Truck shudders bad going uphill ?

[newbie78]

I took a 2 hour drive yesterday and I experienced heavy shuddering above 60-65 mph going uphill. It got so bad at times it shook the dashboard. If I let off the gas and give it harder throttle it would stop.

Also going uphill I seem to have no power at all. I have to really mash on the gas pedal to get it to go. Driving around town it has balls. It has a 1 month old new fuel pump Delphi. The wires, rotor and cap are good.

So now I'm going to buy ac delco plat plugs I have ngk v powers in it now that I put in about 6 months ago. I'm going to buy a new ignition coil too because its the original it looks. After that I'll see if the problem goes away.

 

[rockenthebowtie]

Was it a misfire shake or more like a vibration from what your describing sounds like a TCC solenoid engagement problem might want to try the same hill and manually shifting gears and just keep it in third gear don't red line it but just see if the vibration doesn't duplicate then try it again and go into 4th if it vibrates then you have a better idea of isolating the source of the problem

 

[Bottoms Tahoe]

I had a 97 Chevy truck that did that. It was the torque convertor going bad. I could pull it down out of overdrive and it would do fine. Also had an 89 Chevy with same problem. I disconnected the solenoid wires for the torque convertor lockup solenoid and kept on driving it. Got terrible gas mileage after I unhooked it though.

 

[newbie78]

I was thinking it might be trans related with the torque converter but it happens at 60 mph+ and only uphill.

Doesn't the converter lock at 45 mph?

And if it is the torque converter why does it only happen going uphill? I drive flat roads on the highway and it doesn't shudder.

I figure I would start with the plugs because I remember my car before this didn't like any other plugs besides ac delco. It was bucking when i was going uphill and i changed the plugs to ac delco platinums and the problem went away.

What is happening on my truck is not bucking it's definitely a shudder but I figure it's worth a try.

The shudder sounds exactly like driving over a rumble strip.

 

[Bottoms Tahoe]

Mine did it usually above 45 mph. The mechanic told me that the transmission was trying to lock into overdrive but the solenoid wasn't letting it. I wound up getting rid of the truck without fixing it.

 

[newbie78]

Weird today I couldn't replicate the problem. I didn't drive that far but I did drive uphill a few times and it didn't do anything.

I found out my belt tensioner went out today. The damn thing sounded like it lost a bearing I was so scared thought it was coming from the engine. Thank god it wasn't!

I swapped the tensioner out and now I don't seem to have that noise of shudder?

hmmm maybe the bearing was so bad in the tensioner causing the belt to slip? and making it feel like a shudder.

The thing was real bad sounded like bolts roll around.

 

[livingez_123]

sound like a bad clutch in the converter. it might have been heat related slippage.

 

[newbie78]

Drove it again up and down hills and no shudder now. I really think that belt tensioner was so severely bad causing the problem.

 

[SunlitComet]

sounds like it the belt system was tension jumping on the pulleys.

 

[newbie78]

sounds like it the belt system was tension jumping on the pulleys.

Yeah it was doing something. Now I know what that weird smell was when i was driving it was the belt burning rubber because of the pulley jamming.

Still no shudder after I put my old tensioner on. I replaced it with a junk yard one because mine was kinda jumping back and forth too much.

I'm ordering a new tensioner from Gates and goodyear gatorback belt.