ToyInTexas

Howdy All..! Little new here - acquired my dream truck (ever since the original Back to the Future) this past April.

I love it (SO MUCH) - it's record of maintenance and condition - other than a hairline crack in the water pump and a recently failed thermostat, both replaced - as well as it's behavior for months now has been stellar. As you can see from my stats, I haven't really had to inquire here after any problems since the purchase. However, lately I've had some erratic behavior out of her....

On some startups, and lasting anywhere from hours to many days, the truck is perfect - the tranny shifts like it was just manufactured. It's smooth as heck. Then after other startups, and again lasting from hours to many days, the tranny will shift from 1st into Overdrive around 25-30 miles per hour. Also - the erratic behavior often solves itself with a brief drive at highway speeds, dropping out of Overdrive and into 4th appropriately, and continuing with good behavior through all the various gears for at least the remainder of the trip, or days at a time. Of course, when acting erratically, the overdrive indicator light will flash on and off - a tell-tale sign of "general transmission issue" from what my research can tell me.

The fluid levels are fine - the fluid is beautiful and appears to be clean, there's no burning smells what-so-ever.

The only other thing I've noticed (just today) is that the throttle cable linkages (both from the accelerator and the computer) are just a hair loose from being properly taut, just barely. And - when acting erratically, the idle screw will close itself up, requiring me to unscrew it to appropriate idle speed.

Other than the above obvious solution of tightening up the cables a bit, what else could be going on here...? Some ideas from myself, my pal, and a dealer service manager :

- throttle cable linkages need tightening
- the 23 year old computer is simply dying and needs replacement
- there could be some sort of intermittent blockage that a good flush and some tranny treatment will solve
- the solenoids are wasted and the tranny needs repair (the dealer's immediate thought - of course)

I'm leaning towards the computer, just because the behavior is so random. This was the solution for odd behavior in my brother's truck (though that was an early 90s Mazda Mini Max, Standard Tranny)

Thoughts...? Advice...? Questions...?

Thank you in advance for any and all help y'all can offer. This forum has been an amazing resource in both my research and maintenance of my dream truck.