tranny rebuild goes bad after 3 months, I need advice...

[579]

First off, Happy New year everyone.

Its been a while since Ive been on here and my ranger has been on the back burner for a while too.

I was hoping to get some advice about my transmission. Ill get to the point.

1994 2.3 with an a4ld

finally lost all gears in it a few months ago and after much deliberation I dropped 900 bucks to have it rebuilt. so I pulled the tranny and took it to the shop.

I drove around for exactly 3 months all the while the tranny was shifting firm and strong and perfect every time. and then the transmission gave out again.

I lost overdrive and all the other gears started acting up, like delayed shifts and weird shift patters.

weirdesst of all, I lost reverse. originally, I didnt even loose reverse before. when all the other gears were toast, I still had reverse. now I dont.

Any thoughts on what could be wrong ? The shop is closed down now, of course, so I cant take it back.

should I try and salvage it or sell it for scrap? It was a good little truck, motor is strong and the a/c works too. Id really hate to have to ditch it but I dont want to keep sinking money into the transmission either.

appreciate and thoughts yall may have.

 

[adsm08]

First check the fluid. See if it is dark and burnt or still fresh and bright red.

If it is still bright red, pull a cooler line off and put it in a drain pan, then crank the engine for a few seconds, but don't let it start. See if you get any fluid coming out.

OR

If you have an oil pressure gauge, hook up to the line-pressure test port and start the engine.

It is possible that the converter or fluid pump just went bad. Either of those could cause the trans to stop working completely and be easy/cheap enough to fix that it isn't worth scrapping the truck.


If the fluid is dark and burnt the trans blew. Depending on your local laws you may still be able to go after the shop owner. He went out of business for a reason, and it probably wasn't because he was really good at fixing cars.

 

[579]

I wish I could go after them. I dont have the time or the means.

I hate to say I may have got taken. They gave me a year warantee.....

My neighbor thinks they set it up to break again. the first time I put the tranny back in , I allegedly installed the tc wrong. then I took the tranny back out and took it back to them. It cost an additional 500 bucks to fix again. and now 3 months later this.

The fluid looks and smells fine. I get 1-3 gears but they are not as solid as they were for the first 3 months. Ill try and testing the pump asap.

I really DONT want to scrap it. I wanna have fun with this thing and I miss having a pick-up. Ive been daily driving my 79 bronco. I love it, but I want to restore it, not drive it over 40 miles everyday to work and school .

Its just so suspicious that a transmission can work great for 3 months then go out just like that.

I dont want to give up on this little bugger. Look at this hoss !

 

[adsm08]

Too bad you are so far away. I know a great trans builder here locally.

Postin' from teh Galaxy

 

[pcollins]

Theres always the option of a 5 speed swap.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

I rebuilt my C-3 the A4LD is basically a C-3 with overdrive. My first auto tranny rebuild alot of stuff to look at. A couple of things you can do before you decide to pull the tranny out is pull the pan and look for metal fragments in the bottom of the pan. There will allways be small flakes from the new clutches and bands that is normal. Take a large screwdriver and see if there is much end play in the in the input drum. If the drum moves alot it needs to be taken apart I cant remember spec but what happened to mine two bushings for the sprague (one way clutch) wore down and the oil was not getting from the pump to the valve body. If there is little movement maybe they didnt clean the valve body correct. Check the bolts if loose torque them down to spec its possible the valve body vibrated loose. I made the mistake of taking the valve body apart without drawing a diagram and marking the valves and springs I bought another valve body and took it apart piece by piece and reassembled my old one that was fun. There was alot of black sludge in the valve body. A good tranny shop will give you a core refund if yours is in good shape and the new rebuilt will have all the good upgrades in hard parts as the earlier A4lds did have a few weak points. I hope its somthing simple only use lint free rags to clean the parts I also used a fine paint strainer to filter the old oil as that alone is a chunk of change.

 

[Tedybear]

Much as I hate to suggest it? Might be more cost effective to hit a salvage yard for a replacement.

S-

 

[579]

Thanks. I'll get on some of these suggestions ASAP. I have a huge water leak in my front yard so I gotta take care of that first. But thanks again !