1998 Cavalier: What a ride this is becoming!

[Yardpilot]

This car is driving me bats, I say. I finally got the cooling problems fixed, and drove it five-hundred miles on a nearly 110 degree day. Not a problem, except for a tire that delaminated.

It runs ever so sweetly, and gets 30-33 mpg. Today we went to town (30 some miles) for a doctor's appointment and a bit of general shopping. I gassed up the car, and pulled out of the gas station. At the first shift there was a sharp "Bang!" and the drive wheels locked up tight. We slid to a stop in the middle of a busy road. The car would not roll. Big hairy guys tried to move it and it just would not roll. The engine runs fine. The selector goes through the gears (with a slight bit of resistance into the two lowest positions). The engine revs freely in park and neutral, and revs with the sort of drag you would expect of a car with the brakes locked when you rev it in gear. The brakes are free.

Something appears to be locked in the transmission, but what? Everyone had an opinion, of course. Linkage problem, parking pawl problem, busted ring and pinion. Any guesses where to start? Blessings upon all the people that helped out.

Regards,

Yardpilot

[J-Ri]

If iit were linkage it wouldn't have gone into gear and would have been fine once in gear. The park pawl makes a ratcheting/clicking sound while the vehicle is in motion down to about 5 mph, then locks in place and the car rocks back and forth a lot (only did that once, and it was before I had my coffee and in a car nearly identical to mine... never confuse an automatic for a manual and shift into where first should be as you come to a stop ). To see if it's the ring or pinion, jack the front of the car up and see if you can spin the wheels. If you spin one and the other doesn't spin the opposite way, then there's a problem with the differential.

My guess would be a broken clutch/band or possibly even a planetary gearset.

[Yardpilot]

Thanks for the response. I've done the shift to park thing in a vehicle before. Makes a guy feel a bit dumb. This wasn't the case. We were going 20-25 I would guess. The skid marks were about that in feet. A (very) young mechanic said it could be a "torque converter clutch solenoid" problem. I'm not familiar with that. I understand it locks the converter/third gear up at speed for efficiency's sake. Hopefully someone somewhere can give me a bit more information on this. Whatever the problem is, it is an EXTREMELY dangerous condition. If it can happen as it did, can it happen at speed? That could easily be fatal. I like the little car, and I want to fix it, but that is a real concern. At 105,000 miles I figure there is a lot of mileage left in this little cutie, but can it be trusted?

Regards,

Yardpilot

[Yardpilot]

Between sickness and disability, I have been unable to pursue this situation. Now I'm going to try some things. Anybody got any good ideas where to start? Wish me luck getting back out from under it if I have to go there.

Yardpilot

[Scrapper]

i think your going to have to pull the tranny.by chance you never had to replace the master cyl.?

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by Scrapper

i think your going to have to pull the tranny.by chance you never had to replace the master cyl.?

i sent you a private message did you get it yet?