Chevy Transmission Question

Might go look at a 93 Chevy 6.5 diesel 4x4 truck. Owner says it won't shift out of 2nd gear (automatic transmission). I'm no expert on transmissions but sound to me like it might not be too serious. I think there is some sort of electrical solenoids or switches in the bottom when you remove the pan. What do you all think might be the issue?

Please no Chevy 6.5 bashing. I know they aren't the greatest. Just looking for a toy for the boys and I and it's priced right I think. Thanks.

Won't shift out of 2nd or will only move in 2nd?
Was somebody horseing it fore and aft when stuck in mud?

going to need a transmission. If they give it to you maybe you can get a couple hundred out of it for scrap.

sounds to me like it will need an overhaul.
if your lucky the shifter cable broke.
If I remember corectly the rod goes to the electrical switch on top of the trans.If it unhooked while in second then that would be my quess. Most autos will start in first anyway so you should be able to feel if it is shifting from 1st to second properly.

It may a vacuum leak or a bad modulator if it has one. Hal

TH700R4 , 4L60 or 4L60E. ?
Only the 4L60E is shifted by the VCM/ECM/TCM . The transmissions use throttle position and governor. The send a signal to the computer of which gear it"s in.
Torque converter lock-up is controlled by the computer on all.
Somebody likely ripped it into gear with the rpms up and twisted the shaft off the drum.

Probably not the same problem as we had with our 95 Chevy with a 5.7L gas engine, but as we were going down the interstate, wife was driving, I noticed that the engine seemed to be making more noise than it should have. Looking at the tach, I noticed that the tranny obviously hadn't shifted into overdrive. Just thought that the selector was on D and not OD. I also noticed that the AC fan was not blowing like it should have been. Turned out that the alternator was going out and was draining the battery and not letting the tranny up-shift. We pull into a Car Quest at Sturgis SD, and this is when the Motorcycle Rally was going on, put on a new alternator in the parking lot, and away we went. Everything worked fine after that.

I bought a 94 K2500 4sp auto; but it was a gas. Be very careful on the transmission. I went to a non dealer shop to have the transmission replaced. The service man had been putting transmissions in for many years. He comes out, & tells me he had never seen that transmission before. It had wires, & sensors he had not seen before. After a few days of digging for info it was discovered to be an experimental unit for the new 1995 model year. Only 1200 made!!! It took months to find a replacement; then the replacement didnt work like it should. After more months of going to a new dealer with no fix; I sold the truck at a farm auction "as-is" I photo copied all the receipts, & even left my phone number with the buyer, & talked to him before the auction. A 26 year GM mechanic who called me about a year later, & told me he gave up, & sold it a junkyard. Not even he could get help to figure it out! I bought it with for $4450 in 2003, & sold at auction in late 2005 for $3750; but the transmission cost me $8000!!!

PLEASE; HAVE SOMEONE CHECK TOO SEE THAT ITS NOT EXPERIMENTAL!

P.S. The experiment didnt work; so they didnt put it in the 1995's

You really need to find out which transmission it has. A 93 6.5 should really be a 4l80e. I think that even the 1/2 ton trucks and Surburbans used the 4l80e when equipped with the 6.5. A 1993 6.5 should be mechanical injection which means that a 4l80e has a standalone TCM. I would check the Throttle position sensor(TPS), vehicle speed sensor(VSS) (I think it's in the transfer case) I think if the speedometer is working fine, than the VSS is fine. Check for power to the transmission, because I'm pretty sure that 2nd gear is the default gear in the case of power loss.

i bought the exact same truck bout 4 years ago or so, 93 chevy k2500 6.5 auto except mine had 20,000 on engine and tranny rebuild the guy i got it from said when he first had it said it wouldn't shift into overdrive and that was a bad ground wire for the brain box, also that trans in there should be the 4L80E
I've got the same thing to, bout 6.5s are no good but mines got pretty good snort and can hang with most pickups not sure what was done when it got rebuild but shes a tire burner. i've put bout 30,000 on it since i bought it and still no troubles with the engine or trans and its not a joy ride truck it pretty much gets worked everytime i use it. I've added some gauges, updated a few things, and put on tranny cooler and keep up with maintaince on the dot or sooner

When mine did that it had burned out 2 motion sensors on the 4L60E. Was not a 4x4.

I had a 94 GMC with the 5.7 that would not shift into overdrive. Repairman with a transmission repair shop said it was the shift solenoids and that GM had come out with a retro kit with bigger solenoids to correct the problem. Replaced all three shift solenoids.

Back in the late 60's UPS had a moratorium on buying anymore Chevy trucks. Seems they ordered 200 chassis from Chevy, at that time They built their own truck bodies. Built out the 200 frames under package cars and put them out. Didn't get but about 5,000 miles on them and transmissions started to fail. When they went to Chevy to get the transmission parts they were informed by the parts guy that wasn't a GM transmission or one they ever used. Come to find out it was an experimental transmission, they made about 250 of them after testing 50 of them they figured out they were garbage, about that time a purchase order comes in for 200 chassis can you guess what happened? GM was also notorious for running out of parts and subbing other parts in, works well if you happen to get one the Vegas they stuck Camaro transmissions in, but it kind of sucks if you get one of the Camaros that left the factory with Vega transmissions.

best money you can spend is to find someone that has a scan tool that can scan the transmission electrical system it could be an electrical connection a wire,ecm or solenoid but parts changing can get expensive real quick with no results,also beware of a lot of the chain store transmission repair shops transmission is always the problem with them $$$$ most dealers aren't any different,had one with harsh 1,2 shift asked a couple different shops about it, chain store need a transmission, same with the next ones, finally got a mechanic that use to do transmission work to check it turned out to be the a busted accumulator piston 135 dollars to fix