1992 Maxima Transmission issue

I just bought my daughter (15) a car, 92' Nissan Maxima ($500) 3.0 L automatic.

Problem is the car won't go backwards in Reverse and barely pulls itself very hard in first if I manually shift the transmission.

The people I bought the car off of said they had the tranny rebuilt 1000 miles ago, then started having trouble with it again but the guy wouldn't stand behind his work.

I'm a DIY guy, and like to turn wrenches but I am 100% new to Nissan.

Here's my issue:

I am a little confused with what is going on, right now the car drives in 2nd gear which I believe is "limp-in" mode, but today I was messing around with it and it shifted from 2nd to 3rd.

My confusion comes from the reverse and first gear. When I shift the car into reverse, you can hear the transmission engage, and the car will nudge backward but if you give it gas it's like you're holding the break. So I drive the car up a slight grade, start the car rolling backward while in neutral, as I'm rolling backward I shift the car into reverse and as soon as the transmission engages it locks the wheels up like I just shifted it into park.

If I then shift the car into drive the car won't hardly pull itself but if I shift it to park then to drive it will take off in 2nd gear.

Also, if I do the "roll backward then shift it into reverse" and then shift it into neutral it still acts like it's caught on the parking pin.

Also, occasionally when I shift the car into reverse it will nudge forward like I just shifted it into drive or first.

Also while I'm at it...am I correct to assume that first and reverse share the same gear?

lets asume that the guy who built it knew a little about what he was doing since it did drive for a little while. usually when you lose reverse the sun gear is broken but that doesnt effect the forward gears. the first thing i would check is the brake band adjustment. this requires removing the valve body. if your up to it send me a message and i'll walk you thru it. these trannies are know for planetary gear failure, as well as sun gears and high clutch packs. easy to rebuild if you,re familiar with automatics.

Check out this page http://www.cardomain.com/ride/748507/24

If the locking' is smtg else than wrong linkage adj, then possibly theres smtg loose inside the tranny...

doc - pulled it apart tonight, band adjuster was extremely loose, I followed per your directions, torqued down to 4 ft lbs (I have an inch pound torque wrench), backed it out 5.25 turns.

Very easy job too, probably 1 hour of work + test drive + coffee break + a little BSing with my friend who stopped by.

Sadly...no change. Although, when I test drove it...the tranny started out in 2nd like before, did shift to 3rd but still didn't engage overdrive and I ran it up to around 80 (4000 rpm or so) and it still wouldn't hit OD...long stretch of road...so I didn't just drop the hammer on it.

One noticable change, today when I shifted it into first from 2nd manually, I was going maybe 10 mph and the car came to a stop very quickly, like I was applying the brakes. Still caught on the parking pin when I tried to go in reverse though.

The whole reverse issue kind of makes me think that maybe a sensor is bad or the shifting cable is out of adjustment, but when I had the throttle body off the little shifter wheel sat in the correct position when shifted. But on the other hand it seems somewhat like a vaccum issue at least in part.


Nahk - your site was the first place I started researching my issue, Great site and by the way, thanks for the manual download, man are those things hard to find online.




I can buy a used tranny from the yard for around $200, so I'm going to mess around with it for another week or so and see what I can learn...what's the worse that can happen? It's already broken.

Anyone have any transmission mysteries they need investigated?
I'm about to operate...Dr. Northcat is in...

kinda sounds like the low/reverse clutch pack may be burnt causing the steels and clutches to stick together. no vaccum or sensor issues with this tranny. $200 is a good price for a used unit. 6-9 in my area. good luck.

Just thought I would update...

Finally got the time yesterday to get the tranny changed out. I ended up getting a rebuilt one from the JY for $250 + tax. It pays to know people.

Got it in yesterday...and I would just like to thank the Nissan Ingin-ears for putting the bracket for the carrier bearing between the block and motor mount in such a way that in order to remove the passenger side axel the motor mount had to be removed, which required one to remove the rear exhaust manifold..so you could get to the motor mount bolts, so you could take it off so you could remove the carrier bearing bracket...so guess what...the passenger side axel stayed in...I lowered the whole engine on the cross member.

But anyway....

Not too bad of a job, went together a lot easier than it came apart. Tested it, tranny good in all gears but there are some shifting problems. It will shift to all gears, including OD but at very high RPMs.

How critical is the Dextron II or Nissan ATF? Whistle Britches told me Dextron III was fine, so that's what I used, but upon further review I'm questioning his advice.

I figure my shifting issues is probably either the throttle position sensor or the revolution sensor or fluid.

I have been using Dexron III without problems. Dexron II was cheaper...

Bad TPS was at least reason for erratic downshiftin, didnt want to shift down to first gear...

Yes the manuals are great, ... will very soon find out that it stops short like in issues explainin how shiftin is controlled in various situations: shift solenoids A,B, timing solenoid & torq conv solenoids are been used in various ways dependin how aggressive the drivin is. On top of that, there are internal passages directly controlled by speed&pressure... Seems that the box can be in ten (?) different 'modes/gears'..... gearlock on 3/4th included (=torq conv solenoid OFF). Now when all works, shifting is like a dream.