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Broken trans at the track.

mkyota1

New member
Hey guys. This past sunday I was at the local drag strip. Second pass of the day I spun pretty bad so I let off and floored it again. On the 1-2 shift it neutraled out. I came to a stop and was towed off of the track. When in park or neutral it is quiet. In reverse or drive it whines kind of like a ps pump would. It makes no difference if it is manually dropped to 2nd or 1st. It will move slightly under its own power in both reverse and drive but both slip badly.

A little history on the car. I had an issue with the car not wanting to shift before hitting the limiter on the 1-2 shift so I reduced the shift rpm on my dhp as well as decreasing shift time. This seemed to fix that concern. I also had an issue with it developing a slip/bang when taking off in 1st. I was able to bandaid it by increasing line pressure in the tune. Somewhere along the way it developed a problem that would show up at the track. If I launch and stay on the gas it will shift nice. If I launch and spin and have to pedal it the 1-2 shift will be violently harsh. That is what happened when it broke.

I tore the trans down looking for the culprit but did not see anything obvious. I pulled it apart other than the valvebody and the clutch packs. No metal or chunks just lots of fine clutch material. I have asked a few people and most are leaning toward the torque converter failing. Any of you guys have a similar failure? I plan on grabbing another junkyard trans with converter and swapping over the hard parts. I also plan on going back to a tune that is not so agressive.
 


It is a 4t65e-hd from a 99 regal gs. Dynotech 300m input shaft 2.93 7/8" chain set and a transgo shift kit.
 
Sorry if I was unclear. Only the input shaft was dynotech. The trans I pulled from a junkyard with unknown mileage. Bill have you run into any broken torque converters in these cars?
 
it whines kind of like a ps pump would....

The sound you are describing is very similar to what my brother in laws Regal was doing. Very loud whine (not SC or PS related) and it would buck (felt like a REALLY bad miss) while going down the highway. Eventually got to the point where it was sticking valves and throwing codes. Teardown revealed no failures in the trans itself but it was full of clutch material. Long story short, his GM serta trans was dead in less than 43k miles from a bad torque converter.
 


Alright thanks for the input guys. Hopefully I can get it sorted out soon. Boost weather is fast approaching.
 
Check the pump (tear it apart, check for pitting/metal), check the clutches, check the converter. Or just do a TEP rebuild kit with a PI converter.
 
I did check the pump. It looked good. Is there a way to check the converter that you know of? I am going to see how long another stock trans with my hard parts and another stock converter lasts. I am trying to keep this thing as cheap as I can of course. I can pull a trans with converter for $135 at the local yard. The only reason I am considering it is I got almost a year and about 60-70 track passes on this one before it broke.
 
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