Well it stopped shifting until it hit high RPM and then it got hot yesterday when I went to have it looked at. My very trusted mechanic has told me it could be the valve body (all electric and solenoids are fine) and that my best bet would be to have me buy a used transmission and have one of his guys install it as a side job to save money.

I also am thinking about doing this myself. I have all the tools, and then some, I need except for the transmission jack. Realistically how much time, in hours, do you think it would take?

I also am thinking of getting a JDM trans instead of one locally (Phoenix), have you folks had any luck with them?

Finally, after I am done, I am more than likely going to sell the old girl. It doesn't have the room for four I need for camping, hunting etc. So I am looking at replacing it with a 80 series cruiser (with the locking diffs of course!). What I don't want to do is pass problems on to the next owner, who will get a pretty good deal due to all the work I have done on it the past year.

 

Depends on how your skills are, if you a decent mechanic and have some insight on transmissions removal shouldn't take you longer than a day for a complete swap. But if your going back and forth from the service manual, plan for a weekend. But like I said, it all depends on how mechanically inclined you are.

 

take an extra couple of days and put a stick in it yourself you get way more power to the ground cause on the a/t the t converters sslip way to much plus the manuals last for ever and if you get a used one and it happens do go out in another 100k you can rebuild it fairly easily at your house

 

I would not be so fast to throw away your current transmission. Unless it was slipping, it is probably mechanically ok.

If it was not shifting until a high RPM, and that was the only problem, I would take a look at the TPS first. I would then do a "manual shift test" to determine if the problem is mechanical or electronic.

Like I said, If it was slipping, the fluid was burnt, and there were peices of clutch material in the pan... it is probably toast. But a simple shifting problem does not mean it needs to be trashed.