I had a '88 Silverado which I bought new and drove for 18 yrs. Then gave it to my grandson. It has almost 250,000 miles. Yesterday it would not go in reverse, then progressed to only having 3rd gear. Oh yea, 350 with a 5 spd. manual trans. The shift lever has a lot of play ( especially sideways) when this all started. I think it is a ( Getrag) trans. Has anybody had a similar problem? We can not find a used one in any area salvage yards. Has anyone ever converted to an automatic trans on one of these? If so, what transmission did you use, and what were the parts needed to make it work? Thanks for any help on this.

 

first of all, whatever ya do. do not touch the getrag. soon as anything is alterred on it you loose any warranty and would not get any money for the core. so basically do not open it up.

 

Huh, warranty??? the truck is a 1988, the warranty has been gone for a long, long time. Plus, should I find a place that would take it as a core, why would they care, it's broke anyway.

 

Chevyfreakv8 must have read the post wrong. As for swapping a automatic in to it, don't think thats worth the money. Your best bet would be to get the 5-speed rebuilt. If you put in an auto, you need the transmission, torque converter, most likey a new driveshaft, and the shift linkage. If you go the automatic route, a th400 is reliable don't buy an auto used, get a floorshift out of jegs or another magazine, you have the hole in the floor anyways, you can get a torque converter outta jegs also. it wouldn't a difficult swap but, expensive.