94 Lesabre, Drive won't engage

[Alpha One]

My 94 LeSabre will not engage the Drive or Over Drive gear. It will engage and drive in 1, 2 and reverse. Could it be a simple adjustment or is it serious?

Than you
Tony

[mcqueary]

Well I hope your problem is not as serious as mine was. On my 93, which had 123000 miles at the time and the same 4T60E transmission as yours, I had a similar problem except I had no engagement in any selector position until after the transmission warmed up and then it would drive but slip on takeoff.

I'm assuming you have no trouble codes indicating an electrical problem with the transmission shift solenoids, PCM, and associated wiring circuits.

There's not much you can do as far as external adjustments. One thing that's adjustable is an after market vacuum modulator but I doubt that's your problem. The shift linkage is another.

In my case, after I desparately tried to fix the problem with the always recommended fluid and filter change, I ended up taking the transmission out and rebuilding it and now it works great.

I believe my problem was attributable to a failing rubber seal in the input clutch which is required in all gears. This seal has been improved in the part supplied with the rebuild kits.

From what I have read and seen, these transmissions are prone to major failure, requiring a rebuild, from 100,000 miles on.

[LeSabre97mint]

mcqueary

I take it that you did all of the work rebuilding the trannie. Did it requre any special tools? I've had rear wheel drive trannies but haven't dug too far into FWD trannies.

Dan

[mcqueary]

Dan,

I bought a paper rubber kit plus the two metal clad axle seals and the metal clad torque converter seal off ebay and also bought a used input clutch housing off ebay which I took parts from to replace some of the worn clutch disks. The total cost for these parts was less than $100.00.

The Lesabre factory service manual and the ATSG manual (which is what I actually followed during the rebuild) calls for several special tools but in all cases I was able to fabricate what I needed for spring compressors, seal installers and protectors, etc. None of the recommended special tools seemed absolutely necessary, but would have made some of the work easier.

I did not take apart the valve body, just cleaned it, since I did not feel my problem was here and I did not want to risk damaging the valve body or making any errors.

It was a lot of labor but I learned a lot and I'm sure I saved lots of money.
I have over 1000 miles on it since the rebuild and everything seems to be OK.

Thanks for asking,
Tom McQueary

[Alpha One]

My own checks concluded that it was internal. The tranmission man also said it was. He would fixit for $1400 to $1800. He said at 230,000 miles maybe I should check for how much I could buy a similar used one. I did, and I decide to buy a 95 LeSabre with 58,000 looking and running like new. Costed me $3,500. The dealer had replaced struts, brakes and tuned it up. I have driven it one day only but I am satisfied so far.