need help - maybe transmission failure

[Rocket Man]

Yes it is worth taking care of vehicles. I never said it wasn’t. The roof leak, window, bearing, gauge issue and pinion play is all recent. The other issues are things that I haven’t gotten to for various reasons. Med bills, kid stuff, wife had a ****** stroke - lots of things get in the way of non-important things in life.
This truck has been in great condition until maybe the past 2 years. Would I like to keep it, sure. But, is the truck itself worth it (even if everything was repaired) that can only be answered by the owner.
These things with this mileage are only getting around $4k at auction. Financially, putting more money in than it’s worth is foolish.
I’d like to keep this rig, to me it’s worth the effort but on the other hand, it may be worth upgrading.
It’s been paid for for well over a decade so it really doesn’t owe me anything.
Maintenance has always been kept up. Again until recently. Life and bills got in the way of things that weren’t absolutely required. Things happen.
Sometimes things snowball to a point where’s it’s financially irresponsible.
That may be the point I’m at.
Again, I believe the trans is still ok, however, we all know the 4l60 can let go at any point, sometimes without warning. So at this point, do I spend the money on a transfer case, get back on the road and 3 months from now have a trans failure? Or something else that will cost the value of the truck?

Yes valid points. Decision time. Too bad it’s come to this, I empathize. Around here, you can’t touch one of these at auction for 4K unless it’s on its deathbed. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.,

 

[chevyv8]

$4k is pristine around here. The 07+ gen is about 5x as much though easy even for ragged out ones

 

[swathdiver]

Sometimes life happens and we cannot afford the down time and effort it takes to keep an older vehicle going. It's better to have something much newer that is ready to go, especially when you have only one vehicle and infirm family members you're responsible for. This could mean doing away with the old truck or simply parking it out back for a while.

 

[rockola1971]

Tcase has nothing to do with Park not engaging. Your park pawl is not mechanically able to stop the sunshell from turning. Thats because your sunshell's hub has a broken weld and now is no longer a part of the sunshell but a separate piece. The busted sunshell also is the cause of no reverse condition. You should also notice that you dont have 2nd and 4th(OD) also.
Tranny is done. To save $500+ in labor you can drop the tranny yourself and take it into a REPUTABLE tranny shop for a rebuild and then reinstall yourself. If you go that route, be sure to have the tranny full of fluid and it should show in the operating range of the dipstick when BEFORE you start the engine up for a warm up! The 4L60E does NOT tolerate low fluid level, even while sitting in the driveway idling under no load. Ask the tranny shop what they recommend for an initial fill in quarts. Your specific pan, tranny cooler option will determine the amount of fluid needed for initial startup. You will have to backflush your tranny cooler for the shop to honor the warranty on the build. Might be more logical to just install a new cooler, they are cheap.
If you decide to get it rebuilt, I recommend the beast sunshell (or equivalent), corvette 2/4 servo, kevlar 2-4 band, zpack clutch kit, alto clutch kit, all valve body updates and if you really feel froggy then a 5 pinion planetary if yours has a 4 pinion planetary. Most of the parts listed are either less cost than an oem part or not much higher but yield far superior results to an oem built tranny. Have an extra $300 set aside from the estimate price in case of any other hard parts damage. Remember you now have metal fragments that have traveled through your tranny and may have caused other damage.
You are not likely to find a good used tranny for our year range unless someone recently had their tranny rebuilt and either totaled the SUV or Engine locked up and it is now sitting in salvage yard with a fairly fresh rebuilt tranny. No way to know totally for sure without opening it up. Everybody power washes everything these days and everything is "Low Miles" commanding more $$ to buy.