QuestionQUESTION: Three isolated times in past 6 mos., suddenly while driving could barely get
back into 2nd gear and couldn't go over about 20-25 mph. Stopped, waited
20 mins. everything normal again and normal between each of the incidents.
What's your best guess?
ANSWER: My best guess would be that you have a 1980 Cadillac eldorado with 4 wheel disk brakes.
Seriously though, I need YEAR-MODEL-ENGINE SIZE of your vehicle.
Also, Has the check engine light ever illuminated on the dash while this fault was occurring ?.
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QUESTION: A confession: It's an old (1980) Ford Crown Vic'. There were no experts so
I figured I'd ask it to any car repair expert since it was kind of general.
If you don't mind, here are a couple more facts: About 150K on car, about
50K on remfg motor, original cats and O2 sensors, egr about 50K, original
torque converter, keep it in repair, e.g. as might be related has been tuned
up, carb' rebuilt '07, etc. Generally runs well and trans' pretty good except
did feel a little slight unevenness occasionally while coasting about a year
ago put in some trans' medic type stuff which helped correct that except
still notice it if try to accelerate on an incline.
Each time the problem happened there was also a little smoke coming off
one of the cats as if something had dripped on it. (Car does have typical
rear main seal leak, but never gets on cat any other time).
I'll understand if you don't want to give your best guess since it's a Ford.
Thanks.
Lou
ANSWER: It has been many years since I rebuilt Ford transmissions.
Question: elaborate more on your statement: suddenly while driving
could barely get back into 2nd gear.
Are you saying that when you first start out, the car shifts from FIRST gear into SECOND and won't shift into THIRD ?.
OR are you saying that the trans shifts thru all the gears but won't downshift back into SECOND gear ?.
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QUESTION: Each of the three times it happened was on a low speed road where it would
have gone back and forth between first and second quite a bit, slow turns
etc., before it happened that I could barely get it to second and saw smoke,
fortunately was near home every time so just loped home going about 25.
The smoke appears to come from one of the cats as if something had
dripped on it; I've never seen that any other time. Last time I checked the oil
and trans fluid as soon as I got it home. The oil was fine, but the trans fluid
was about an inch over the add section and had some bubbles. I checked it
a couple times since then at random hot and found it pretty much the same.
I can't be sure but I am a bit wondering if these three occasions might have
come within a few days of having been to Jiffy Lube where they often overfill
things.
I appreciate your help with anything you can suggest to have checked or
things you'd probably exclude. No, none of the dash lights ever came on.
Thanks again.
Lou
AnswerBeing a little overfilled won't hurt the trans at all.
Climb under the car and on the passengers side of the trans near the catalytic converter see if there is a rubber vacuum hose attached to a small round device which would be your TRANSMISSION VACUUM SHIFT MODULATOR. It is highly probable that the above said modulator is faulty and needs to be replaced.
Make sure that the vacuum hose has no leaks in it and that it has vacuum when the engine is running.
Replace the vacuum modulator and check the vacuum hose as it goes from the modulator all the way up to the engine intake manifold where it gets it's vacuum from.
The rubber vacuum line should be rubber all the way from the vacuum modulator to the intake manifold.
You can buy a vacuum modulator at most any auto parts store. If you do NOT like the looks of the vacuum hose replace it with the EXACT same diameter size hose .
