Hi All,
Well today I went and bought myself a '94 T&C for $200 that has 145k miles on it, and what appears to be a shot transmission. Other than that it appears to be OK, beyond a number of piddly things like the sliding door latch is out of adjustment, woodgrain strips on the side are peeling, etc. No rust (here in the pacific NW we don't have much snow and so don't salt the roads)
This vehicle is an AWD vehicle, with the 3.8L engine. The transmission only goes into 1 gear - 1st. No reverse gear, no nothing else. A lit of noisy buzzing when attempting to put it in reverse.
I bought this specifically as a project car to have fun with. It also helps that we already own a 1995 T&C. (not AWD and no woodgrain sides, though) With the rental on the trailer to go fetch it, and the fuel, and the registration and retitling, I think we will slide in just under $400. I can definitely afford to make some mistakes with a $400 minivan! ;-)
The previous owner gave me a raft of C&B story but I expected that. He did cough up some receipts showing that he was getting overcharged on various nickel and dime repairs by some of the local chop shops. ($100 to turn a rotor?) And he claimed that when the trans went bad that he took it to two trans shops who told him the only thing wrong was the trans computer. He also claimed to have replaced the solenoid assembly.
Anyway, I plugged in the scan too and interrogated the trans computer, it claimed no fault codes, gave me some readings for the clutch volume indexes, the readouts for the speed sensors, things like that. I have a hard time believing the trans computer is bad when it's giving me data about the trans, anyone seen this before?
My instant diagnosis is that there's been an internal failure in the trans, and it has to come out. The quick diagnostic flow charts in the manual seem to say that if reverse is gone, pull the transaxle out and disassemble and inspect. Any suggestions on this other than to run through the scan tool tests?
Now, another question - how difficult is it to pull this trans with a standard trans jack and jackstands? I've read through the archives and some people say it's impossible and a hell of a job due to inadequate clearance, others say it's easy and there's enough clearance. Any suggestions here?
Now, my last question - has anyone bought the rebuild kids by Transmission Exchange?
Ted