My brother-in-laws '05 One Ton Dump (6.0 litre gas, Auto) lost reverse while plowing last night. He said after plowing for a couple of hours, it would not go into reverse. It sounded like it was in Neutral, rather than reverse. He would put in in 3rd, it would clunk and then drive forward w/o issue. Tranny temps were normal, and he did not get a SES light. He did notice the tranny was low on fluid.
Any ideas I can pass on too him?
Thanks in advance

4l80. he cooked it...

Got a plow truck on my hoist now....

Wow Eric, thats not good. I think he has less than 1k miles on it. I guess thats what factory warranties are for.

just his bad luck, I had a 93 Dually with a 6.5 that had a 4L80E in it and it plowed for 10 years with no problem's
Pretty sure the 4L80E is a old Turbo 400, updated of course and with a overdrive
Sucks to be plowing and have problem's in the middle of the night.
Be careful about telling the dealer it was low on fluid, that's a customer responsibility and they might say it was his fault for driving it with low fluid, and that burned up the tranny.
Just fill it back up and bring it in.

Good Luck
DD

He was lucky, his Dad and Uncle both have plow trucks and were able to help him cover his accounts. I will tell him to make sure the tranny is full before he brings it in.
Is low fluid an indication of anything?

Other than the obvious of a possible leak, it could of been low from the factory, if truck only has 1,000 miles on it there's no reason for it to be low unless there's a leak or just not filled up to begin with. But even being low from factory they will tell you it's your fault for not checking it. Espically with a truck doing plowing. But it all depends on yourdealer too, some are more understanding then other's

How much too low was it? It ought to be able to be a couple quarts low and not hurt anything, because they have a fairly deep pan. I'll bet there was something wrong with it from the gitgo, like an internal leak in reverse that caused low apply pressure. Did the truck still have 3rd and 4th gear? If so, it smoked the reverse band. It uses the same clutches for 3rd as reverse, so if they go, you have neither.

I cooked the tranny on my 02 6.0 towing 3500 pounds. I was kinda mad and bought the Duramax while the 6.0 was still in the shop. No looking back.

I am not sure exactly how low was low, I will ask. I know that he did have third gear and was able to drive fairly normal. It did clunk I guess when he shifted into third from reverse.

Kinda odd....Had a 2002 6.0 L480E and now have a 2004 in the same setup and have been plowing commercial with both and no problems thus far....

The comments from the northern folks are possibly more meaningful than mine but when I lived up north, snow would pack around the transmission and freeze everything tight while I worked swing shift. So I make it a point to cycle thru the gears prior to parking or at least back in so I could drive away after the shift finished ~

Suposedly he broke "the spindle" in the tranny??? Not too sure what that is, can anyone elaborate.
I guess the dealer blamed it on the 2 1/2 yards of sand in the spreader and possibly excessive drive to reverse action while plowing.
Are these trucks that delicate?

That particular trans has a problem that was there when it left the factory. He wasn't abusing it, some defect caused it to break. Don't let the dealer weasel out of covering it. The 4L80 is a great transmission normally, but he got a bad one. I have no idea what the 'spindle' is. I have rebuilt 4L80s and never heard of a part called that before. See if you can get a pic of the part if the dealer rebuilds it. They will probably just swap it out.

Suposedly he broke "the spindle" in the tranny??? Not too sure what that is, can anyone elaborate.
I guess the dealer blamed it on the 2 1/2 yards of sand in the spreader and possibly excessive drive to reverse action while plowing.
Are these trucks that delicate?
That is garbage. I had a junk 4l80e in my current truck. Poor shifting and engagement from day one. Dealer tried tons of fixes, but it finally quit going into gear. They decided that the internal pump was bad and probably had been from the beginning. They had one overnighted off the assembly line and haven't had a problem since. He just got a bad one!!!