# 1997 Suburban Hard 1-2 Shift

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-suburban-hard-1-2-shift/75230>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Created:** [October 29, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-suburban-hard-1-2-shift/75230 "2012-10-29T19:24:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Spen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spen](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Spen)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-suburban-hard-1-2-shift/75230/1 "2012-10-29T19:24:59Z")

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Two odds things happened yesterday. I drove to the store about 3 miles away. Just as I got there the 1-2 shift banged in hard. I went into the store and when I came out 15 minutes later, the truck would not turn over. According to the volt gauge, the voltage was around 11-12 volts, down from where it normally is. I let it sit for about an hour. When I got back to it, the truck started, but sounded like it was stuck in high idle. So I turned it off and had it towed to the house.  
My question is will a almost dead battery cause the transmission to shift hard??

I have 252,000 miles on the truck. To my knowledge, the tranny has never been repaired. Up until this point it has been shifting normally.

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**Author:** ![edb1961](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/edb1961/32/122_2.png) [@edb1961](https://community.cartalk.com/u/edb1961)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-suburban-hard-1-2-shift/75230/2 "2012-10-29T20:28:56Z")

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A low battery voltage (~12.1V) caused a high idle and disabled the torque converter lock-up on my 2000 Blazer a few years ago. I haven’t had any recurrences since. Not sure about a hard 1-2 shift, it didn’t happen with the Blazer.

Ed

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**Author:** ![Big\_Marc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@Big\_Marc](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Big_Marc)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2012, 8:33pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-suburban-hard-1-2-shift/75230/3 "2012-10-29T20:33:55Z")

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that tranny is known for a problem in the valve body . most tranny shops have a repair kit for that fix . you may have more than two problems .

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**Author:** ![Spen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spen](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Spen)\
**Post date:** [November 2, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-suburban-hard-1-2-shift/75230/4 "2012-11-02T19:37:45Z")

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Turns out the problem wasn’t the tranny but the alternator. The low voltage caused the shifting problem. With a new alternator the old girl is shifting just fine!