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Transmission troubleshooting

D

Datonaku

CEG'er
Joined
Aug 6, 2015
Messages
40
Location
Charleston, SC
Alright guys, there's a local SVT thats been sitting for almost a year now that I found, guy is selling it real cheap and I miss my contour so I'm thinking about grabbing it. Only issue is it's got transmission problems. I looked thru alot of posts but nothing describes what I was told, I'm going to go look at the car this weekend, the guy said he bought the car with a bad trans had a cougar trans put into it, ran for about 6 months then took a ****. He says it still has reverse just no forward gears and says it tries to move while in [FONT=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]neutral. Any pointers for me for when I go to check it out to see if I don't have to replace the whole trans? I highly doubt it's the shift linkage since it can get reverse, I'm hoping maybe it could be a quick easy fix, instead of sourcing another transmission for cheap cause I live the broke life right now. anything but a new transmission hahaha[/FONT]
 
sittign for a year? fuel issues... what year? wiring problems for 98s.. dash warp for 99 and 00... lots to look at besides trans
 
it's a 2000, car looks good, i'm just trying to source the transmission problem. Troubleshooting just the trans is my worry. I already know what I'm getting into. before I buy it, i just wanna know if I'm looking at a rebuild for the transmission or maybe just something simple.
 
Absolutely no way can anyone determine that except you, and could easily be shifter or linkage. 'Bad trans' is commonly incompetence, I've fixed many with only a couple of parts, it really has to be bad to have to junk the whole thing. Like running with no oil for a long period of time.
 
buy it cheap.. worst you gotta do is replace the trans.. whi8le your in there.. do axles, sway bar bushing etc..come out good to go!
 
alright guys I'm going to this contour today finally.He says it still has reverse just no forward gears and says it tries to move while in neutral. I just need some direction to go off of, I read that it could be the shift tower, there's a pin that falls out, are there any other common issues I should look for. the car had a cougar transmission put in it,and he said he put shorter wheelaxels on. What other common issues could it be?
 
If the shift tower was an issue there would be no gears at all. There are so many things it could be .... bad diff .... cable ends, loose shifter in the car .... etc.

What is this about shorter axles? That is BS ....
 
Alright so after towing the car Home I know it's stuck in reverse. Seems like it tries to come out in nuteral but it's still in gear. Imma pull the shift tower tomorrow and see how that looks. I haven't done much tinkering yet but the cables seem fine. Shifter does move like it should
 
The guy said a shop did the work, he said they were full of ****. I got paperwork to look through and I'll see what's been changed.
 
Datonaku said:
Alright so after towing the car Home I know it's stuck in reverse. Seems like it tries to come out in nuteral but it's still in gear. Imma pull the shift tower tomorrow and see how that looks. I haven't done much tinkering yet but the cables seem fine. Shifter does move like it should
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This sounds like the shift tower. If the bolt or weld (depending on tower) lets go the vehicle can be stuck in gear but the shifter will move freely, iirc. Normally the tower can not be removed while its in gear. If you are lucky you will be able to remove it. Also if it is the bolt, you need to get all pieces of it out of the transmission .... which means pulling it.

So I would get ready to pull the transmission out of the car.
 
I was planning to go pull a shift tower from a focus at the junkyard. It's a cougar transmission currently. Guy left out alotta info, there's a lot of work needed. I'll have some pictures later.
 
No Title

Alright I've removed the shift tower and I don't think that is the problem here, It came right out with no problems in neutral. The car was still in gear before I took out the trans mount. Any other ideas guys.
 

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Shift forks are all lined up like it should be in neutral. I'm gonna put the mount back on without the tower and see if the car moves freely again
 
Beans said:
Correct you'll need later style contour cables and then focus ends .
Click to expand...

There it is .... also the final drive in a Focus transmission is going to be different than the Contour with a V6. I would stick to a Contour/Cougar V6 MTX-75.
 
Datonaku said:
Alright I've removed the shift tower and I don't think that is the problem here, It came right out with no problems in neutral. The car was still in gear before I took out the trans mount. Any other ideas guys.
Click to expand...

Make sure that the tower is ok. That is the later model "Focus style" tower that has a weld instead of a bolt. The weld can also break.

Now that the tower is out and the shift cables are free, how do they move?
 
The tower works as it should, even with all three forks lined up the car is still in gear. My only guess is internal. Gonna pull the trans when I finally feel like going out there.
 
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