I have an 89 LWB, w/214K on the truck. The engine has about 10K, but the transmission is a real unknown. It allegedly has been rebuilt at some time, but have seen no proof so am unsure of that status. Here is what happened Saturday.

I took it camping on Padre Island National Seashore (North Island). You can enter the beach there and drive 60 miles south. We can on the beach, put it in 4 wheel high and proceeded 25 miles. After mile 5, the sand gets quite loose and deep. Coupled with my street tires, it was a lot of moving fast to keep from getting buried. Basically, at mile 25, we got out, swam for a couple of hours, then got back in with the hopes of proceeding to mile marker 60. As we started, I went ahead and put the vehicle in 2d instead of drive. I was running about 2200-2500rpm for 15 miles. Finally, it became noticeable that rpm no longer corresponded to wheel rotation and at 3200rpm the Montero bogged down and the wheel stopped turning, regardless of rpm.

I popped the hood and is was smoking. The smoke was coming from firewall fiber smoldering near the A/T check spout which I quickly put out with a funnel and water. I put the vehicle in drive, it moved fine, and positioned it where it was to set-up camp. The A/T temp lamp's bulb works, but it never came on. The fluid level was fine. After camping for the night, we left this morning, with the vehicle in 4wd, in drive w/ OD off, driving back 40 miles on the beach, and 250 miles home, with no problems.

Any ideas about what went wrong, why the transmission essentially stopped working, and how I was able to get home with no problems? Is there permanent damage? Should I get the A/T rebuilt?

Because I want to show off my eezi-awn, here are some pics:

Nice tent ! I seen that you didn't lower the pressure on your tires that could be putting extra load on your transmission.

How does the fluid look?

I would ground the wire for the temp switch to see if the light really comes on.

If so pull the switch and test it.

If the tranny really got that hot I would go through it.

Kevin

Hmmm. That long in 2nd, with a pretty good load (loose sand has a LOT of rolling resistance), may have heated the tranny juice too hot and foamed it. Contributing factors are high ambient heat and no converter lockup (converter efficiency losses are the main heat producer) in 2nd gear. Like Kevin, I say look at the fluid for burning (brown stain) and a burnt smell. If you want to know what the burnt smell is like, drip a drop or two of atf on a hot exhaust manifold.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but that Eezi-awn is very cool. Any pictures of it folded up?

Ive heard of AT boil over happening when towing heavy loads up hill, and my friend Pedro experienced it once traveling at high speeds with the tires aired down. but I've never heard of the trans simply stopping....I would check condition of fluid and change it out just for good measure.

One other possible issue... If there was any water contamination inthe tranny fluid from a cooler leak the fluid will push out the dipstick at 212?. That might explain how the temp light never came on ( assuming its working).

ATF should have a flash point of about 365?f. If the fluid was really that hot and smoking if should have a burnt smell.

365? is really hard on seals and of course toasts the fluid. With any luck you might just need a fluid change.

Kevin

maybe tranny over full and over flowed dipstick/and was hot foamed. def do all the above service, I have 1990 monty with over 250k on tranny - NEVER been rebuilt knock on wood. In Sand pushing hard may have overheated tranny. Change/flush whole tranny system and check temp light.Love the tent want more pics.!!! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for all the info. I will do a fluid flush and see what happens. I am shocked that it wasn't kaput after it refused to work. I always thought that a tranny, when in that point of stress and breakdown, was a goner, no matter what.

I would obviously prefer to avoid a rebuild (I am sure that will be costly), but also want to put the Monty in a position to do a Terra Del Fuego out and back in about 3 years, so I might have to do one just to make sure everything is perfect.

Thanks for all the compliments on the eezi-awn. It is the 1600 which is much larger than the 1200 I really wanted, but buying it local in very good condition, at $700, I couldn't pass it up. More pics and updates coming (with ARB and OME add-ons).

I've had a mitsu a/t foam the atf, probably, as kevin says, due to some water contamination, and the water boiled, and the tranny tried to run on foam, and of course, just whirled the converter housing without spinning the turbine, since foam doesn't have much push to it. My load may have been slightly higher, a bobcat and trailer, uphill, with two buckets. Probably 7k lbs or so.