Just had a thought... A while back my K5 started overheating. It had been off the road for many months. After I got it running again, I had the transmission rebuilt. I didn't ever drive it before rebuilding the tranny...
After that, it overheated quite a bit, while driving. At first I thought it was happening at idle, and posted here stating exactly that. I flushed the radiator with store-bought products, pulled it out and did the vinegar thing...even took the heater core out of the equation.
On the trip when the (rebuilt) rear axle gave up the ghost, I paid better attention. It was doing the overheating while I was driving. When I'd actually stop and let it idle, it would eventually cool down. Now since the tranny lines connect to the radiator, is it possible that it was to blame?? That maybe it was heating up while I was driving and transferring that heat to the radiator faster than the radiator could shed it?
It does have an auxilary tranny cooler on it, something that cost like $30 from Auto Zone or a similar parts store--that's not a new addition, been there for a while...
Also, since I lost the electronic TC lockup harness in the fire, they claimed that they'd built the tranny so that it would lock up on its own in 4th gear. I never could feel it lock and I felt that the engine RPMs were too high for the speed I was traveling with my axle ratio...
Thoughts? Ideas?
~jp