Like Felix1025, I wish I had seen this thread before it was too late. I'd been complaining about a noise and a hard shift for a while, but I guess I didn't have the right "language"...
My tranny died last night, on a solo trip (loaded from camping and an extended stay) from Maine to TN about an hour from home. I was on the interstate at <cough> speed, and passing a semi, when suddenly no power... and was blessed enough to be able to coast across to the breakdown lane, when an exit ramp suddenly appeared (it felt like magic!)... got to the bottom of the ramp and tried to shift into any gear to see if it was just drive and nothing. AAA and my husband came around 10:30 last night and she went off on a flatbed to the mechanics.
207K miles, serviced regularly & we keep a scanguage on her ... She hasn't been off road (we farm, and she gets used as a farm truck sometimes) in a while and the heaviest thing she's pulled in the last 12 months was a 600# trailer with recycling/trash in it (so total was less than 1k#). She has, in her 16 years, pulled a 2 horse livestock trailer, with my Fjords, which may have topped out at 6k to 7k# but that was maybe 7 years ago (we got a truck in '09)
One thing I had noticed on this trip was she was getting harder to put into drive or even into park, she shimmied badly between 60 and 70 mph, somewhere in West VA I heard a loud CLUNK and thought I'd run over an armadillo, and that her fuel mileage had gone from about 17 mph to 12.25 mph (I calculate it at every fuel stop), and passing gear wasn't getting me the getupandgo it usually did. I'd just had her major service in June before I left for Maine, and then had an engine light come on (oxygen sensor) up there, so had that repaired and another "safety inspection" service letting them know I had a 1300+ mile trip in a few days.
Right before she died, the whole front end felt like she was driving on rumble strips ... sounded like that too, except MUCH louder.
