a 99 is much different.

You'd be surprised!

The GenIII engined trucks are shockingly more difficult in asinine ways. AKA "Dammit GM why the BERK did you put a bolt THERE, and make it a stud-bolt JUUUST long enough that a normal swivel-socket won't work on it?"

You can tell if a trans has been out of '99-up pickup or not. If it has, someone will have "circumcised" the cab's floor-firewall flange, which is right in the way of accessing the top bellhousing bolt.

In reply to Knurled:

Noted. Will do in future.

You guys are making me so glad that I bought the GMT400 instead of the 800... it also has a 4L60E in it and I have confirmed that the trans fluid has not been changed in the last 90k miles at a minimum and more realistically, probably never. So this will probably eventually be in my future.