'98 Mystique - I4, ATX - 1st gear slip

[Captain Caveman]

I'm amazed continually at the store by people who sound like they understand but in the end miss the most basic things in their diagnosis of things gone awry...........no insult intended or implied to OP of course.

No offense taken (from anyone).

Perhaps this nugget will help.... I only see the car a time or two a week, I agree to keep her vehicles going (within reason), thus any time I pop hoods it serves me well to have all available information well-written into my head (such as that is, lol). Aside from the thing that I haven't seen her this week, I'll continue to gather all available information about this car. It's in great shape overall, so I predict a few years of doing maintenance and repairs on it. Of course, you guys didn't know all that.......

She's doing manual shifting right now.... (L1 and L2 are both fine btw)

Next week, I hope to get the car for a day (and let her drive mine. ug.) and do testing, fluid changes, fix a few doo-dads, etc...

 

[Captain Caveman]

Alright... it's raining outside, so I only did the round connector plug trick. (I presume the plug in the pic is the correct plug, yes?)

Car pulls great with plug removed - and it definitely felt like 2nd gear in forward motion, and reverse gear in reverse of course.

I'm posting the pic of the connector, just for reference to anyone following along (and hasn't experienced doing this). Pic was taken from just above the driver's front wheel, with the air box removed.

I thought I was going to poke a ford engineer in the eye until I saw how easy the air filter box came out. heh



To anyone doing this, make sure the metal clip is seated firmly in the groove on both sides when putting it back together (not totally below the "slot", or one side mis-aligned). I caught myself installing the clip wrongly when I double checked it. It could've been a problem!

 

[Captain Caveman]

On Thursday we plan to fluid change/inspect, clean under the hood well.. and IF I can find my fluke meter we'll go over the MLPS (resistance checks) as given in another post.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Shame on me.

The tranny fluid was not as clean as I'd thought or reported. Actually, it was rather nasty.

After a fluid change (four quarts in the pan, 11-12 more doing a fluid exchange), the total accumulated sediment from the old fluid was surprisingly very little. My A4LD would be proud.
I only found a dozen or so particles that were larger than a fleck, and none were bigger than a capital "E" in a newspaper. The total sediment wouldn't fill up an thimble, not even close.

We donated a quart to wash out the pan a bit, just dumped it in there with the drain plug removed too.

.

See is driving the thing for another week or so before we proceed further. I seriously do *not* think we'll get "lucky" and new fluid free things up and fix the problem.

 

[andreslobo]

Was the transmission fluid brown and did it have a burnt smell? If so you likely have burned clutches. If that is the case, a complete transmission overhaul. You will need special tools (or make them from pvc pipe and all thread) to remove the clutch packs. An absolute must is the large seal installation tool set. If you nick one of the seals you'll be back inside. As stated before, check your oil pump pressures per the transmission rebuild manual before you dissassemble as you may have a pump problem (likely not though)

Or given the likely value of the car, drive it until it goes no more.

 

[Captain Caveman]

It didn't really seem like burnt fluid, so much as just OLD and very dirty. Like dirty motor oil with a reddish tint. lol

I've seen "burned" fluid - that smell is unmistakable.

(off topic)
I remember servicing a hydraulic forming press in a factory one time, where they'd been using it as a punch press. The cooling system lost it's prime (in August), and they ran it until it stopped (it wouldn't develop any pressure to speak of - the fluid got so thin it just leaked everywhere). That was the nastiest stuff I ever drained - and they didn't understand why I drained it out after it had been at 200+F.

That's totally unrelated, but it came to mind. If you've ever "been there", you might find it humorous. heh