Car will not come out of 1st gear and no reverse

[lzicc]

My girlfriend was driving her 96 Olds Cutlas down the highway and all of the sudden the car started to lose power. It has a 3.1 MPFI engine. As of now, the car will not shift out of first gear and there is no reverse. She can go up to 20 mpg and after that, the car starts to die probably cause the engine is revving too high.

The shift cable is fine and when I shift into drive, I can feel it click in and when I put it in park, the car holds and when I put it into reverse, I feel nothing at all.

Any ideas what this could be or could the tranny be toast? There was no warning signs of the tranny going bad.

Any input would be appreciated.

[maxwedge]

Welcome to AF, does the fluid smell burnt. If the trans is full, it's done, it will have to out for an overhaul.

[lzicc]

It does smell burnt. If the tranny is done, shouldn't there have been some prior warning? Slippage or hard shifting?

[maxwedge]

Not always, if routine slippage cause the failure ther would be some early symptoms, but if a hard part such as the reverse hub failed, this is sudden failure.

[lzicc]

Thanks for your input. I have a bad feeling that you are right.

[lzicc]

I have question for you. Is there anywhere that I can get the R&R steps to replace this transmission so I can get an idea how long this will take me if I replace it?

[inafogg]

hello ur best bet is a good manual.but trying to pull a auto trans out is not the job for diy. if u are working with a lift & have a trans jack then ok but im not so sure i would try in the driveway