A4LD Wont engage at all?

[zanegosda]

Sorry if this as allready been addressed but I cant seem to find it if it has.

I have a 92 explorer xlt 11" of lift on 35s.. blew my last A4LD and rather than be with out a truck while I rebuilt (attempted to) my tranny I bought a used one from a reputable salvage yard.. installed the new used tranny and nothing? wont engage at all, starts up just fine, no bad sounds or grinding noise/feelings or vibrations, just nothing? I can physicaly shift it in to all the gear selections from the shift lever on the column, allthough the indicator does not line up perfectly, it could use some adujstment, it does seem to be functioning as intended. I honestly have not put new fluid or filtter in the new tranny, just checked the levels once installed and called it good, I will be purchasing a transgo shift correction kit and rebuilding the valve body this weekend if I can find a kit localy. So am I just a bone head or is it odd that nothing is happening? Hope someone has an answer for me,, or at least can confirm that I screwed something up on the install.

Thanks

 

[steventadams]

Did you ask why the car the tranny came off was put in the salvage yard in the first place? A reputable salvage yard is still just a salvage yard.

 

[zanegosda]

Very good point, I did ask a little about the tranny and the guy that sold it to me assured me that was a working transmission at the time that it was removed from the vehicle, he also mention that they had a "core" quality transmission that they could sell to me for $150 less than I paid for this one, but that it would need to be completly rebuilt.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Did you use the same torque converter or the converter from the junk yard transmission? Did you flush out the front cooler? It could be clogged, and restricting fluid circulation.

 

[Jack Flash]

I've seen more than one 'good' mechanic forget to put the input shaft back in the tranny. you don't have an extra input shaft lying around do you ?

I've received a used/guaranteed tranny from a wrecking yard without a input shaft in it.

someyimes it's the obvious, little things that cause the most frustration !

................jjf

 

[zanegosda]

I used the converter that came with the tranny but did pull it out and took a look at the input shat. When I installed the tranny I made sure that input shaft was in and the converter was seated well into the pump.. my fear is that it may have slid forward during the final stage of the install and that I ruined the pump,, or at least the shaft on the converter (which would be great but highly unlikely) I just finished a shift correction kit install in the valve body and drilled all the flow holes for "firm" shifts, will be reinstalling the valve body as well as new modulator tomorrow,, according the tips that come with the transgo correction kit a bad modulator can "cause slow or no coverter fill. Very late or no upshift in "D""..

One thing I noticed while I was installing the shift kit was that the fluid was old and dirty but there was no visible metal in the fluid that I could see and the fluid did not feel gritty. I would think that if I had allowed the converter to slide out of position and it was wreaking havoc on the pump I'd have all sort of metal in the fluid as well as lots of icky noise and some vibration... just a thought?

Thanks for the ideas,, I will be checking the aux tranny cooler and lines for clogs/restrictions.. Will update progress after.

 

[BrooklynBay]

The converter seal would leak if the torque converter was not properly seated.

 

[zanegosda]

Thats good to know,,, I filled it so full that it was puckin out the fill tube and it never seemed to be leaking from any where in the bell housing! Im on my way to get more tranny fluid and see how it goes... by the way I replaced the modulator and it looks like someone had used the wrong modulator??

 

[zanegosda]

so I have every thing back together and now my starter appears to be seized, if it aint one thing its another... at this point I'll be working on that tomorrow. As soon as I am able to start the ex I'll post the results!

 

[BrooklynBay]

See if you could turn the engine with a breaker bar. Maybe the converter is misaligned with the transmission?

 

[zanegosda]

so i got the engine started,, bad battery connection (boy do i feel stupid) and removed both inlet and outlet lines to the auxilary cooler and made sure that it was not cloged,, seems good. So I believe I have come to a realization of what is probably wrong.. I dont recall putting any tranny fluid in the converter prior to installing the transmission, I would imagine without this step there would be no way to engage the pump and thus no way to draw fluid from the pan... oops!!

So at this point does any one know any tricks that will enable me to prime/fill the converter without removing the tranny???

I was considering temporarily pluging all fluid outlets and and using compressed air at the auxilary cooler lines and seeing if I could possibly fill it that way,, does that seem logical or will I just start blowing seals,, would probably only need about 15psi or less.. also I did install a pan drain when I installed the shift corrections kit, not sure how that would apply but just throwing it out there.

Thanks for any ideas,, really dont want to pull the tranny again just cause I'm a bone head...


By the way I took a look at my old tranny and realized that the reason that the bellhousing gasket blew (which is why I'm here in the first place) was because 5 of the 8 bellhousing bolts where only finger tight!!!!

 

[BrooklynBay]

Don't try any external pressure. The torque converter will fill while you are adding transmission fluid with the engine running.

 

[zanegosda]

in that case I think I have ruined the pump by not making sure that the converter was completly engaged prior to actually bolting in the tranny,, I have filled the transmission multiple times while the truck was running. Looks like I'll be pulling the tranny at this point.