96 Mark VIII LSC trans problems

P

Pete M

Registered
Hi, my buddy's 96 LSC is having some major issues. One day, out of the blue, the car decided that it doesn't want to go forward. Well, that's not entirely accurate. If you fire it up and put it into drive, it will idle forward like normal. But revving the engine affects absolutely nothing. The car won't go any faster. Oddly enough, in reverse it seems to work sorta fine. Oh, and putting it into 2 or 1 doesn't change anything. To my knowledge, the car didn't show any sign of issues the day before. Could this be a sensor problem? My searches didn't bring up anything that was quite like this.
Thanks,
--Pete
 
Ditto. Sounds like fluid loss to me, especially that all the gears are out. Typically when a trans goes it will lose select gears or forward or revers, but not always all of them.
 
Not personally, but he says the guy at the shop said the level was fine. Maybe I should swing by and pay it a visit.
--Pete
 
Is it possible to lose just first? Could the car ever shift into second if it can't go faster than 5mph?
--Pete
 
Welcome. :)

I would certainly check the fluid level first.

Go to the transmission tech section at TCCOA.com for in depth description of symptoms of various failures.
 
Pete M said:
Is it possible to lose just first? Could the car ever shift into second if it can't go faster than 5mph?
--Pete
Click to expand...

Yeah...put the shifter in 2nd. That locks the tranny into 2nd no matter how fast you're going (0-100 mph).
 
Is there a synopsis somewhere on swapping in a 98 transmission? I see all sorts of suggestions to do that in the posts I'm finding, but no detailed articles on what all is necessary. Although my searches are hampered because I can't look for "98".
Thanks,
--Pete
 
Lots of great reading. I'm being overwhelmed with info. :( automatics were never my thing.

another question, car-part.com shows 2 choices for '98 mark8 transmissions, w/ID PKE-AD and w/o ID PKE-AD. Any idea what that ID tag means?
thanks,
--Pete
 
Well, we obtained a ~70k mile w/ID PKE-AD '98 trans for $350 and rewired the harness to spec. So far so good, but we ran into some difficulties with removing it (mostly due to rusty bolts) and had to turn to a local shop to do the rest of the grunt work. Oh well, at least we tried. But the shop wasn't able to finish it yesterday and so we don't yet know if all of our efforts will come to fruition. We'll learn that on Monday. I'll keep ya posted. I really really want this to succeed the first try. The trans guy swore left and right that a 98 trans won't work in a 96 car. :D
Thanks,
--Pete
 
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I'm sure they know a lot, but ya gotta admit this isn't exactly an everyday swap. The part numbers are different after all. :D Hahahahaha...
Unfortunately I'm going to be out of town when the car is done. I just wish I could be there to see the look on the guy's face if it all works perfectly.
--Pete
 
It's real hard to think positive when it comes to Mike's vehicles. He hasn't had very good luck with them . I do what I can to keep them going.
--Pete
 
Well, the trans seems to be working just fine thanks to the almighty internet (and obviously this site in particular). :D Now we just need to figure out why the one headlight is dim. :rolleyes:
Thanks!
--Pete
 
Oops, just realized I didn't say that quite right. I meant that the new trans seems to be working just fine. I made it sound like we fixzed th old one (which we didn't). The trans guy's best guess was that the clutch plates were toast. I kept the old trans to guinea pig (I've never had to opportunity to tear into an automatic before) so maybe when I do I'll find out what was wrong.
--Pete
 
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