Trans failure question
 

Ok. So I'm driving home and the car starts to feel a little sluggish. I have a hill I drive up to get to my driveway and as I'm coming up it suddenly I loose drive AND reverse. No noise, actually killed the engine. Upon restarting, nothing.

Checked the trans level and it over full.., it was spot on 2 weeks ago and I have not added any.

I have to car up on jacks, If I put the car into drive, I can see the rear wheels sort of pulse a little like it's trying.

I pulled off the trans cooler line, drivers side and no fluid...

and restarted the car, no fluid came out.

I can put the car into gear and from turning or not turning the drive shaft feel that it's engaging.

I'm personally guessing the pump blew? if so, whats the steps to fix?

BTW, here are the trans numbers...

123 20 78 01 722.315 02 593477

it's also possible the ears that drive the pump sheared... or even the flexplate that connects the flywheel to the TC has broken... but I think this would make some noise...

Which car? I had an 81 SD that kinda sorta did that. Flex plate tore apart. See if you can turn the TC independently of the ring gear. If not, mark the ring gear and TC then run the engine for a moment to see if they slip.

Sixto
87 300D

In my 85 300D that I just put the new engine in.

... this is a classic sign of someone who did not install the TC into the transmission pump properly...
can you describe EXACTLY what you did regarding the TC and the transmission during your engine install?

hmm... well, off the top of my head, I pulled the trans off the bad engine unbolting it from the flywheel, then lined it up and put it back on the new engine and bolted it back up.... I don't remember actually taking out the torque converter.

Plus it been working fine for the last 7 thousand miles... I'm trying to research it now in the do it yourself section to see if I can come up with anything, but it's looking like I'll have to pull it out again.

"Unbolting it from the flywheel?" The flywheel is bolted to the crank, the trans is bolted to the block. It sounds like you kept the TC attached to the good engine. That's a problem right there.

Sixto
87 300D

No the new engine didn't have a TC.

I unbolted TC from the flywheel, Then the trans from the block, Then separated them. The TC stayed in the trans. Then I pushed it over to the new engine and bolted it all back together.

Oh, I see. So the TC never came off the trans. Maybe it slid forward enough during handling to disengage from the pump tangs. You'll know soon enough :/

Sixto
87 300D

ya.. I see no other real option put to pull it.

Now the dilemma...

Since I'm going to the work of pulling the engine and trans again, should I just go ahead and pull the engine and trans out of one of my keepers and put that new engine in one of them instead. I think in the long run the TD is going to be my keeper. It has a LOT of miles on it, around 360k, but runs clean no blow by new timing chain, ip tuned etc... runs really smooth... Or my CD, with unknown miles, showing 200k, broken odometer, I'm sure it's due for a timing chain, needs a couple GP.s yada yada...

My wife wants to see the engine go into the TD. Since of course, It's the one I'm in the process of redoing. Doing this I'm still going to be one trans short since this one is most likely shot from what I'm guessing.

So, that may relinquish this car to parts car status after all.

And if that's the case, I could really go ahead and leave it alone for now, let the new engine sit in it as a known good spare, and part out the rest of the car.

And there are parts I could use off it, like the windshield for the TD, the set of new tires could also go on the TD, the headlights to the TD...

That's kind of what I'm leaning towards. The pump doesn't seem to be functioning, if I can pull the drivers trans cooler line and run the car with the trans in gear and not see any fluid come out. plus the trans level showing the system as being way overfull, no fluid really even came out when I disconnected that line, it's like it's all backing up...

The pump won't turn if the TC isn't turning, which is what happened to me. Trans and TC were fine after I installed a new flexplate.

Sixto
300D

Flex and TC are turning. I can look up and see them turning. Trans holds gear, neutral is neutral putting it into gear stops me from being able to turn the drive shaft etc... everything seems to point to the pump...

Like someone said already, you will know as soon as you pull the transmission. It's somewhere in that area- pump, tc or flexplate. You don't need to pull the engine.

Easier to pull engine and trans as one unit. I know how hard it was to get the trans lined up to the engine with them both sitting on the ground in front of the car, I can only imagine the pita it would be with the engine in the car.

Slept on it and I'm done with this car and going to part it out. I'll keep the engine as a spare for my TD down the road, going to also use the windshield, front lights and tires for the TD, the aux water pump and the mono valve.

The perfect wood will go into the CD to sell it.

The cars worth more to me in it's sum of parts at this point.

So anyone that needs and entire blue mb tex interior thats literally in like new shape speak up. I even have a new molded blue plastic dash cover for it, One of the ones that looks almost stock when installed.