AUTO TRANS Free Rev ~ Long but, Fully Detailed

dvbrien · 10-23-2007, 02:48 PM

During the course of the summer I got a car 93 FWD AUTO from a friend who knew little to nothing about these cars. He told me the trans was gone... It seem to make the slight shifting noise but never engages. Free revs in any gear. The car looks real good and runs even better so... After looking into the under dash I discovered a lot of home engineering that I would love to beat someones ass for! Basically I found a constant power wire running from the Auto Trans fuse, supplying power to the Cooling fans on the radiator. Still using the 10amp fuse and ran the power to the constant power side of the fuse. When I pulled the wire and fuse it looked like Charcoal. the plastic was burned up. So I got to thinking that it may not be the trans at all but, maybe the TCU was not longer getting power and thus wouldn't operate the Trans. SO I pulled the TCU to inspect it. Nothing appears bad, burned or smelly. X-ed that. Then I pulled the entire fuse panel, dismantled it to see which wire went from the Fuse Block to the TcU. Unless you are very mechanically inclined and very patient don't attempt this at home! Anyhow this is the plug that the non-charged side of the fuse leads to...

How ever when I later put everything together as seen here. I checked the pin on the plug where this fuse led to to and low and behold there is not a wire in this harness plug that lead from the pin on the fuse panel.

So, I guess I am wondering if someone else has the FWD Auto N/A if you could pull your #9 fuse and see if you car still moves... I'm betting it does!

Then I also tried to pull the Codes using the Plymouth Laser Site... http://www.plymouthlaser.com/tcucodes.htm And got nothing no pulses nada, using an analog meter. Just to make sure I also hooked it up to the MPI port and then it was pulsing...This leads me to believe my original theory that the TCU is bad or not getting power. I have a full schematic on all the wires for the ECU plug but, is there a schematic for the wires on the TCU plugs for the N/A FWD 93? So I am up in Arms! What the Hell. I don't know what is wrong, TCU, or Trans. Suggestions or loaner parts would be greatly appreciated! Daniel

Jason's TSI · 10-25-2007, 09:45 AM

Was the transmission just put back in? Sounds like the front pump in the trans is broken.

dvbrien · 10-29-2007, 10:39 AM

The trans is original as far as I know... but, I really don't. I don't know about the front pump thing either. Never seen that in the manual. Do you have reference for this?

Jason's TSI · 10-29-2007, 04:17 PM

Even with all the electrical connections disconnected from the transmission it should have a forward and reverse gear, if not then there is an internal transmission failure. From what you are saying it sounds like the front pump.

Bender · 12-10-2007, 08:15 AM

Sounds to me like your clutch packs are slipping. See if you can find someone in the transmission business and get just the friction material for the packs. Mark up is a couple hundred dollars, so you will get a lot of a better deal if you have connections.

Once you get them pull the transmission, and take the pump out. Once inside there is a big shaft htat runs to your outer clutch pack. Pull out the shaft, and remove each of the baskets. Carefully place the new friction material in each of the baskets. (make sure they go down all the way-it is very tricky. Also don't force it, or you will bend one of the tabs) Reassemble it all, and make sure the shaft slides in all the way, one of the friction materials may not be seated all the way.

Don't forget to use lint free rags when working with transmissions.