dazed and confused

Ok, first of all, I wanna appologize in advance if I am repeating issues that have previously been discussed. I have been reading previous posts all night long to try to see if I could figure out my problem without starting a new post, unfortunately, I think I am just getting confused at the tons of possibilities.

Ok....here we go. I let a very close friend borrow the car for a few days while his towncar was in the shop. He babies cars worse than I do. He called me to tell me that It wasnt going into 3rd gear (by the way its a 94 mark VIII)

I went up to his place today to see what it was doing exactly and decided to drive it the 35ish miles back home. as I start off, it shifts fine from 1st to 2nd. then, it just stays in second gear and doesnt go into 3rd for a little bit then seems to slip into neutral. Fluid level looks fine and the fluid is not burnt or discolored. Once it slips into what feels like neutral, it will just rev up until the car slows down enough to catch the lower gear (not sure if its 1st or 2nd) but I think its slipping back into second. so after about 5 miles of slipping out of gear, I manually put it in 2nd gear and limped it back home at 40 miles an hour.

If this was your car, where would you start?

also, not sure if this is related or not, but I noticed that the screen kept randomly flashing low fuel level about every 10 or 15 minutes even though it has almost a half of a tank......HELP

I dont wanna have to replace the tranny.

You dont want to here my answer but I am almost certain its going to need to be rebuilt.

The last one I had that did that was replaced by Lincoln on warranty. It was in a 20k mi 1994.

lol yeah, I didnt wanna hear that...ok, so as im looking for other options, what other transmissions will fit it? for example, will the transmission from a towncar or a mustang fit?

I'm pretty sure late 90's early 2000 mustang trans will work. try to get a 98+ trans as they are more refined Rather it be from a stang or mk8. Check car-parts.com for a used unit near you. will cost anywhere from 300 to 600.

Also i beleive you have to swith some wires on the main harness plug on the 98+ trans. Pretty simple from what i hear, i cant find the tech article on it though.

Transmission is shot. Most common failure is the loss of gear 3 and 4.

I would MAKE SURE to get a 4r70W that is 98+ i think you can only go as new as 03 though. And some TC etc used different tail shafts that were longer. I can't remember which ones though.

Exact same thing happened to mine. It's a goner.

I had mine rebuilt with upgraded parts and a shift kit. WOW, what a difference!

jaygrant said:

as I start off, it shifts fine from 1st to 2nd. then, it just stays in second gear and doesnt go into 3rd for a little bit

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Before you condone the trans....do me a favor and answer some q's.

Does the transmission "hang" in first gear and rev way up the RPM band before shifting into 2nd? The reason I ask is that the throttle position center could be telling the ECU that you have the throttle to the floor when in reality you don't. This will cause the transmission to hold the gears longer.

Try taking it for a drive and manually shifing it from 1st to 2nd, and then 3rd. (you probably won't get it to shift into 3rd by manually shifting it though).

How many miles are on the car?

Mine did something similiar to that and it was the one way intermediate clutch. It's amazing after tearing it apart that it would last that long. The clutch is only needle bearings and plastic. Anyway I installed a 98 tranny that I picked up on car-parts for $200. It does require re-pinning the harness and changing the TCC solenoid. You could have your's rebuilt and they should update that clutch with the newer style, but it's gonna cost you at least a $1,000.

"but it's gonna cost you at least a $1,000."

.....and probably more!

thanks for the answers guys. sorry I have been away from the pc for a few days. I'm about to look on car-parts now, and to answer your questions J, its not hanging at all. actually shifts perfectly from 1st to 2nd. shifting manually gives me the same results. 1st to 2nd is fine, then nothing in 3rd. im preparing for a new tranny. looks like a new one is gonna be less than rebuilding mine. the car has roughly 260k on it. and im sure its all original. i bought it from an elderly lady for 400.00 when the front airbags went out. she parked it and bought a new lexus. she was the original owner of the car. well, for 400.00 i cranked it up, watched the front of the car rise about half way, then bounced it the reeeeeeeallllly long 35 miles back home. couple of new air struts later, and I was riding sweet........till the last trip that is, when i got to go 35 to 40 miles an hour on the 50 mile trip back home when the tranny took a dump. all in all, I think i got my moneys worth out of it. now I just have to decide if I wanna fix the tranny or part out everything else. hmmmmmmmm. sucks.

HOLY CRAP! 260k on the original...I'm thinking its HAD to have been built before. You were just driving on a prayer, lol. Ask around here before you commit, a lot of members have bought our vendors transmissions with much success. BTW, I say you've got your money's worth too.

J said:

Ask around here before you commit, a lot of members have bought our vendors transmissions with much success.

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That being said:

1. Avoid Reinhart. The valve body failed within 500 miles, and the 2ND tranny of his was on its way out when I totaled my 93. Read my vendor review regarding the way he treated me also.

2. Avoid Supercoupe Performance. For the most part, they supply great stuff, even stuff you can't find elsewhere, but they are still selling Art Carr trannies. I'm not sure exactly how mine failed, but something in it seized up completely, so much that the engine wouldn't even turn over in PARK.

3. I'm currently running a Blue Oval Chip stage 3 tranny...and I'm somewhat hard on it. As I said elsewhere, I manual shift a lot, which is torture on these. It's got 15K miles on it with very little trouble, though with the shifting and solid lock TC, I seem to be burning up tranny fluid after 5-10K miles. And Lonnie is both very knowledgable, and very nice to deal with. Tough to find these days. Lastly, his prices are on par with the others.