Transmission question for 2001 Tundra

Hello guys! First time poster and hoping for some expert help. I bought my son a nice one owner 2001 Tundra, V8 4x2. This is his first truck and I bought it right, so I could afford to do a few things to make it more of a 16 year olds truck (leveling kit, new tires and wheels, stereo etc.), a lot of the work we did together so that was awesome. After driving it for 6 months, the transmission went out. He was driving down a highway, and he said it just quit going but it was making a lot of noise. I headed over to see what was going on and had to have it towed home. When I crank the engine, I can hear clanking (not grinding) coming from the tranny even in park or neutral. When I put it in drive or reverse, same noise and the truck doesn't move. I spoke to a few people and they say it sounds like the tranny has gone out. I found used tranny locally for $350 and it only has 87K miles, but it's from a 2004 model. Someone told me it would work if I used my original tail piece (I think that's what he called it), someone else told me that the electronics might not match up. Can someone tell me what model tranny's will work in my 2001 Tundra?? It has a Manf date of 08/00 and the transmission is a model #30-40LE. It also has some other numbers, just not sure what they mean.

ANY help is greatly appreciated!!! I have also attached a few pics of his finished truck.

 

Early Tundra trannies were OK, but like most, don't ever tow in OD mode. Punch the button. Mine took out the OD gear at 35k....Toyota bought me a new one. Never tow with it in OD and even punch the button when driving around town or here in the mountains. Has 100k plus on the new tranny with 0 issues. If the stock tranny was treated nice it should be fine. Not sure what you need to swap to go to the next tranny.

 

Well, replaced the original 2001 tranny with a 2004 tranny. I purchased it used for $300 with 86K miles. Had to put my original tailpiece on the new tranny, but other that that, it was plug and play. It took us about 5-6 hours to change it out and it works perfectly.

 

glad to hear! thanks for being the adventurous one and trying it out.

 

Not arguing here, but I’ve 160k on my 02’ and have towed semi-frequently through the years. I use OD all the time even with towing (mostly flat terrain). The exception (when towing) is on hills and/or strong head winds putting extra force against the trailer. The truck will then start to toggle in and out of the OD when those forces occur. That is when the OD is turned off manually by me.

Turning off the OD when towing is a good idea if you are gunning/gassing it while city towing. Personally, I’m babying the throttle during tow loads trying to keep the wear and tear on everything to a minimum. Plus, idiot drivers like to cut in front on me whilst towing so its best easy going for me around the city.