Ford Repair: 2000 taurus DOHC, forward gears, torque converter

Question
I was driving down road with no problems. Stoped for a red light, light turned green and car would not go. No reverse or forward gears. Fluid is ok, not burnt, shows full, no abnormal sounds. Any ideas?

Answer
Tim-

  Well...it's hard to say exactly what the problem is.  If I had to guess (and I do since I can't see the car personally), I'd say it's likely a problem with the torque converter.  Without going too much into how a torque converter works (if you want the whole story, there's a really good article on www.howstuffworks.com), I'll just say it works a lot like a clutch but for an automatic.  It transfers engine power to the transmission.  I think the converter is the main source of transmission problems amongst Taurus models, but I'm not a transmission man so I don't have much experience with them.  How serious is the problem?  It depends on whether I'm actually right and what the extent of the damage is.  Torque converter replacement is pretty cheap compared to total transmission replacement, but if pieces have broken apart and are floating around in the transmission it could be a lot more serious.  Hope this helps.

Steve