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: