Need advice (dead transmission)

[George Explores]

Earlier tonight, while I was driving home, I was crossing over the Mississippi River into St Louis. I slowed down with traffic to take my exit. When it was time to give it some gas to get going again, the truck wouldn't move. I floored it and it still wasn't moving. It was bad enough that when I let off the gas, the engine died. I thought, at the time, that the engine was the problem since I had the radio up and the windows down so I couldn't hear what was going on. I was able to pull over enough to let traffic go by, but as narrow as the lanes are around there, they still had to maneuver around me. I turned on my flashers and waited for Motorist Assist to show up.
While I was waiting, I checked to make sure I could rev the engine while in neutral and I could. When I put it in drive though, it seemed like the engine couldn't move the truck. The Motorist Assist guy showed up and pushed my truck off the highway and into a parking lot. The truck is there now.
I'm sure it's the transmission that is the problem because I tried moving the truck while I was waiting for my friend to pick me up and give me a ride home.
Sorry to make a short story long, but the advice I need is whether to go to the closest dealership in the morning, or to go to Cottman Transmissions. I know this is going to cost me, but I'd like to keep the cost under $2000. Is that reasonable? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

George

 

[xplor_explorer]

I don't know about automatic transmissions, but my manual 5 speed went out on mine and i got a new one with trade in for $550 from shop. It only took about 2 hours to install and test drive. Auto's are a little more though. If you do the work of pulling it out and installing it then that should save you about $2000. Also check all the gears to see if anything happens with any of the gears or just the same. If they all do the same then it is probably the input shaft on the tranny.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

If the transmission will not allow you to go foward and allows you to go into reverse -- your transmission is shot. I wouldn't recommend getting just a rebuilt transmission - because that still allows for problems to happen down the road. A rebuilt trans is only correcting the current problem. This is the cheapest way -- but not recommended. A "new" remanufactured transmission brings all the parts back up to manufacture specs and is basically "new". Companies, such as Jasper, also back up their engines and trans with a 3-year/75,000 mile warranty. That is a pretty good deal. Hope this will help you out. Automatic transmissions are a lot more expensive than the manuals. A 5R55E can be from 1200-1500 just for the transmission.

-Drew

 

[George Explores]

I went to Cottman Transmissions this morning because they are the closest place and I had to drop off keys so they could get the truck.
I checked last night and the truck was having the same problem in all of the gears. I tried reverse drive, 1 and 2. They guy at Cottman is going to run some tests on the trans and call me to let me know what he found out. Now, I am sitting around waiting for the call.
Thanks for the responses and I'll keep you informed.

George

 

[metstalker]

good luck man

 

[xplor_explorer]

you should get more than one opinion on the problem and cost because some places will sell you more than you need and charge you for unnecessary repairs