F4A33 no engagement / delayed engagement when cold only

[twister7]

I have a 96 gst that will have no drive (1234 manual) or reverse when it is first started up and with no reading on the temp gage, unless you rev the engine in drive or reverse it will engage at 3500 rpm’s then it will work fine, or you can let the motor come up to operating temperature and it will act fine unless left sitting long enough for the motor/trans to cools down to ambient temperature !Fluid looked to be in good condition but I changed the Fluid and filter any way and it made no difference! The trans was rebuild at some point as there is a sticker on it from accurate transmissions! The car has 130k on it and I purchased it with a rod knocking motor, it acted the same before I installed a new motor, I was thinking it was just low on fluid and didn’t want a rod hanging out the side of the block as the seller said the trans was fine (ya right)! There are also no codes in the tcu what so ever it was scanned with a snap on VERUS! Has anyone ever had a problem like this?

 

[the_mork]

This could potentially happen with bad end clutches though usually you will lose only OD, and rarely all forward gears, but I've never actually heard of it losing reverse as well. Search the forums for end clutch and you'll see the procedure to change them or head over to vfaq.com, but don't spend money on new end clutches until you have your old ones out and can verify that they are heavily damaged.

Another quick test which verifies for a certainty that the problem is not electrical is to remove the four pin solenoid plug which exits the transmission just above the pan on the front side. When you do this the car should have only 3rd gear and reverse but if engagement is normal then we can start going on to other things. Unfortunately I don't expect this to be the case.

Report back after these and we'll see what more we can do.

 

[-red97rum-]

Wierd, that sounds like the symptoms of when your really low on fluid or the filter is incredibly clogged. But you said you changed them? How are you checking the fluid? With the car warmed, cycle gear selector through the gears and in neutral? Sorry, I had to ask for clarification.

I know there is a seal for the valve body but from what I've heard it only makes reverse not work.

 

[twister7]

This could potentially happen with bad end clutches though usually you will lose only OD, and rarely all forward gears, but I've never actually heard of it losing reverse as well. Search the forums for end clutch and you'll see the procedure to change them or head over to vfaq.com, but don't spend money on new end clutches until you have your old ones out and can verify that they are heavily damaged.

Another quick test which verifies for a certainty that the problem is not electrical is to remove the four pin solenoid plug which exits the transmission just above the pan on the front side. When you do this the car should have only 3rd gear and reverse but if engagement is normal then we can start going on to other things. Unfortunately I don't expect this to be the case.

Report back after these and we'll see what more we can do.

Ok i now have removed the valve body taken every valve out and cleaned it all with brake clean it was not dirty at all, way under normal didn't noticed any stuck valves except for the shift control valve was a bit of a pain (the long valve buy the stopper plates) and the plate was a hair worn were the check ball with a spring goes!Torqued the valve body together to 5 NM and reinstalled torquing it to 11 NM as the fsm said and it worked right off the bat!Then today i tried it again and it worked BUT after going in and out of gear about 10 times it lost all gears again so i unplug the 4 wire connector (looks like the o2 plug) and it still had nothing i then left it alone for 15 minutes started it back up and it work fine again!

I would not think it would be the end clutches as they are not applied in reverse or 1st, the rear clutch and one way clutch is applied in first and the front clutch and low reverse brake is applied in reverse!

thanks for you're help

Wierd, that sounds like the symptoms of when your really low on fluid or the filter is incredibly clogged. But you said you changed them? How are you checking the fluid? With the car warmed, cycle gear selector through the gears and in neutral? Sorry, I had to ask for clarification.

I know there is a seal for the valve body but from what I've heard it only makes reverse not work.

Ya that's what i was thinking "Low fluid"!Yes idling in neutral it a hair over full if any thing!
Valve body seal is good!
thanks for you're help

 

[the_mork]

Your car starts in 2nd then drops into first once it starts moving so bad end clutches could be the issue, but your right they probably aren't really.

It seems like you're losing fluid pressure and I'm not sure why. Normally it would be a filter/fluid thing but you've already mentioned that you've taken care of that. Perhaps when it wont move you should pull a tranny cooler line and see how much pressure you have. Of course be careful if the tranny is a bit hot.

The wear on the pressure relief is somewhat normal but you'll want to keep and eye on it in the future. A bad seat there will cause you to have only first gear.

 

[twister7]

Ok figured it out finally what a pain!!!!!!
I switched valve body's as a last ditch effort before i pulled the trans and it did the same thing again, so i finally pulled it and as soon as i took the converter out i noticed a grove in side the pump were the converter made con-tack with the back side of the pump housing i also noticed the end of the converter was chewed up a hair, thinking the converter ballooned i compared the converter to a oem used one i had the oem was .056 smaller i didn't think that would be enough to matter so i went digging through my box of trans bolts and found two crankshaft bushing i removed some time back from motor's i bought/built and install in 5 speed cars i measured them both and pulled the one out of the motor in the car and the one in the car is .119 taller add that to the .056 thicker converter and there you go 0.175, It may not seam like much but you should see the pump "ALL JACKED UP" i am guessing the bushing in the car came from a 1g 6 bolt maybe?Fyi i cleaned the bushing before installing, media blasted it even to make sure it went together smooth (no nicks burs extra), i never thought to check the dept of it. If any one is wondering the stock 7 bolt bushing should be .720 tall not .839 like the one i have some thing else to check for before a expensive and some what hard to find transmission gets trashed!Oh ya now i get to check for crank walk ""OH JOY"" if that dam bushing jacked up my motor i am going to be well you know!!