How many miles have you put on/or heard of on the auto trannys on a 86 pickup 4x4 with the 2.4 before a rebuild?

 

Lots and lots if they're taken care of ... problem is a lot of people don't take care of them.

Do you know if the tranny fluid/filter have EVER been changed?

 

I've purchased and sold quite a few of those old 85-88 22RE Auto trans trucks.

Many of them were well into the 200K range. Transmission fluid looked horrible, black, etc. but the transmission still functioned perfectly.

They are a pretty good Transmission

 

I have 233,100 on mine.

Does anyone know if gears can be changed in these auto trans? I'd love to get a better 1st gear.

 

I've got 183k on mine, acts like it did when I got the truck with 70k.

Does anyone know if there's any truth to too many flushes being harmful? I've heard a good ol drain and refill/filter cleaning is good most the time.

Also, do you guys change the filter or just clean it?

 

When I bought my Impala, the fluid was super black - obviously had never been changed. I changed it, and ended up having to replace the valve body. Was the old rumour that you should just leave it true, or was there a valve body in my future anyways? Will never know.

The "science" says that if you replace bad, varnished ATF with new, that the detergent action of the new fluid will break all the varnish loose and plug up the valve body ... of course, it doesn't mention how bad the built up varnish is in the first place ...

When I bought Tippy, I replaced the "filter". It's just a screen, unless it was torn, I would just leave it normally. It's kinda a pain to replace.

Remember a drain/fill will only get the fluid that's in the pan and valve body - which is a small minority of the fluid. A flush will get all the fluid in the torque converter too, and is generally a better way to go if you have the cash.

 

I'd say if you have an auto transmission that's made it 24 years so far, you're good to go. I probably wouldn't flush it though, If it was mine I'd do a couple drain and fills maybe 5K miles apart. The autos in these trucks are pretty stout, just not very fast.