Hi RB,
I sympathize with your dilemma ~ we have a 23 3500HD with a 6.6 / 'Allison'. I have been a mechanic for 51 years (retired now) and have been a GM guy for many years. I'm just waiting for the dreaded incident to happen while towing our 10K trailer. We have 20,000 on our rig and this situation is inexcusable. Flashing your TCU to warn you ahead of time is bogus. Ford pulled that crap on their Triton V-8s while I was a fleet district mechanic. After that didn't work (recall) they forced us to replace spark plugs and charged per hour for those that broke off in the head. All on trucks that 'should have been ' under emission warranty but weren't because they were over 8600 GVW. Still a F-250!
I have been weighing purchasing the upgraded valve body from Next Gen Drivetrain and installing it, just to avoid grenading the rest of the transmission and drive train ~ not to mention the possibility of a major wreck. The other option is to buy their valve body upgrade kit and install yourself if capable.
Down the line, I would hope there would be a refund for the purchase / repair costs. The understanding is that GM purportedly does not have the parts to repair the defective units. This whole thing is a major malfunction.
Oh ~ for shares the same transmission (it was a joint venture with GM ~ they just paid to use the name 'Allison') Fords don't seem to suffer the issue as they don't have the crappy valve body in them.
I wish you the very best in your journey. I think we all have a fight ahead of us to get this rectified.
Greg
Hi RB, I sympathize with your dilemma ~ we have a 23 3500HD with a 6.6 / 'Allison'. I have been a mechanic for 51 years (retired now) and have been a GM guy for many years. I'm just waiting for the dreaded incident to happen while towing our 10K trailer. We have 20,000 on our rig and this situation is inexcusable. Flashing your TCU to warn you ahead of time is bogus. Ford pulled that crap on their Triton V-8s while I was a fleet district mechanic. After that didn't work (recall) they forced us to replace spark plugs and charged per hour for those that broke off in the head. All on trucks that 'should have been ' under emission warranty but weren't because they were over 8600 GVW. Still a F-250! I have been weighing purchasing the upgraded valve body from Next Gen Drivetrain and installing it, just to avoid grenading the rest of the transmission and drive train ~ not to mention the possibility of a major wreck. The other option is to buy their valve body upgrade kit and install yourself if capable. Down the line, I would hope there would be a refund for the purchase / repair costs. The understanding is that GM purportedly does not have the parts to repair the defective units. This whole thing is a major malfunction. Oh ~ for shares the same transmission (it was a joint venture with GM ~ they just paid to use the name 'Allison') Fords don't seem to suffer the issue as they don't have the crappy valve body in them. I wish you the very best in your journey. I think we all have a fight ahead of us to get this rectified. Greg