Lost ALL Gears in my A$LD Last Night!!!

[jasongind]

I was driving last night and when i took off i noticed it wasn't shifting into 2nd until around 3,300 rpm's. I thought no big deal maybe shes just cold. Then about 5 miles down the road I was coasting down a hill, got to the bottom of it gave it some gas to maintain speed (35mph) and it acted like it was in neutral. The rpm's just raised and didn't push the vehicle at all; so i checked to make sure it didn't go into "N" some how and it was still in OD. So i started to down shift and nothing in any gear. I coasted to a side street, stopped and check R, still nothing. So I thought, hmmmm maybe its extremely low on fluid, pop the hood and check it, its full sitting in the cross hatch area. No i have no idea what is wrong. The transmission was rebuilt 14,000 miles ago but is now 2,000 miles out of warranty, go figure.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[MikeWild]

Hate to say it, but it sounds like yer s.o.l. The LD in A4LD stands for light duty, and that's exactly what this tranny is, a light duty PITA. It's the achilles heel of these trucks. Mine went kerpow on Monday, (but I think I helped it along by pulling an F250 with camper backwards through a 4 foot snow bank while I was in 4 low chirping the 35's like crazy) I picked up a used one on Wednesday for $100 and started the re&re yesterday.

 

[jasongind]

well when it was rebuilt they used all heavy duty parts. I still have the invoice that states rebuild (heavy duty). I don't do any type of towing or hauling at all either, just normal city driving without anything in the bed. Hell i don't even have the tailgate on it 98% of the time.

**EDIT**- Upon further investigation there is ATF all over the under side of the tranny, so I doubled checked the fluid again and it seems that it is overfilled even with the fluid loos. So I'm assuming that it was really over filled and then blew something. Not to sure what would have blown but thats my guess on it. Any suggestions plz?!

 

[cocoasranger]

I wouldn't waste the gas to drive one to the dump. I suddenly lost all gears in two of them and never towed or abused the truck. The warranties on rebuilt A4LD's are short because the rebuilders are quite aware of the poor design.

When I went checking on a rebuilt replacement either the warranty was short or the price was very high to cover the frequent returns.

Best thing I ever did was to convert to the Mazda trans with the help of many on the TRS site.

 

[MikeWild]

if it's over filled, the fluid will turn to froth and not function correctly. If there's fluid everywhere, it may have gotten too hot and leaked out the vent tube. Try draining to the proper amount nd see if that helps. Good luck to ya!