01 8.1L K3500 Tcase went out

[tanman_2006]

Like the title says, 2001 GMC K3500 8.1L Allison Crew Cab Dually w/ electric 4x4 went out at 280K of hard farm work. The odd thing is I wouldnt blame it on the pump rub, front out put bearing went out (seal is out and leaks oil out to that point) but the rear case doesnt leak.

What should I do at this point? Send it in for a full rebuild w/ upgraded case? All of the local bone yards are out of TCases for 01-07's, last one I got was out of nebraska and the price of gold.

Any help or pointers would would be great, I am going to call blumenthals in the AM and see what their prices are for rebuilds and kits.

 

[Ed HD]

Is the case good yet? AFAIK it's not *that* hard to rebuild a t-case, and fix the pump rub issue and new bearings and seals.

 

[tanman_2006]

I haven't pulled the tcase and split it yet but it isn't leaking in any weird places. I think it is rebuildable but not sure if there are any other issues I need to be aware of.

I might try to rebuild it if there aren't any surprises.

Source Unknown

 

[btfarm]

Just take it down, split it and go from there. If the housings are good then just do a rebuild.

 

[tanman_2006]

Hired hand had a small error.

The day my wife killed her fuel pump I was dropping the Tcase. I had the drive lines out and was working on dropping the Trans X member. I had the hiredhand finish the Trans x member and pull the Tcase. Well he pulled the rear housing of the trans too and the clutches of the trans are now showing...

What is the best approach from this point?

 

[tanman_2006]

Anyone?

How screwed are we? I'm figuring we need to pull the tranny but not sure what to do after that?

 

[swinters]

Hard one to say without being there looking at it but I'd lean towards dropping the tranny too and taking them to a shop. Some of the time when I have that seal leak the seal is fine but a bearing is bad, allowing the shaft to "hop", and no seal will hold with that. Just like I don't know how many times I've had people come in having replaced several output seals or differential input seals, asking me what brand of seal isn't junk and when I looked at it the u-joints were bad. Same with the transfer front seal. Not saying that's your problem but it's not uncommon and the transmission output bearing really should be checked anyway. It'd be a shame to have the transfer repaired, reinstall it, and then have it leak because of a bad bearing at the back of the transmission. You could pretty much do the same checks if you're experienced with transmission and transfer repairs. I quit doing my own rebuilds several years ago since the shop I use does them within a couple of hundred bucks (usually less) of what it costs me, plus they have a 3 year transferable warranty and do the services during the warranty period for just the parts and materials cost. And they're a lot quicker since they don't have to balance the work with the honey-do list, chores, etc. You can likely take it off your taxes if it's business/farm use, too, so might check that out with your accountant.

 

[tanman_2006]

There is ONE local shop that I would trust but its a GMC dealer and goodwrench parts are pricey. I have rebuilt t-cases and manual trannies but never an auto let alone an Allison.

I get all parts and tools accounted for on taxes for farm use and being its winter time a T-Case project isnt a big deal but the tranny worries me. I wouldnt open up a Tcase and not replace the bearings, seals, and chain if it was sloppy. I will be dropping the tranny now, kinda a no brainer. We needed an excuse to change the rear main seal anyways. The tranny has less than 50K miles on it.