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I guess I am LOSING my Contour

No prob. If my baby ever gets totaled with an intact tranny I'll know who to tell first ^.^

Btw I saw rebuilt/warrantied CD4E on ebay for like $700 + shipping, still doesn't let you put it in though

And just so you know, my tranny shop never removed the engine, they had the wheels off and the car up on a lift, but the engine was still in there. I looked ^.^ Well, best travels and I hope that it becomes something that you can do in the end.

edit-my transmission shop also said that there is definitely situation where transmission can have a code without flashing CEL or OD light
 
I hope your car never gets totalled man.
Did they really pull your ATX out without removing the engine???
If so, maybe a little hope for me in the future.

I will check again but my Haynes manual calls for engine removal to reach the ATX if I am not mistaken.
 
Unless they pulled the engine + atx out and then put the engine back in w/o the ATX while rebuilding it ( which makes absolutely no sense to me )
Only hangup they had removing it is they said that there were bolts that wouldn't let go until they were introduced to some fire, because between being leased in MI, raised in NJ and living in FL I guess it got some rust on it.
 
Forward clutch snap ring groove. It breaks off and pieces go through tranny. Many times symptoms can come and go, making person think problem cured when it's really just winding up for the big shutdown. There is a modified part to replace with but good luck finding it. I did luckily. Using a used or 'rebuilt' forward/direct/coast drum assembly is just asking for the trouble again, and much earlier. I went through several tranny parts the supplier was trying to sell me, some of which had the cracks in groove already, getting ready to explode someone else's car. They don't care as long as car makes 90 day warranty.
 
I really do not want to buy a new or refurbished tranny and put it in. Because I have to remove the ATX for this anyways. If I can get the ATX out somehow, I would try to disassemble and rebuild it myself. I don't care how much trouble it might be. I have never done it in my life but there is always first. And I would like to learn new things.

amc49, how did you remove your ATX. Assuming you did remove it; didn't you?
 
I made up a wooden copy of Ford's 3 point engine support that sits on the rail inside fenderwells. Dropped trans through bottom of car. Did not take too much stuff loose from engine, but pass side mount must be pretty much off to allow the depth required to get all low enough. Motor stays close to in place but tilted at a pretty severe angle to allow trans to get low and unbolt. Then motor pulled back up in close to normal location and pass mount bolted on to stabilize that end and bricks/short boards put under pan to level and support most of engine weight. On a '98 zetec you CANNOT pull trans alone from top, motor too long compared to the six. Even pulling belt, pulleys and damper from motor will not clear flywheel studs/convertor enough to separate. Looks like will but won't, you need like 2 inches extra to disengage parts inside bellhousing plus also clear driver end of trans to frame rail. Going back in has its' problems also, that trans is weirdly shaped on bottom, no place to center a cheap jack under it, I made an extra pull point on the engine/trans support to be able to adjust tilt of trans in 2 planes so easy to keep tilted so convertor does not fall out of place and to get correct angles for easy motor/trans bolt starting. When subframe pulled, must be realigned when bolting back up. I lucked out with correct sized OD deep sockets to use as alignment tools. Car drove straight as arrow after the repair, front end still in straight to rear. Job not as hard as I thought, but definitely a good sized chunk of work. Lots to do there.
 
amc49,

I am trying to invision the position of the car and the engine when you pulled the tranny out.

1. Did you have to free the engine from the two roll resistors located on the front and rear subframe? Asking this because by just removig the tranny mount, I don't think the engine will tilt so much.
2. Was the car on the jack stands? If so, what was the clearance between the bottom of the car and the floor?
3. Was the car level or higher on the drivers side to get more clearance?

I would love to see some pictures but I am sure you don't have any.
I am trying to see what my chances are to position the car in my garage for this extensive work.
 
