Hi. My 1981 Ford Granada 2.8 Auto came home on a tow truck yesterday. The gearbox lost all drive, though by the time the RAC arrived an hour later some drive had been restored. The gearbox oil is a grubby brown colour and the car can just about move for a few yards before drive is lost again. Am I right in thinking that this points to either low gearbox oil level, failure of the torque converter or failure of the gearbox? The car is fitted with the later type box, still 3 speed, but uses the later specification gearbox oil. It has covered 55k miles but only gets used for approx. 1500 miles each year. It is fitted with a vacuum system that the Haynes manual says can fail leading to fluid loss. Sadly the Haynes manual says consult a dealer, but that means spending big pennies which I don't have at the moment. Is there anyway I can test the effectiveness of the torque converter, or should I try to find a second hand box? Also does the torque converter get its supply of oil from the gearbox or is it a sealed unit? I had a quote this morning for £1600 to rebuild the box which is about twice the value of the car!!! As it is quite a rare Minster stretched model it is probably too good to break/scrap. Thoughts, comments, advice please.....
- posted
17 years ago