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Clunk? CD4E Question

Z

ZeroHour

Mod/Salad Tosser
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Joined
Feb 7, 2005
Messages
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Location
Eastern PA
:cry:

On the way home today, had to make a hard stop after the guy I was following in traffic decided to turn into another lane last minute and left a stopped dodge Ram in front of him. :blackeye:

Made the stop with a few feet left, but when I got off the brake and touch the gas, the transmission made a clunk of death kinda noise. It felt like the the trans stored all the energy and just let it rip back into the car from a dead stop. Needless to say I was very worried the rest of the way home.

This has happened twice before that I remember, once was for a fawn (god damn deer) and another for a hidden stop sign ( :blackeye: way to go penn dot). My mothers old old blazer did this for years, but I'm not sure if its normal for the trans to do such things under super hard, sudden braking.

Any suggestions?

Stats, and descriptions:
-V6 86k on original motor and trans (as far as I know)
-Did the dump and fill twice about 70-75K, added a little of the Lucas oil transmission treatment.
-Drives like a normal automatic, does not know how to take hills, down shifts to up shift 100 feet later on an incline. Shifts early if your not on the gas. Generally shifts feel smooth or mild hard (aka I can tell its shifting) in normal use.
-Has been mildly abused. No neutral drops except once in traffic when an oversized gatorade rolled off the passenger seat and hit the shifter into neutral. Just kinda instincively put it back in gear right away, and it shifted pretty hard, but did not seem any worse for the wear.
-Sometimes I can feel it wants to shift early, when it doesn't have too, and if you hit the gas it shifts, and if you let it go it shifts. Pretty much any movement on the TPS cause it to shift. But the car has been that way since I got it. (around 20K miles)
 
The clunk is usually a sign of excessive gear lash in the differential or a planetary set. However, I've never heard of that in our CD4E. They usually all die the same way (good old P1744!). I would check your CV joints for play. Hold onto the inner side of the axle where it meets the trans and have a friend turn one of the wheels a little bit. There shouldn't be any play. If there is, try replacing the axle. That can definitely make a clunk.

If all else fails, just drive it and hope for the best, and in the meantime, try to source a used CD4E.
 
I'm pretty sure it wasn't an axle. It was after coming to the full stop, I hit the gas, and the trans didn't seemed ingaged until right after the clunk. Then it drove off like normal. Kinda felt like if there was a wound spring, and it kicked as the trans re-engaged.

Is there a kickdown sensor/solenoid? I have not messed with the transmission besides the fluid and the TSS. I ordered the revised one and put that in before Christmas.
 
No kickdown sensor- CD4Es are electronically controlled.

Check your line pressure. Low pressure can cause slow application of the clutch packs.
 
Been talking to some other people, might be a transmission mount. I noted when I had my car up in the air to paint the calipers that the trans was almost sitting on the subframe. Would explain some of the hard shifts if the motor is jolting itself.

I will try to search and find some more info.
 
well I can half see the tranny mount on the passenger side above the trans. But how exactly can I tell if it is bad? I just kinda wondering if there is a way to confirm a bad tranny mount before I order a 60-80 mount especially if I don't need to.
 
The mounts which will "break" are the driver fender to tranny, front and rear. The passenger side one usually last "forever". The easy way to tell for the driver fender to tranny is if the tranny is seating on the subframe. As for the front or rear ones, if it looks like it is "squished", it's bad.
 
My tranny is about 3/8 of an inch from the subframe with tires on the ground. Good bad? I don't really recall if it use to sit higher.


I looked at the pictures from when I painted my calipers, the tranny is sitting on the subframe with the suspension unsprung.
 
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Sounds like possibly a mount to me. Hard brake application winds up the entire drivetrain because broken mount allows for much more unrestrained movement. Don't think that you can always look at mount and verify good, they get buried well enough now so that sometimes only way you can tell is to have it out of the car, sitting in your hand, THEN you can clearly see it's destroyed. The back one that's by firewall especially bad about that. All mounts sag some with time.
 
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