broke down near mothership

[swanky]

The highlights: loud noise from below. Able to pull over just past the white line where we stayed from 7 pm to midnight. Spent what little was left of the night (2-7 am) at AS factory. No gear would engage--anyone want to guess??

The kids and I are at a hotel. The moho is at a shop in Wapakaneta. No new seats. We hope to get home tomorrow.

So I will let you all play Dr House and diagnose her if you'd like. I only have the iPhone so forgive my typos.

Adventure number three is not a success yet.

[Mike Leary]

Does it make any noise when put into gear?

[swanky]

No unusual noise. It revs normally as if in neutral or park regardless of gear. Even reverse. The shop called and he found something else broken but related to the orig issue.

[Smartstream]

I had a similar experience last summer. It was a broken flex plate, the device that connects the engines crankshaft to the torque converter. After the trans was removed it was discovered that the trans was not correctly aligned to the engine. There had been recent engine work and the plate that adapts the trans to the Isuzu had not been properly aligned when the engine was reinstalled. They had also left out some of the alignment dowels.

If you have the same problem make sure they do a precision alignment check before it goes back together. On mine it turned out the previous owner had recently had a broken flex plate and the shop just put a new plate in. Obviously it didn't last very long.

Good luck, Dan

[3 Dog Nite]

Check the tranny fluid level. GM's don't go anywhere when there's not enough fluid.

Ricky

[Astrodokk]

Same thing with me, although Aamco said it was the flywheel, which is on manual transmissions. They replaced the flexplate and all is well. It had some teeth broken off.
Too bad about your seats. Hope they hold them for you.

[swanky]

Yes, you were correct, mostly. The fly wheel broke. Then when he was in there, discovered the torque converter (?) was also broken. The factory had supplied two aluminum brackets (at least I think they did, they were on the floor of the moho when the repair guy got the vehicle) that the guy did not install but that he recommends we install. They are supposed to secure the trans/engine connection better. I have to find someone to do that. The guy said they need to be drilled and bolted, he guessed about a two hour job. It has survived 27 years without the brackets but this guy says the reason the fly wheel broke and the other thing cracked was because of the stress put on them by the lack of the brackets.
Are we talking about the same thing? Flex plate?
It was a long 48 hours, but we got home safely. She ran fine and we are supposed to go to the other side of the state tomorrow evening for the long weekend. I am going to try to find someone to get these brackets on tomorrow before we leave but I'm afraid I won't be able to explain what I need well enough over the phone. What kind of shop do I call? Transmission repair or diesel engine repair or what?
As for the seats, we have them home now. They are lined up in the motorhome right now. Sadly, we have spent more than we planned to spend installing the seats to get her up and running so that little upgrade will have to wait a while.
Hubby wants to sell the seats we bought to help offset the fly wheel repair. He may have a point. We'll see. Maybe we just need a long weekend in the middle of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to figure it all out.
Ah well...