Roll resistors must be off so entire subframe can come off, meaning both sides of car must have the strut/knuckle disconnected from the LCA at ball joint. A/C system must be cracked open to remove accumulator which is in the way of working area. I plugged the openings with some heater hose and clamps to preserve the accumulator. It must not be open to atmosphere more than 24 hours or no good anymore. The tilting necessary was from side to side of car, not front to rear. Tilt viewed from the front of car. Trans dropped lower and lower, car high on jackstands, enough room to lower and remove trans once broken loose from the engine at a heavy tilt. Car was level side to side. I measured clearance room but don't remember, there was room to just slide trans out without hanging up underneath. When finished, car not moveable because no wheels or front suspension, my job done outdoors, kept potential city inspectors off my butt by quickly throwing subframe back on along with tires/wheels to look like complete vehicle. They get antsy around here if a car sits without looking like used regularly. My biggest problem was finding all the trans internal parts to do job correctly. You'll need a bunch if that snap ring groove came apart, the resultant damage is usually pretty extensive. Also, there are several very critical clearance checks that must be made and accounted for if any big parts are changed in the rotating mass stack. You can't just change out the bad parts and go unless you enjoy high risk of re-blowup. The special measuring tools alone cost a bundle, I managed to rig every one of mine for super cheap. Believe me, the work only just begun with trans out, these are quite complicated if you wish to absolutely guarantee LONGTERM success. If mine doesn't go another 10 years I'll be pissed, on 3rd year now. Still runs bulletproof so far.
 
Thank you for that valuable info amc. I appreciate it. It now looks like there is more to it than just removing the trans. After reading your above reply, I started thinking that how disasterous it would be to finish all the job to find out that you did something wrong or missed something and the trans is still not working properly. Ouch!..

Could you tell me one more thing? To the best of your knowledge, how much would this rebuild cost me? (provided that I do all the labor and buy all the parts from the right sources)
 
Mine cost roughly $600 for parts, me doing it. That's new entire kit, band, fibers, steels, all bonded pistons, TOTALLY rebuilt convertor, all needle thrust washers, F/C/D cylinder, direct shell, couple others I don't remember names of, pump driveshaft, Transgo kit for line pressure fix, drive chain, bushing kit, and other small parts. Got most at prices most can't get. A trans part shop here in Dallas sold to me at rebuilder prices, also some cheap online deals. The wood engine fixture $40, maybe $35 in made up one off specialty parts to disassemble clutch packs and measure end clearances. It will be EXTREMELY difficult for most to duplicate my results for that cheap. Not saying I know everything because I dang sure don't, but I can put in attention to details to fix things in ways most people do not have patience to do. I just thought of the $80-90 dollar an hour the dealership gets and figured I will never be paid better. The way I did it, you couldn't get that amount of detail for $3500+. It was a challenge to see if I could repeat what the original builders did. I got a lot of respect for the guys who slam parts like that home all day, they know their stuff. Much precision required. Don't even think about doing it without a detailed manual.
 
$600 you spent after providing all the labor!.. Phew... Lot more than I expected to be honest. I was thinking that parts would cost no more than $200. I was way off in my guess.

I was told that a tranny shop would typically charge around $1500-2000 for this kind of job and now after reading how meticulously you rebuilt yours, I am pretty sure that they don't even get close to what you have done yourself. The only things you didn't replace is probably the planetary gears and the case of the tranny if I were to guess.
Admirable work! Wish I would have been there to watch.


I really don't know how I will pull this job off myself but I know one thing that if I get into this tranny, I will restore it to the original factory condition by changing and cleaning every bit of nuts and bolts in it. I am very meticulous and neat on my stuff and I know I would produce an okay job at the end. But an extensive work like this(definitely the most complicated DIY I will have ever attempted-if I go for it:)) would take me anywhere between 3 to 6 months I imagine. May sound so unreal but I know myself and I would easily spend that much time between learning and getting the parts...
One other important thing I need to consider is that if I am going to be staying in my property for that long. In this unstable economy, I really don't know how long I would be in my current property. Moving out of my place while the tranny torn apart, parts all over the garage is not a pretty picture.
Lots to think about...

I keep asking you questions but could you also tell me the condition of your tranny when you did this rebuild? What was it doing? Was it driveable? Milage/year? And most importantly did it fail all of a sudden w/o any warning?
 
