1987 dodge 3/4 pick up, tranny bogs down and almost kills engine in drive.

Question

truck stopped moving, lost fluid out front seal, when i put the tranny back into drve, it boged down the engine and almost died. could this be a bad pump in the tranny?

Answer 1

yes when the front pump goes out they will bog down like that ,but just loosing the fluid and it getting low enough to not pick up enough will cause it to bog down,either way on this one if the front seal went you have to pull the transmission,but id put fluid in it and see if it was going to pull before i just pulled it and replaced the seal, if the pump went just replaceing a seal wont repair it,id rather know it was goiog to pull once i replaced the seal in it,hopefully it didnt hurt it none,good luck  with it.

Answer 2

If the transmission ran low enough to cavitate the pump (draw air into the pump), you would likely see a spike in RPM, as the transmission would have no way of transmitting power without pressurized fluid, that is how a hydraulic transmission works, through fluid power!!

If it tries to kill the engine then it is either in a higher than normal gear(@ 3rd) when it should be in 1st. or the LU clutch in torque converter is engaged, or is trying to engage two gears at once.

Try filling and test driving after cooling down, if it holds fluid do a stall test in forward and reverse, then re post the results.