Hey guys,

Sorry if this is problem is spread throughout the forums, But I'm in a bind and dont have much time to search a bunch of threads..

I have a 1999 Silverado 1500 / 4.8 Vortec -Automatic Transmission

For about a month, the shifter has been really loose when going from Park to Reverse. I didn't think much of it because I never had any problems getting it to actually engage into either Park, or Reverse. Well, yesterday, I went to start the truck and I hear a whining sound comming from the Tranny (not real loud, but I could hear it over my engine with dual exhaust) I put the truck into Reverse and the gear didn't engage, but the Reverse Light came on, in the dash. I put the truck into Neutral, and the whining sound stopped, I then put it into Drive, and it pulled forward fine. No problems in any other gear, except Park and Reverse.

Before taking it to a Garage, I would like to get an idea of what my problem is. I'm thinking its either in the shifter column itself, or the linkage cable... Any ideas?

Thanks for any help,
Brandan

 

I am not sure if this is your issue because mine was on a 1998 truck, but I had a shift cable come a part slowly and finally fail on me. I can't remember the trans making noise, but the gear selector felt a little sloppy - I guess it was trying to tell me something but I was too busy or lazy to check it out. It finally failed one day with a car trailer hooked to it and I was parked on a slight incline, put it in park, got out and got a few feet from the truck and it was apparantly in neutral (but the indicator showed park) so it started rolling. Luckily I was able to jump back in and stop it before it did any damage. Anyway, look under your truck where the cable goes to the trans on the drivers side and inspect the plastic keeper. Mine was very obvious once I actually looked at it. Yours could be moving the selector just enough to stay "in between" gears and making the noise. Just a thought.

 

Thanks! That was the problem with my shifter, it was not aligned correctly. Unfortunately it didn't fix my other problem with it going into reverse, and the whining is still there. I done some research last night, and I think I have a broken Sun Shield? I think that's what the guy called it.

Anyway, what he described is EXACTLY the problem I had. I accelrated, and I heard a really loud "clunk" from underneath the truck, and the engine reved up really high, like it was in neutral, and it made a whining sound. When I got the truck back home, I noticed that I no longer had Reverse, and they said that Reverse is the first thing to go out when you break a Sun Shield, and eventually, you will lose all of your forward gears as well.

I was hoping that the problem wasn't in Tranny, as it's almost impossible to find someone around my area in WV, that rebuilds them. So I'm likely going to be stuck with going to a garage and having them look at it, to make sure of the problem, and then ill probably have to have a new Tranny put in

 

Sun Shaft. drives the planetary gears.