bartonmd Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 OK, so here's the deal... My '92 Lumina Euro 3.1, 4T60 is having this problem... When switching from Park to Reverse, the transmission stays in Park, but you can hear the clutches engage, and the engine drops to low idle like you're sitting there with your foor on the brake. Anything you do after that, like going to Neutral, or Drive, the engine sounds like it should, you can hear it going in and our of gear, but even in Neutral, you roll the thing back and forth, and it's in park. The only way I've been able to keep it working is going straight to Drive, pulling forward a foot or so, then going JUST into Reverse, and even then, the Park pawl is trying to engage. It's gotten to the point that if I'm on an incline at all, I have to put it in Drive, then rock the thing against Park both forward and backward, until it pops out of Park, then it drives normally until I use the gear selector again... I'm sure this is a trans-out operation, but has anybody ever experienced this before, and what was the fix? It acts like whatever pulls the park pawl away from the park gear is stretched or something... I don't know... Any help is appreciated. Thanks, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartonmd Posted July 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 BUMP... Nobody's had this happen?? Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ns87 Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 I've never heard of that happening before. But deffinately check the fluid level and color. If it isn't a dark, dark brown or black drop the pan and change the fluid and filter. Its a bit messy, but not that hard of a job. That is a weird one, but good luck and keep us posted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartonmd Posted July 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 I've never heard of that happening before. But deffinately check the fluid level and color. If it isn't a dark, dark brown or black drop the pan and change the fluid and filter. Its a bit messy, but not that hard of a job. That is a weird one, but good luck and keep us posted Thanks. Fluid was fine, but I changed it and the filter anyway, and drove it a thousand miles or so to let the new, detergent-rich fluid do its job, and it's still doing the same thing... I think it's mechanical. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian P Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 Will it go into reverse if you hold the shifter slightly further down? Between R and N. If this helps the problem any, it's just a matter of adjusting/aligning the shifter cable. The fact that you said if you go from D back to R makes me suspicious of the cable. Let me know if this does anything for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartonmd Posted July 30, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 OK, will do! Thanks, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1990lumina Posted July 30, 2007 Report Share Posted July 30, 2007 Will it go into reverse if you hold the shifter slightly further down? Between R and N. If this helps the problem any, it's just a matter of adjusting/aligning the shifter cable. The fact that you said if you go from D back to R makes me suspicious of the cable. Let me know if this does anything for you. x2! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockfangd Posted July 31, 2007 Report Share Posted July 31, 2007 werd i can acually say i have never heard of this happening before, but the best of luck to you and check the shift lever cable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartonmd Posted September 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2007 Well, it wasn't the cable... I disconnected it from the transmission and shifted the trans linkage by hand with no dice. Exactly the same thing. Talking to a friend of mine, it would seem that the park linkage inside the transmission is messed up. Of course, on the 3-speed, that's an in-vehicle service, but in the 4-speed, that's the last thing to come out when you rebuild the trans. Upon further review, it seems that the linkage that goes to the selector inside the trans would not cause this problem if it was screwed up. The only things that would cause this are; 1. a bent park pawl rubbing on what's next to it, not wanting to drop out of park, or 2. The spring that pushes the park pawl away from the drum is broken. Since this OE trans has got something like 170k on it, I found an 88k junkyard transmission for $250, and if I've got to remove the trans anyway, I might as well go ahead and put one in with 80k less miles for less than the cost of a rebuild kit... I'll post up when I go ahead and take this trans apart and see what's REALLY the matter with it (after I get my car up and running again). Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w-bodys_are_the_best Posted September 26, 2007 Report Share Posted September 26, 2007 Just drop it into park at about 35 MPH that will get rid of your problem all together, hopefully your parking brake works Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockfangd Posted September 26, 2007 Report Share Posted September 26, 2007 lolol, thats just wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartonmd Posted September 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2007 Just drop it into park at about 35 MPH that will get rid of your problem all together' date=' hopefully your parking brake works [/quote'] Actually, when I worked at an automotive and HVAC grad lab in between classes when I was at Purdue, I was told a story of a grad student (didn't have a license, sproke broken english, the whole bit) running a Taurus on a dyno to get tire noise. That was when they were using the engine to spin up the drums on the test station. Instead of putting it in Neutral, he went too far and put it in park. It actually just made grinding sounds down to about 5mph or so, then it finally grabbed, the car slid partially off the side of the dyno, and RUINED a set of HAND MADE tires there for noise testing... Oops... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartonmd Posted October 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 Ended up picking up a 96k mile junkyard transmission from a '92 lumina Euro, and spent most of the day Saturday, and a couple hours Sunday replacing the other one. Paid $238 OTD for the trans. I've got ~100 miles on it so far and it seems to drive out fine... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ns87 Posted October 15, 2007 Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 I always wondered what happened with this, Good for you for fixing it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartonmd Posted October 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2007 I always wondered what happened with this, Good for you for fixing it Thanks! In a RWD vehicle, this would have been a 5 hour job, start to finish, but in FWD... My labor for 12 hours or so, with my dad's help for about 7 hours in the middle, for the 2-persons tuff (dropping and replacing trans, dropping and replacing cradle). Definately a TON harder than changing the transmission on the Isuzu Impulse XS we rally raced in college... We got to the point that, even without a tranny jack (we used a 4-wheeler jack for the Lumina), we could change out a trans in an hour and 10 minutes if we left the clutch alone. No dropping the cradle, and it had a ~70lb manual and not a 150lb 4-speed auto... Oh well, done is done... At least I hope so! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
93cutty Posted October 16, 2007 Report Share Posted October 16, 2007 That's the same problem I had with mine only when I changed the fluid the tranny went completely berserk and I had to change it. Funny thing is everwhere I looked the cheapest tranny I could find was 200 bucks for one with 120k on it. But I found one here for 50 bucks and nobody jumped on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartonmd Posted October 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2007 That's the same problem I had with mine only when I changed the fluid the tranny went completely berserk and I had to change it. Funny thing is everwhere I looked the cheapest tranny I could find was 200 bucks for one with 120k on it. But I found one here for 50 bucks and nobody jumped on it. Yeah, I looked here first, but no dice, so I went to the junk yard... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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