I need Tranny Help!!

[nickmills77]

I'll keep this simple. I've read quite a few posts on "limp in", and i'm inquiring to find answers on my "problem"

I drive 50+ miles round trip to work and back everyday. I have a 1996 gs n/t with 420a motor. Last week i'm driving to State College "Pennstate". on my usual comute to work, and out of nowhere my tranny seems to slip around 45 - 50 mph. I figure i need fluid and everthing will be fine. *wrong*. I slow down to a redlight and the car seems to SLAM into 2nd gear and wont shift out of 2nd until i turn off the car and back on again. So I figure i need to see a mechanic regardless if it is electrical or mechanical.

I can drive the car if i manualy shift. I keep it in 2 untl i get to 35-40mph, then put it into D. and when i get back down to 40-35mph put it into 2. ect. ect .ect. It wont go into "limp in" that way. BUT I have NO overdrive. When i push the O/D button the car seems to surge 3 times then go into neutral..??? ? and i cannot get it to grab a gear unitl I come to a complete stop, shut of the car, then turn back on, then i can drive it again...

SO I go to the mechanic and he does a full diagnostic test. He tells me I might have a bad silionoid because he cannot get a proper test result. He tells me to leave it overnight and he will let me know the next day what he found out. He says he changed a silionoid on the transmission and still got the same result. He beleives its a internal problem, and the ?overdrive clutch? is out. Then he tells me he can pull the tranny and rebuild it for $1600.00


Any advice I get would be greatly appreciatied!!!! I hope I dont need to fork out $1600... if thats the case, I'll drive it the way i've been driving it until I have NO tranny left at all!!!

 

[boostin92awd]

A buddy of mines 1g wouldnt shift out of second because his tcu was bad but I dont know that much about the 2g autos.

 

[mhuffman]

The trannys receive signal from the ECU. If that signal is bad or interrupted, that will cause shifting issues. If its really something internal to ## tranny maybe you'd be able to find one here in the classifieds. You could try to take it to a transmission shop and see what they say about. I kno that when my uncles 300M had shifting problems and going into 2nd gear limp mode - we replaced the input and output sensors and that solved the problem.

 

[nickmills77]

I found a tranny at a local junk yard. They want $500 for it.

2 questions-

1 - Is this a task I should attempt myself, or just let a mechanic do it for me?

2 - Will I need the TCU from the "junk" car?

 

[nickmills77]

bump

 

[roadrunner2176]

The non turbo transmissions are a pain to get out. Simply put, you have to remove the front end to get them out without cutting the axles. Just for a reference, look at this--- http://www.mainstreetla.com/transmissionRemoval.php. Its for a manual, but the basics are still the same, except for the linkages.

Call around and see what they will charge for just the labor, and it couldn't hurt to see what they would charge just for a rebuild on that trans.

I would say that if you can get someone to swap it for under 500, let them do it. But than you have 1000 into it, and won't know for sure if the trans you picked up at the junk yard is any good unless its dyno tested, and even than its used, and you might just get what you pay for.

If your sure its the trans, than look into a rebuild, or buy a used one from ebay or some place, have it rebuilt, take it to your mechanic for installation, and sell your old one.

If I remember right, you can get a rebuilt automatic trans for around 700 from phoenix trans in arizona. Do some looking, but 500 for a used juckyard trans is high.

You only need a tcu if yours is bad. Your mechanic should be able to diagnose that, and you should check that before you go any further.

 

[mini zilo]

The trannys receive signal from the ECU. If that signal is bad or interrupted, that will cause shifting issues. If its really something internal to ## tranny maybe you'd be able to find one here in the classifieds. You could try to take it to a transmission shop and see what they say about. I kno that when my uncles 300M had shifting problems and going into 2nd gear limp mode - we replaced the input and output sensors and that solved the problem.

Wrong.

The ECU has nothing to do with shifting an automatic transmission. If it is a TCU problem, then you can just get a new TCU but it doesn't sound like that. The fact that your overdrive isn't working, and the mechanic said your "overdrive clutch" is out would lead me to believe that your end clutch needs to be rebuilt/upgraded. Most of the time when the end clutch fails, over drive doesn't work and things similar to what you are experiencing happen. That price for the mechanic is a bit to high. I would talk to your mechanic a little more and see if it is an end clutch problem for sure. (End clutch is what is used for overdrive.)

How does the car drive with O/D off? If it drives fine with it off, and bad with it on then:

Visit http://www.importperformancetrans.com/mitsubishiauto.shtml#main

Take a look at their end clutch upgrade kit. It's only 84 dollars, and they might be the problem. There's no sense in spending 1.5k on a rebuild for your transmission if this might just be the problem, so it's worth a try. You can easily install that yourself in a less than a day (you do NOT need to remove the transmission), instead of rebuilding an entire transmission that might only need a new end clutch.

If you think your up to upgrading the clutch yourself (It's not very hard) vist here to see an install guide:
http://www.plymouthlaser.com/ec.htm

Also, if you do decide to do this, you might think about adding a shift kit while your by the transmission. A shift kit is usually installed for performance, but in your case, it would probably help because a shift kit FIXES many problems automatics have, such as: Downshift clunks, slipping, and end clutch failure.

Hope this helped