The transmission only has first gear, Neutral and Reverse?

Tiny
AARON B. BOWEN
  • MEMBER
  • 2002 CHEVROLET SILVERADO
  • 4.8L
  • V8
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 300,000 MILES
When in drive truck won't shift out of 1st gear. Can only go about 20 MPH and RPMs go very high about 4000-4500 but won't shift gears. Goes in reverse okay. Goes into neutral. Also, when I use the shift lever, it will not register various gears always leaving one of the gears out. For example, I pull lever down from P to R and dash will display nothing and then ill pull lever again So from R to N and it will display R but it should be in N at this point. I will pull lever down to last gear which should be 3 but it will display 2. When I put it in D, and begin driving, regardless of if I attempt to manually shift it to 2 or 3, no shifting is actually taking place in the transmission. It's as if the transmission is not receiving a signal to shift gears. It doesn't feel like it's even trying to shift gears. Also, there are no codes or check engine light.
Thursday, January 16th, 2025 AT 8:44 PM

5 Replies

Tiny
KEN L
  • MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
  • 49,970 POSTS
Thank you for the complete description, it sounds like the gear range sensor needs to be replaced which is common. Here is the location of the sensor and how to replace it. This should fix the problem. Check out the images (below). Please let us know what happens.
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Friday, January 17th, 2025 AT 12:23 PM
Tiny
AARON B. BOWEN
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
Thank you. I'm going to go check it out right now and I'll get back to you in a bit. Thanks again.
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Saturday, January 18th, 2025 AT 10:18 PM
Tiny
KEN L
  • MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
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Sounds good we will be here.
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Sunday, January 19th, 2025 AT 10:01 AM
Tiny
AARON B. BOWEN
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
I got the part removed. I ordered a new one online. Once it arrives, I will install it and I'll let you know if it fixed the issue. Thanks. Oh, and for anybody else that's going to remove the same part, I had a heck of a time getting the electrical connectors off. So, what I ended up doing was heating them up with my heat gun and then they slid right out. They were like glued in there or something.
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Monday, January 20th, 2025 AT 5:29 AM
Tiny
KEN L
  • MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
  • 49,970 POSTS
Good advice! Let me know how it goes.
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Tuesday, January 21st, 2025 AT 10:13 AM

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