Trashed torque converter???

[twheel]

First off,,,,kudos to the TRS gang,, there is so much info sharing here it's increadible. I visit one other forum,pontiac, and it's nothing but whining,, waa, do my troubleshooting for me!!,,,waa,.
At least here, guys are asking advise,not seeking a crutch. Members come here with well thought out questions and get quality advise.
That being said,, It's my turn to beg advise.

Details:
97 Exploder 4x4 4.0 eng. 5R55E tranny. 135000-ish miles

Anytime the tranny is driving the engine there is a whirrling buzz noise coming from the front of the tranny hump. Example,, when slowing to a stoplight. As soon as any pressure at all is placed on the gas pedal the noise immediatly goes away. No noise at a stop, and no noises at any speed below approx 35mph.
The history is, I live on the side of a fairly goofy mountain along with snow and ice etc, and very commonly drive down the hill in 2nd gear as shown on the column. A few days ago instead of starting the hill in 2nd,, I was later "forced" to downshift at about 45mph. That was the first time this noise occured. I do have the push-button OD and was told that if the speed was too great, the tranny will not downshift even if you try,,kinda idiot-proof.

The rest of the tranny's functions are totaly normal, shift points etc. 4wd doesnt seam to make any difference. ALL fuctions seam to be normal except the noise. No grinding,crunching,, loose parts type noises..lol

So, my questions are: aside from what the h*ll is it?
1- is my logic correct?
2- will it heal itself??? lol
3- if it's way bad,can i "nurse" it along for 500-1000 miles?
4- NAPA does have the correct converter,cross-checked with Transtar ( FM68HD), if needed, what would be a reasonable number of "shop-hours" labor; as I have nowhere to try and drop the tranny etc. Everyone I've talked to seams to think it's a harder than average tranny to drop,, exhausts etc. Reading this forum up to page 34 so far hasn't encouraged me too much either. In July perhaps, but not now.

Thanks in Advance,,Twheel

 

[Bent Bolt]

Doesn't sound like a converter to me. They don't usually crap out a whole lot and almost never make noise. Pump maybe but it'll make noise all the time.

You say the buzz is only 35mph and higher ?? Goes away as soon as you touch the accelerator ?? Check the PCV valve and hoses. For shits and giggles, loosen off the oil cap and drive it for a short time.

Report back with your results.

 

[twheel]

Will do,, report in about 1 hr. Thanx

 

[twheel]

Bent, minimal improvement if any with just oil cap off, didn't have time to investigate the PCV. Not sure the logic behind PCV, but I'd love to learn.
I should add another observation,, when decelerating from a high speed,, the RPMs decline along with speed for a bit,, but when the noise occurs, the RPMs immediatly drop to idle, regardless of speed.
Plus,, not sure it matters but,, a few months ago, i was dealing with a vacuum issue. OBD-II codes for lean bank 1 and bank 2., heater shifting to defrost only. 21 inches solid vacuum but found the leak as the vucuum accumulator 21 inches in,,0 out on the line to the heater controls. So I spliced the two to recover the heater controls,, but am running without the resevoir.
Is there another line off the resevoir I didn't concider?. I know this tranny uses vacuum to upshift,,,, ugh,, I exhausted my knowledge of the subject.. But i love the idea of not dropping the tranny.

 

[twheel]

Latest update- today reverse temporarily went out. A lengthy drive to work was semi-normal till I stopped to a cup of coffee. Fired the exploder back up and,,, no reverse, just the winding whirrling buzz noise. After manually pushing it back,, all foreward gears seamed normal as well as a later attempt at reverse. Anyone got any theories about how the tranny uses vacuum? And any ideas on how to check said vacuum?

 

[twheel]

Took it to a well recommended shop,,, "broken drum inside the tranny".
Catching a whiff of bullsh*t here. Torque converter, sure,, coast soleniod, okay,,, drum????
They'd happily install a rebuilt for $2450 parts and $600 labor. Nice, a second opinion is in order along with any help I can get here. $3000 aint happenin'. Craigslist has a 96 Ranger with 2 cracked heads,,,,hmm