96 855 No Reverse w/o A Lot of Throttle

[BigRed]

Approaching 200K miles. The ATF is level dead on, clean, no burnt smell. All shift solenoids replaced about 3 years ago.

This has happened twice now. When it happens, first the vehicle will not move normally in Reverse, even on a hill. It's like something is binding, and holding it. A little throttle input and it moves ever so slightly, barely perceptible. If given a lot of throttle input, there's a bit of a bang and then it goes. After that, it will go in Reverse, but there's occosianl bang, and the vehicle jerks when that happens. The forward gears go like normal.

This first happened just after the 1st of the year. After I got it to move by applying much throttle, I drove it in Drive through parking lot for few minutes, and then all was back to normal with Reverse, and has been for almost 3 months, and 1,000 miles. My first inclination is transmission is just about toast. But I question that since feels like it's stuck, and it goes fairly normal once it engages. Both times were sudden. with no signs of anything progressively getting worse, no noises, or other driveability problems.

Is it possible that the drive shafts are binding somehow? Other than visual inspection, would I just run it through the forward and reverse gears with it up on jack stands?

[JRL]

Near toast, you are correct

[BEJinFbk]

Just for grins, pull your rear rotors and
have a look at the emergency brakes.

If everything checks out, you can pull
the rear driveshaft and run FWD only
to eliminate anything in the back from
your troubleshooting equations.

[Ben850]

Just for grins, pull your rear rotors and
have a look at the emergency brakes.

If everything checks out, you can pull
the rear driveshaft and run FWD only
to eliminate anything in the back from
your troubleshooting equations.

Agree to check the e-brake shoes for separation.
But '96 was FWD only, was it not?

[abscate]

Ugh. I think I would look for a house with a circle driveway ASAP....try to avoid using reverse as much as you can. I drive a Plymouth for three years without reverse once.

[BEJinFbk]

Just for grins, pull your rear rotors and
have a look at the emergency brakes.

If everything checks out, you can pull
the rear driveshaft and run FWD only
to eliminate anything in the back from
your troubleshooting equations.

Agree to check the e-brake shoes for separation.
But '96 was FWD only, was it not?

Good catch. I looked at the sig, not the title...

[BigRed]

It is FWD. I have replaced the rear shoes, and associated hardware less then two years ago, so I don't think it's that.

At the point that I wrote the initial post, all I had done was backed it out of driveway, to other side of street. That's when I had to apply much throttle, and it slammed into reverse. I have had a chance to drive it since, and that has not recurred. The shift from P to R does have clunk, sometimes slightly more than usual for the car, to fairly violent, it varies. Also, there is now a low-end growl that varies with engine speed through 1st gear, with a hard shift into 2nd. It has had hard shift into 2nd for years, but the growling noise is new. Actually, I now recall that it had that after it wouldn't shift into reverse earlier around 1st of year, and it went away in a few days of driving.

From reading comments from various forums it sounds as though reverse is pressure controlled by the STH solenoid integrated into the valve body, while the forward gears are vacuum controlled. I don't know if that's true or not, but if so, I assume that when the car will not move in reverse, it's because it's actually still in park. And by increasing the throttle, the pressure is raised, and eventually it slams into reverse. There was talk of reverse and 1st sharing internal components; brake band, clutch,etc. Perhaps that's why there are symptoms with both.

My plan was to drive it until the transmission totally dies, becuase either way it seems to need a transmission. However, it is my wife's car and she doesn't want to be driving my car ('98 V70R - and one day into swapping cars mine went to hell...look for future post once I get some initial diagnostics done). There are a lot of newer parts all around the car, so I don't want to cut my losses and sell it for a few hundred, or junk it. And even if I did, we would be down to one car because we can't afford to replace it right now. So I am reviewing the R&R transmission walkthrough posted by wheelsup. I have everything excpet the engine hoist & air tools, which I can borrow (hopefully along with the help of the person I am borrowing them from!), and the engine support bar, which I can get at Harbor Freight.

There is a local(-ish) Auto Recycler that advertises on CraigsList that has two transmissions available:

'99 131K $375
http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/ptd/4296111163.html

'98 157K $380
http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/ptd/4306861344.html

I'm looked on eBay, and the prices were even higher. Using Search Tempest to search CL in other cities now.

While it's not an insignificant amount of money, it's not much to pay to keep the car running. I am weary however of the amount of work involved gambling on a used transmission.

Thoughts or opinions, especially on the price for a used tranny?

[abscate]

Im way over my head on these but are the management systems on 98 and 99 totally different than your 96? Make sure you buy a compatible trans!!!