But thankfully, not my warrantied one

I got a 94 Chevy K1500 last Saturday. Plates came on Wednesday, and I was doing the usual tune up stuff, and bitching about the rotting exhaust until then. I drove it to school for the first time on Friday, a whopping 3 miles. After that, I took off looking for a dealer I'd never been to in order to replace some burnt out heater control light bulbs. Didn't find it after driving 70 miles around the city. However, I did find out my tranny was acting up.

Would go to accelerate from a stop, and it'd have no power, no power, shudder shudder shudder, then suddenly it'd take off. I made the "uh oh" face, checked the tranny fluid (it looked to be at least a quart overfull), and high-tailed it home. Tried to make it into my driveway, but by that time I had no gears left. Thought maybe it was just overfull, and the fluid was aerating and causing lots of slippage. Or, maybe the torque converter was bad.

I shut it off, let it sit for a few minutes while some stupid woman at our garage sale finished and left so I could steal her spot on the street, started it up, and miraculously I had gears! I drove it to a tranny shop to see if they could siphon out some fluid, but when the guy checked, it wasn't even overfull. Doh. The fluid is clean, red, not milky, not burnt smelling. One of the tranny cooler lines was loose when I got it, but I tightened that up before I drove it.

So at that point I was sure it was electronic. Shift solenoids, what have you. On the way back, I once again barely managed to get home. About 4 hours went by, and I replaced the TPS, went to go test drive it... I had just enough reverse to get around the Bonneville, and just enough forward to coast around the corner until I bumped the curb right before the driveway. So for 20 minutes I was experimenting. No gears, not even 2nd (which would not require both shift solenoids to be on, like 1st and reverse)! Hmm. It doesn't even make the *clunk* my other Chevy truck did when I pulled the shift lever through the gears.

The people I bought it from said they had a rough 1-2 shift, but also that they had a dealer rebuild it. This same dealer, I had found on this truck, couldn't replace the steering wheel lock plate correctly, so the poor people drove with it going *click* every 15 degrees for over 3 years!

I'm thinking it'* easiest to check the filter being plugged, and all the electronic connections. If I can work around our stupid garage sale, which I can't :( My dad is coming over with the trailer, and after my final on Tuesday we're going to get the guys at the Chevy dealer to hook it up to their tech tool.

In the meantime, any words of wisdom? (The tranny guy told me to take it back. Kinda hard to do with private party buying)

Fun stuff when I'm supposed to be studying calculus!

Oh yeah, and if you know where I can get a decent mandril bent galvanized 3" OEM exhaust... If not, I'm having some "aluminized" tailpipe crap thrown on for the winter

Not a tranny expert(heck not even a tranny plebe).
But for exhaust just hit up any little exhaust shops that are around. 3 inch is a fairly common size, I would guess around 300 bucks to get some pipe bent and welded up.

I was lookin at one from JC Whitney that came out to be about $250, and it'* not a problem for me to install it... Just shopping around a bit. $200 from a Muffler man, but I don't trust the aluminized stuff with my life. The dumb people who had it before have duals coming out the back, and that'* made the tailgate bubble and start to rust. Ick. Back to stock!

Torn between getting the nice exhaust and having a tranny that works... Is this really a choice? :p

And so far, the tranny classes and rebuilding experience haven't helped me diagnose any more than a GM book has. I did have a sneaking suspicion I'd need to run Trans-X through it and change the oil and filter... but not in a day'* driving!

Well, I made the right call getting the truck over to a dealer I trust. The pan came off, the filter was plugged, and there was a ball from the valve body stuck to the magnet! What is that doing there, you ask? That'* the $64,000 question!

I really would love to know how that weaseled its way down there. The only info I have is that the tranny had been flushed, and the filter never got changed afterward. Seems quite impossible from the layout trannies I've worked on.

Wow!

I thought you said the tranny was just overhauled? The guy probably dropped an extra ball in there durring assembly or one fell out of place durring assembly. When overhauling, the trans is upside down on a bench so it would be easy to see someone accidentally doing this.

Not at all. I have no idea what whoever did to the tranny before I got it, besides a flush about 60k miles ago. The people I bought it from complained about slippage.

If it was rebuilt by any sort of reputable tranny shop, that wouldn't happen. Assuming they had it done where they had all their work done, I guess it'* possible for someone to mess it up. I just wish I knew for certain that'* what happened. I'd love to take a look at the valve body, but there'* no time for such tomfoolery :p

Yeah. They said. I didnt see an actual rebuild on the invoices they gave me, just a flush and a 50k mile service.

Whoever was in my tranny before stripped the heads on the valve body bolts! Dennis at my favorite Chevy dealer said they were torqued down good and TIGHT. There was a rattling noise in my dash area that has been diagnosed as the torque converter.
Getting a new one for about $2000, since it started off slipping with a new filter.

Wacky stuff, I tell ya.