Tranny Weirdness??

[Beav]

Sorry, I've been terribly busy with a lot of stuff at home and at work. I'm almost on the edge of burn-out. Kind of a springtime thing, just ramping up for the summer from the mild pace of winter.

Anyway, we'll replace solenoids, pump gaskets, etc. Beyond that we install remans from Jasper, when possible , or a couple other suppliers when needed. We've been getting more and more trans work lately and I'm trying to talk them into investing in a trans diagnostic tool. Unfortunately it's about $2000 and another gazillion bucks for all the adaptors for individual makes. (see www.bulkparts.com and look for TranX Analyzer.)

I've kinda drifted away from transmissions over the years due to the sheer amount of different designs out there, but now it looks as though I'll have to get back into them, as many are so closely tied into the engine management.

I'll try to get back in here tonight and read through all of this and see if I can offer anything.

[Aredubjay]

I can certainly relate to the "busy" thing. I've been busier than usual these past couple of weeks. Right now, almost everyone is gone on shows, so, I've got a little more time during the day. But, you can be darned sure they'll be throwing all they can at me when they get back.

Man, I'm getting a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, just thinking about having to take this thing back to the tranny shop, but, the thing is, they probably won't charge me anything to look at it , or fix it. I just cant A) stand being without it, and B) Can't afford another 900.00+ rental.

Hmmmm. That 92 Justy in the paper went from 1000.00 to 900.00 this week. Maybe I'll justy have to buy it.

[oab_au]

Originally posted by Aredubjay
Man, I'm getting a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, just thinking about having to take this thing back to the tranny shop, but, the thing is, they probably won't charge me anything to look at it , or fix it. I just cant A) stand being without it, and B) Can't afford another 900.00+ rental.

Hmmmm. That 92 Justy in the paper went from 1000.00 to 900.00 this week. Maybe I'll justy have to buy it.

Randy, you must, by this time, realise that the 'tranny shop' hasn't a clue what's wrong with it. I've taught a lot of mechanics the trade and I can tell that these blokes couldn't diagnose a flat tyre. They just tell you what ever comes into there head, then pull it down and hope to find something. Would you go to a Doctor like that. Take Johns offer, he's been there done that, the pressure test will show up the fault. Which is one of the following; no power to solenoid C, or a stuck control valve.

No power to the solenoid means that it restricts all of the pilot pressure and the control valve moves to the full clutch pressure position, the control valve could .be stuck in the full pressure position, but seeing that it was overhauled recently I doubt that would be the problem.

Do yourself a favour, go see John.
The time has come.
Harvey.

[Aredubjay]

Gosh, Harv, I'd love to go see John, except for the 800, or so, mile drive.

Luckily, the car has done the diagnostics for them. Alls they'll have to do is hook up the pressure taps, or, simply test electrical resistance.

The tranny shop's only five minutes from my office. The difficulty is that since they feel it's "warranty work" they "get to it when they can." Yeah, I could probably drive to Jersey and back in less time that it'd take them to "get to" my problem, but, this time, the stops are out. It ain't going in if they ain't got the time to get right on it.

My KINGDOM for a competent SVX Mechanic that's closer than two hours away.

[Beav]

What I'm finding interesting is that you can't get the AWD light to come on with the fuse in. Check the fuse terminals - one should be ground and the other battery voltage with the fuse removed, less than 1 volt, either terminal, with the fuse in.

I'm kinda wondering with all of the monkeying around that's been done if there isn't a group connection loose, etc. You might check the connector(s) at the TCU and the two at the top of the tranny and make sure they're fully plugged in and haven't been yanked on too hard. To have codes for B&C solenoids, plus the AWD light not functioning normally makes me think that either there's some bad connections or wiring or possibly a failing TCU. One other item to try would be clearing the TCU by disconnecting the battery - it may have caught a glitch. I'm also still wondering if the noise I was hearing was normal or not.

My experience has shown me that unless someone's been messing with the wiring it's normally not an issue. What the tranny shop has done is anybody's guess, so I won't rule wiring out in your case. Generally when we see a stack of errors mounting it usually indicates a failure common to all items concerned, rarely do so many individual items go south at the same time.

