Tranny Gone?

[grandma carol]

My daughter has a 94 GA quad 4 with about 103,000 miles on it.When she tried to go to work this morning,the transmission will only work in drive.Sounds as tho its engaging but its not.You cant even manually push it backwards in neutral.She said she had this problem once yesterday and to my knowledge no other problems with it.No leaks ,no slipping nothing.
Could it be something less then a total tranny? Thanks in advance.....

[grandma carol]

Originally Posted by grandma carol

My daughter has a 94 GA quad 4 with about 103,000 miles on it.When she tried to go to work this morning,the transmission will only work in drive.Sounds as tho its engaging but its not.You cant even manually push it backwards in neutral.She said she had this problem once yesterday and to my knowledge no other problems with it.No leaks ,no slipping nothing.
Could it be something less then a total tranny? Thanks in advance.....

No Ideas? Just hoping someone could lead us in the right direction,as we have been ripped off by transmission shops in the past.

[GTP Dad]

Unfortunately transmission issues are hard to diagnose and when one goes bad there can be many causes. Based on your description it sounds like your transmission has locked up which is quite unsual for automatics as they will usually go into a mode where they will not engage and the car will not move under power but you can put it in gear and push it anywhere you want to. It is possible that this is related to the linkage not the transmission itself. If the linkage cable broke or the attachment point for the linkage came loose it may be moving at the shifter but not at the transmission. I hope this is the cause and not the transmission. Good Luck!

Welcome to AF!

[grandma carol]

Originally Posted by GTP Dad

Unfortunately transmission issues are hard to diagnose and when one goes bad there can be many causes. Based on your description it sounds like your transmission has locked up which is quite unsual for automatics as they will usually go into a mode where they will not engage and the car will not move under power but you can put it in gear and push it anywhere you want to. It is possible that this is related to the linkage not the transmission itself. If the linkage cable broke or the attachment point for the linkage came loose it may be moving at the shifter but not at the transmission. I hope this is the cause and not the transmission. Good Luck!

Welcome to AF!

Thanks GTP Dad......Thats what we are hoping too......Can we diagnois this ourselves visually or will we have to get it to a shop somehow?

[GTP Dad]

Open the hood and look at the top of the transmission. You should see the shift linkage on top. With someone behind the wheel move the shifter and see if the linkage moves, if it does not then you will need to see where it is broken or damaged. I don't know if you have a floor or column shifter but if it is a floor shifter you can lift the console and see if the cable is still attached. if so it may be damaged between the interior and the transmission. If it is a column shifter then you will need to go to a mechanic. To replace it you will probably need to go to a dealer because it seems that these cables are hard to come by.

If the linkage moves then the problem is probably internal and will require that the transmission be further diagnosed. I hope this helps!