Charlie, gunk in the pickup tube sounds like a previuos owner was lax on doing regular oil changes. IMHO the type of people to buy a new rover usually have more money than ,oh, lets say , mechanical knowledge and don't bother to do regular servicing and just trade up when the warranty runs out, and if they manage to make it to the end of the warranty without doing anything to the truck during their ownership period they feel like thats the way it should be.When I first brought my truck home from the lot I changed all the fluids over to synthetic and did all the routine maintenance like brakes, filters, u-joints, a good grease job, and found that none of these things had been done before me. So much so that I had to replace the front driveshaft as the slip joint was so clogged with dirt I could barely get it apart when first inspecting it, and after cleaning and putting it back together it had so much play it had a bad vibration even at 30 mph. My advice to anyone who buys one of these rigs would be to go over everything upon purchase to make sure routine maintenance has been done. You don't want to be surprised in the middle of a trip. I had planned on driving across Canada this summer and had to cancel my trip because the last owner replaced the front windsheild and did'nt bother to spend $3 to replace the 8 plastic clips that hold down the top trim on the glass and it took me almost 6 weeks to find it because it felt like a driveline vibration on the steering wheel and I spent many frustrated hours pulling the front end apart and finding nothing until one day the sun was out on a test drive and I opened the sunroof on the highway and noticed for the first time that the sound was coming from up top. As you can imagine I was both, pissed and elated at once.If that don't beat all when I first bought my Lincoln Towncar it drove like it was on a cloud and a few months down the road on a cruise up country the motor seized on a steep hill and the oil light came on and when I got it home and tore it apart the pickup tube was full of, this is no joke, Good old fashioned sawdust. And I thought that that was an urban myth up till that point, just goes to show you learn something knew everyday. :lol: Sorry to go off topic scotty, hope the tranny fluid idea helps, it has worked for me several times in my many years.
