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CD4E – Rebuilding the forward drum…

Bayley

New CEG'er
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
17
Location
Jiveonia, MI
Hi all,

I’ve been lurking around for the past few weeks and have finally decided to call for help.

A few weeks back, I picked a 1996 Contour SE With the 2.5L and CD4E (automatic) transaxle. The car was (still is) in beautiful condition, but had 180,000 miles and a busted transmission. None of the forward gears were working, but the car still had reverse. I did a quick “sniff check” of the dipstick, and the transmission fluid was VERY brown and smelled VERY burnt.

The CD4E does take standard ATF, right?

Anyway, I bought this car with the intention of “flipping” it to one of my co-workers for a profit. I guesstimated about a week to pull the old transmission and replace it with a new / salvaged unit. Since this will be a $2500 commuter car for my co-worker, I’m not doing anything fancy. The car is being built back to OEM specs.

After locating a salvaged ’96 Contour ATX from a ghettotastic salvage yard at Grand River and Warren (heart of the ‘hood in Detroit) I started into the project. Well, every single exhaust bolt broke in the process of dropping the trans. Needless to say, my one week job turned into two and a half weeks of welding studs and tapping new exhaust holes. Eventually, I got the new salvaged transmission up into place. To my utter disappointment though… I replaced a transmission that a perfectly good worked reverse with a transmission that now has NOTHING! Zip, zilch, nadda, void, null!!!

…dangit! :mad:

I checked the transmission fluid after letting the motor warm up, and its right at full (actually, about one quart over-full). All three of the electrical connectors are plugged in, and the shifter mechanism seems to be working correctly since the park pin engages. After putting a pressure gauge on the fluid outlet (going to the cooler), I register a big fat z-e-r-o PSI on the gauge. :nonono:

Thinking the pump was bad, I removed the entire transmission (again) with the though of rebuilding the pump. However, to my surprise, the salvage yard sold me a transmission WITHOUT the square pump shaft installed. I should have pulled the torque converter out of the transmission when I originally bought the piece, shame on me, but why in the hell did the yard decide to pull the pump shaft out?

Crazy!

I’m hoping to have everything buttoned up by this afternoon, but with this latest discovery, I’m apprehensive about how long this yard tranny will last. Knowing this, I’m attempting to rebuild the original transmission so I can have a “spare” laying around. Anyone who has ever owned a CD4E for more than 100,000 miles will know that having a “spare” transmission laying around is a good investment.

Onto my questions and discoveries…
I tore into the original transmission in hopes to figure out why I had no forward gears. Well, it didn’t take me long to confirm that the spring assembly inside the forward drum is wasted. Rather than try to explain what it looks like, I’ll simply post some pictures of my discovery:

This is the REVERSE side of the drum assembly. Notice the neat and orderly springs:
IMG_0127.jpg

IMG_0126.jpg


Now, this is the FORWARD side of the drum. I think I’ve figured out why the car didn’t have any more forward gears:
IMG_0129.jpg

IMG_0130.jpg

IMG_0131.jpg


I’ve called around to a few different transmission shops, but they only claim to sell the “bare” drum. When I ask them about the spring assembly, they shake their heads and say “non-serviceable part”.

Is this true? A quick search on Craigslist shows a bunch of these older Contours with no forward gears. Either there is a more popular failure that kills forwards gears, or this drum assembly failure of mine is indeed the culprit of all these failures and all of us are screwed because this ain’t fixable. :(

Does anybody know how to replace, or have an instruction manual detailing, the spring assembly? It didn’t look intuitively obvious to me. Also, can somebody please confirm, or deny, if this part can indeed be serviced?

I thank everyone in advance,
-Bayley

P.S. I realize this is a rather lengthy first post. Being so, I welcome anyone to poke around in my photobucket directory if they so desire. All the pictures are public and I’ve got a bunch of misc stuff on there. A few videos from a recent trip to Nürbergring, a blast on the Autobahn in a Lamborghini Gallardo prototype, my boat, my kid, a blown turbo and a shirtless Eric Estrada with a bath towel ( :shocked: you’ve been warned!)
 
I wasn't able to locate just the springs but it looks like it's all one assembly. Hope the pic works.
 

Attachments

  • CD4E_Exploded_View[1].pdf
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Excellent! Thanks for the exploded drawing. I was sort of wondering how I was going to put all this back together again. It looks like the part I need is number "210". I'll have to make a trip to the stealership and see if they carry it.
 
This is part of the ATX rebuild picture story (by btrautman), from the old CEG
Spring as it should look, scroll down a bitLooks like the bottom of the spring, and possibly a washer,disappeared! Also try CD4EFAQ where there is some more "Old Forum" information. I have the entire ATX rebuild picture story if you need it, the post on the old forum lacks images.
 
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I have the entire ATX rebuild picture story if you need it, the post on the old forum lacks images.

If you could please e-mail the story to bayley(at)gmail.com, I would forever be in debt.

Also, I need to "expedite" the rebuilding process of this transmission since the junk yard transmission I just installed refuses to shift into second gear... goes straight from first into third. :mad:
 
refuses to shift into 2nd

refuses to shift into 2nd

Does it also refuse to shift into 4th? Mine did not have 2nd or 4th and it was a broken band. Easy fix, well that is after you remove from the car and remove EVERYTHING from the transmission.

Rebuilt mine in January, drove to Mexico pulling a trailer at 80 mph and back. No problems no sweat
 
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