blown headgasket still runs, reverse but no fwd gears?

[KevinJTorres]

As the title says, my headgasket is blown, tackling that asap. Bought a busted up 1993 eddie bauer that looks great cosmetically. However, the transmission is exhibiting odd performance. I have park, reverse, neutral, all working as they should. OD, D, 2, 1, I get nothing, just slipping. Now, I'm planning on dropping the pan and seeing what there is to see tomorrow. Fluid level is normal and looks quite clean actually. Mileage is 146k. No history on car available. Basically my question is this: Does the blown headgasket have any impact on the problem with the transmission, or must they be unrelated? I don't want to run the engine long to "warm up" the tranny since my head gasket is shot. Really just trying to move it around the driveway right now. I'd like to think the previous owner was just a dork and did no maintenance on anything, and I can drop the pan, change the filter, maybe drop the valve body and replace the gaskets, adjust bands, and have a working transmission. But perhaps I'm missing something obvious due to lack of experience and knowledge? Any help anyone can offer would be much appreciated. I'd love to get it back on the road soon.

PS I had a nice eddie bauer ten years ago and this is my first post since I bought this one, probably been eight years since I posted in this forum!

 

[KevinJTorres]

Well I dropped the pan. It was clean fluid, but some sludge in the bottom. Not too bad. The previous owner was running with no filter installed. The screw to put it on is not there. I'm hoping it isn't snapped off in the hole, but the hole looks okay for now. Now I have to get a new screw. Hopefully this will solve my problems, or at least improve things.

 

[KevinJTorres]

Damn all Ford dealers are closed today. Anyone know where to look for the thread pitch and length of the filter screw???!! FML this sucks

 

[drdoom]

M6 x 45

 

[KevinJTorres]

Got in contact with ford today, they don't stock the bolt anymore. He said it was 6mm, 8.8 standard, but couldn't give me a length. I got a 6 x 40 and a 6 x 50 at lowes, and put a washer on it. Good to go. Buttoning it up now, hope the tranny is back in business now. We'll see...

 

[KevinJTorres]

Well, the transmission is back together nicely. No leaks. I adjusted the band tension by torquing to 120in-lbs, then backed off two turns.

STILL NO FORWARD GEARS!! Something is very wrong. I'm out of ideas. Except to get a pressure gage and test for pressure. I still haven't done that. There has to be something about the engine problems the truck has that is affecting this transmission's ability to work. I can start the truck right up, but it shouldn't be run much more at all in it's current condition. Isn't there someone with a magic solution out there for me? LOL oh well at least I'm not in a rush, I'll figure it out. I'm thinking about just going ahead and doing the head gasket job now, and come back to the transmission afterwords if I don't see something obvious when I have the top end apart.

 

[rickybobby]

You have a mechanical failure in your trans that could be caused by running it without the filter, or the PO found the broken part and just put the pan back on without the filter and put it up for sale

 

[Sedition]

I don't know much about auto trannies but if I was in your situation I would probably check the shifter linkage and it's operation, then check the wiring harneses out making sure that nothing is cut, abraded, unplugged ect... Then I would check out the flow of the ATF out of one of the cooling lines. Then I would probably check the solenoids, remove the valve body and look for blockages then replace the valve body gasket. Failing that I would price up a junkyard tranny or possibly "man up" and attempt a full rebuild kit.

Appart from those things I'm unsure as to what else you could try.