[Aredubjay]

Beav,
Thanks for the insights. Your thinking is in line with mine. While I was sitting on the . . . in the Library, last night, looking over my manual, I realized that the B solenoid was not wired in series with the C solenoid (I had guessed it was for some reason). That lead me to believe there was a wiring issue somewhere between the TCU and the solenoids. Obviously, I DON'T want to think that my TCU is going south. I just can't have that!

Again, thanks for your insights. If we don't get that new wave of storms this weekend, you know where you can find me.

[Beav]

Because of the AWD light issue I'd check the connection at the TCU first, could be it isn't completely/securely plugged in.

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by Beav
Because of the AWD light issue I'd check the connection at the TCU first, could be it isn't completely/securely plugged in.

I'll do that this weekend. However, here's the latest development. Just for sh*ts and giggles, I decided to try the FWD fuse again at lunch. At first, no dice, but, after a few minutes, the FWD light came on. I decided to drive it to lunch (about 2 miles) in FWD mode to see how she handled. Handled fine. The feeling of full AWD was gone. The binding in reverse was gone.

After lunch, I decided to pull the fuse to see if I got that "tight" feeling again. I didn't. Felt like the 90/10 split had been restored. Drove down to a parking lot where a Venture store had moved out and did about 5 tight figure 8's -- no binding. When I turned the key off after getting back to work, there was no "e-brake release" feeling when I turned off the key.

I'll see if any of the symptoms recur when I get in to drive home this afternoon. Then, when I get home, I'll either pull fuse 14, or unhook the battery ground to see if it clears the codes.

Tomorrow, I'll do all the connector checks.

If I may borrow a slogan line from the military: "SVX, it's not just a car, it's an adventure.

[Beav]

My favorite has always been 'It's not a car, it's a Volkswagen!" Boy they certainly said a mouthful there....

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by Beav
My favorite has always been 'It's not a car, it's a Volkswagen!" Boy they certainly said a mouthful there....

Yeah, I love those objective/subjective slogans. The best example is that of Curtis Mathes, "Expensive, and darned well worth it." Obviously, the buying public differed in opinion.

If I'm not mistaken, Ogilvy and Mather were handling VW at the time of that slogan. They were also handling Rolls Royce, Hallmark, Sears and a few other puny accounts. David Ogilvy always believed in buying from his clients, so, he wore Sears suits while being driven around in his Rolls Royce.

[Aredubjay]

I checked my connections over the weekend. All are tight. I cleared the codes and took it out for another drive. Decided to put the FWD fuse in, just to see what would happen this time. Much to my surprise, after I drove it down the road a little ways, pulled into a side road to turn around, the FWD light went off and I could feel the binding of the full AWD once again. Weird. I went back and pulled the code and I no longer got the code for DS "B." It now only shows up as a DS "C" problem.

This morning, I figured I'd leave the FWD fuse in. I started the car and got no codes -- it took a few seconds for the FWD light to come on. I hadn't removed the fuse since the FWD light had gone off yesterday. A couple of miles down the road, I pulled off onto a side road, turned around in someone's driveway, to see if the FWD light would go off again. It didn't. I went a little further down the road, pulled into a church parking lot, backed up, the FWD light stayed on. I stopped the car, turned it off, opened the hood and unplugged the FWD fuse. I restarted the car -- the power light did not blink. Somewhere along the road, however, the DS "C" problem recurred, because I could feel the binding when I turned into the parking lot at work. Of course, it was confirmed when I went to get in the car at lunch, and the power light played it's blinky tune. GRRRR!! I want it to fix itself!!!

[strange179]

That's funny, whenever I put in the FWD fuse the light comes on immediately. No delay and it doesn't go off until I take out the fuse.
Jay

Originally posted by Aredubjay
GRRRR!! I want it to fix itself!!!

Randy, The meet monster is nibbling. Better find someone to look at the tranny tail section before long. Thought of pulling a Seraph and jumping on Kath's ebony '94?

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by Boone
Thought of pulling a Seraph and jumping on Kath's ebony '94?

Yes, in fact, I have.

[Beav]

Anybody have a spare controller that could be swapped in? Was it Kelli that had a friend with a smashed car?