Trans limping when shifted into reverse

[JD3020]

This is on my buddies truck, e99 with 380k miles. Last fall he blew the trans out so they had a local shop re-build it, the price was extremely cheap which they thought was great but i was skeptic. They supposedly did some VB mods, and it does shift firm compared to stock. Fast forward a couple months, trans limped on him when he got in the throttle hard and it downshifted. He pulled over, restarted the truck and it was fine. Then it started doing it anytime he puts it into reverse. It instantly throws the OD light and limps. But on a rare occasion if you come to a complete stop, and then shift, it won't do it. Again shut the truck off and restart it, and its good. As long as you don't shift into reverse or make it downshift out of OD it drives perfectly fine. I've driven it a couple times and there is no signs of slipping, converter locks great, and it feels fine.

After a couple weeks there was no change so he took it to the shop. They had it for a while and said it was a "solenoid". Couple more weeks go by, they change some solenoid and it didn't fix it. So they took it to another shop, they couldn't find an issue and just blamed it on the trans harness. I do have a spare harness somewhere we might throw on to try.


The only odd thing that i've noticed is theres something off in the shift linkage, its sloppy and you really have to mess with it to get it into park. It will indicate park, but its actually in reverse. I'm heading down in a bit with my laptop and AE to pull the codes and check some things, and to see if the range sensor is actually reading the right position. Any ideas as to what it could be?

 

[psduser1]

The 300k+ truck I just assembled for dad has similar linkage issues. I'm assuming either worn bushings on the steering colum, or the cable end? I've read a couple threads on high mileage steering column /trans position indicator problems, but I can't remember the gist of them, honestly. Ours just needs the operator to pay attention, and make sure the truck is actually in park, but I could see the problem worsening, and causing other issues.

 

[JD3020]

Yeah, his truck is horrible. Supposedly the "trans" shop and the other "diesel" shop said that the shifter has nothing to do with it, which i don't believe. But i imagine they are trying to sell them more shop time and parts, and then be like "oh well it wasn't that stuff after all".

 

[psduser1]

I think the column is fairly easy to swap, and there's one in every truck, lol. Either Arisley or tom s was in the thread, if I recall. Bad memory is a b!tch. Sorry, wish I could be more help.

 

[co04cobra]

The sloppy shifter is usually 2- t-30 bolts on the very back of the column that hold the linkage bracket.

They are basically right where the steering shaft bolts on to the column. The threaded part faces the driver with the torx head facing the firewall.

I have rebuilt the shifter rod on occasion too, but I find these bolts do the truck 75% of the time.

Back to the harness issue.. I've had other "trans" shops try and blame "electrical issues" as to why they can't get a 4r100 to live more then ~200 miles. Has anyone actually linked the trans harness back to a common failure point?

 

[JD3020]

Didn't have time to dick with the column, showed up and spent an hour trying to find a newborn calf in their pasture. LOL The range sensor seems to be functioning alright though, registers all the positions for the most part.

Code is P1747, pressure control solenoid A short. I assume this is the solenoid that the trans shop claimed was bad. Gonna dig out my spare harness so we can try it, and check continuity on his current harness.

 

[4.0l sahara]

For the solenoid it's very common for the pins in the solenoid and solenoid plug to be rotted.

 

[TyCorr]

How do you repair that and where do you get them?

 

[trackspeeder]

You can find a repair harness on evilbay, or a good parts store.

As for the solenoid you will have to replace the solenoid pack.

 

[JD3020]

One of the shops did replace the solenoid plug when they replaced the solenoid pack, old plug had a bunch of corrosion and **** in it.

 

[TyCorr]

Is it possible for the solenoid pack/plug area to leak?

 

[trackspeeder]

Is it possible for the solenoid pack/plug area to leak?

Yes. If you find ATF in the connector the pack is toast.

 

[JD3020]

Well i have an update on this. Pulled his trans harness off a couple months ago and tested continuity, everything checked out fine. I've been super busy all year so that was where my help ended. Truck jumped between 2 different shops, because the first shop "didn't have a good enough computer to find it". 2nd shop told them the PCM was bad, but didn't know what caused it. So they bought a E99 computer from a parts store($$$$$$) and put it in. Apparently it got "killed" by a short in some wiring harness, so they had to replace the harness and warranty the PCM. Finally got the truck back 2 weeks ago and everything is working fine. My buddy acts like he doesn't have a clue what the actual problem was, all i know is the bill was around $2k. I think my jaw hit the floor when he told me that, guess i'm in the wrong damn business.

 

[TyCorr]

Well i have an update on this. Pulled his trans harness off a couple months ago and tested continuity, everything checked out fine. I've been super busy all year so that was where my help ended. Truck jumped between 2 different shops, because the first shop "didn't have a good enough computer to find it". 2nd shop told them the PCM was bad, but didn't know what caused it. So they bought a E99 computer from a parts store($$$$$$) and put it in. Apparently it got "killed" by a short in some wiring harness, so they had to replace the harness and warranty the PCM. Finally got the truck back 2 weeks ago and everything is working fine. My buddy acts like he doesn't have a clue what the actual problem was, all i know is the bill was around $2k. I think my jaw hit the floor when he told me that, guess i'm in the wrong damn business.

Nobody wants to work on 20 year old vehicles with tons of miles. Then when it takes time to execute the bill climbs. A shop cant charge $40 an hour just because the vehicle is old.

Gets spendy quick.