My father and I have a 1992 K1500 5.7 with a 700R4 and an aftermarket trans cooler. We had the trasmission replaced about 5 years ago with a fresh rebuild and it hasn't seen that many miles. Well, we had almost 3 feet of snow over the weekend and the truck got buried up to the frame in my parents' yard. Yesterday I went over and pulled the truck out with my blazer. I noticed when I pulled it out that there was transmission fluid everywhere and we shut it off right away. One of the cooler lines blew off, I put it back on and tightened it down. My dad tried to back it up into the turn around because it was blocking the road. It wouldn't go in reverse, so I put in 3 quarts of Dexron IV because that was all that he had. after that it moved but it was really slipping and little bit of smoke came out of the dip stick tube. It only ran for less than a minute and only went a few feet just to get out of the road. So I was wondering, did we kill the transmission or should we top off the fluid and hope for the best? Sorry, for being so wordy but I wanted to add as much info as possible.

Thanks.

 

I would definitely try to top of the fluid before spending the money to rebuild it again. It is worth a try. Sounds like it could be low on fluid.

 

We threw 3 quarts in it since that is all we had. It is hard to check since their entire driveway is slightly slanted. I have to go to their house tonight anyway so I might see if I can get it into the garage so I can check the fluid on a level surface. If the transmission is toast the truck might get sold. It is pretty rusty and we just keep it around to haul stuff. I think it went about 2000 miles last year.

 

So I topped off the fluid and drove it the other day. The trans went into gear fine and shifted okay. So I guess we didn't kill it after all.