Yeah, I have that saved on my database already. Tony posted a link to that Rebuild site in his post #12.
Thanks anyways though.

This is gonna be a challenging job for me. I am not even sure if I will go for it at this moment. If I let somebody do it, it will take alot of money. If I do it, it will take tons of time(and it will still cost pretty amount).
I am weighing all my options but none looks promising.
Considering the age of the car and all the other issue I have with it, it is definitely not logical to go forward with this repair. But I like this car very much that I still want to do it.

I have a friend that runs a small mechanic shop. He has a lift. I will talk to him and see if he can give me a deal on this. If he can pull the tranny out, I can take it back to my garage and rebuild it and then he can reinstall it maybe. Just a thought though we will see.
 
iskoos said:
Yeah, I have that saved on my database already. Tony posted a link to that Rebuild site in his post #12.
Thanks anyways though.

This is gonna be a challenging job for me. I am not even sure if I will go for it at this moment. If I let somebody do it, it will take alot of money. If I do it, it will take tons of time(and it will still cost pretty amount).
I am weighing all my options but none looks promising.
Considering the age of the car and all the other issue I have with it, it is definitely not logical to go forward with this repair. But I like this car very much that I still want to do it.

I have a friend that runs a small mechanic shop. He has a lift. I will talk to him and see if he can give me a deal on this. If he can pull the tranny out, I can take it back to my garage and rebuild it and then he can reinstall it maybe. Just a thought though we will see.
Click to expand...
you could always do an mtx swap into it:crazy: but seriously they are cheaper transmissions and if you got the car to mr svttour id say he could source your parts and do the swap for ya fairly cheap:shrug:
 
Bear in mind that maybe $200 of that cash went toward replacing parts that were destroyed when the snap ring groove failed. I recouped a couple, they are running in trans now and you wouldn't believe it if you saw the parts. The inside of the low/reverse drum is totally destroyed, but outside is where the clutches run, even though looks horrible, part still not compromised as far as overall strength. Those pieces of groove cannot exit without going through several turning shells, anytime that particular thing happens it won't be pretty unless just by absolute luck one catches it right at the very start. Five minutes running with shrapnel inside enough to do the damage. Mine never made a sound, just suddenly acted like slammed on brake then nothing.
 
amc49 said:
Mine never made a sound, just suddenly acted like slammed on brake then nothing.
Click to expand...

Yah that's what happened to me, I had just gotten a stalling problem fixed ( my coil was cracked and I had a naughty crank sensor ) and driving down US1 when I do 50 to 0 in about 100 yards...fun! the car managed to make it five miles back home in first/second gear, but once I shut it off all of the debris from the snap ring settled and jammed the transmission pump. In hindsight I should have taken a picture of the twisted catastrophe they showed me was left of the snap ring and something else associated with it, hehe.

As far as doing the rebuild iskoos, remember to value your own time as well, how much is a few weekends of this worth in self-salary? If I'm given something that's really a PITA to fix like an old powerbook or a crapped out xbox there is only so much I will do before I just say 'well the hours I'd spend on tearing down this damned thing just to solder on a 20 cent DC jack is worth more than the actual product is to me, I'd rather not bother.

er, computers vs cars is apples and oranges at times, but I'm sure you get the drift of things.
 
Look at it in terms of future knowledge. I totally ragged out a 1970 AMC Javelin Mark Donahue Special, worth potentially a lot of cash now. In hindsight though, it was a very cheap training course for how a car works. Man I messed with EVERYTHING on that car. Car ended up in the scrap heap but it set me on the path to doing everything myself.
 
draconianspark,

If I were to act whether or not this repair is worth(common sense), the answer would be bright obvious. I just don't want to say bye to my car and all the research/questions I am doing here is for that very reason. To see what the best case scenario would be.

Also like amc put it, "Look at it in terms of future knowledge." but everything has a breaking point. I am not going to spend $2000 on a $500 stuff. Needless to say, the car has other isssues. They are less important but they are still issues I need to address somehow.

I don't know at this moment. Time will show I guess...

I will still hang out in this forum to help others(the best I can) and learn more. I like the community here and not saying bye..:)
 
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