Problem with reverse

[dmc67]

98 Windstar 3.0L

ok the other night one of my friends and I were coming home and we hit a deer on the drivers side done a lil damage but nothing severe. well a couple days ago the transmission did not want to kick into reverse, it runs fine threw all other gears but reverse it will not kick into very good, meaning it will move backwards but very very slowly. I am changing the fluid and filter tomorrow and was wondering if i should pick up anything else?

Thank you

[northern piper]

are/did you do an insurance claim re damage from the deer hit? I don't mean to not figure this out yourself but if you plan on involving insurance I'd be getting the trans looked at asap. 4 years ago my wife's van was hit from behind straight on. Only a little damage to the bumper and we didn't do a claim, just sort of lived with it. 400 km later we had to replace the trans. The park pin had been sheared off as a result of the impact, bounced around in the trans and finally blew a huge hole in the case. Sooo, I think I'D be spending some $$ for a thorough check over from a reputable shop. You don't want to fiddle with something that could be $1000's. IMO. Been there, done that, couldn't afford the T-shirt once I was done.

Piper

[tripletdaddy]

Not knowing how extensive your damage is, I would look for damage to the trans cooling lines from the trans to the rad and any additional cooling unit. I would look at the top of the trans for damge to the srs or nuetral safety switch and the cable and lever for the trans gear shifter. I would look for things that would have been pushed into these areas. But since this an accident, a mechanic must diagnose this for claims purposes and you don't want to jeopardize any part of your claim. Take this diagnosis and repair only to the point that you need to and not more so repairing it will be fully covered. Good Luck! Let us know why reverse doesn't work. Thanks!

[dmc67]

well as far as plugins and linkage goes we went over all of them the plugin directly on top of the transmission is a lil loose and we changed the filter yesterday and found some shavings in the bottom of the pan but nothing actually very big, but the magnet was pretty much filled up.

I was told the insurance claims guy said in order to do anything about the transmission he would have to have a professional shop tear it down and pretty much prove it was the deers fault it quit working.

What exactly is the the plugin directly on top of the transmission?

Thank you.

[northern piper]

as I said higher up in this post, I'd be getting it checked out by a trans shop. The insurance guy is going to tell you that the whole tranny would need to be pulled apart. I don't believe that. I think I'd be inclined to go to a place that does a ton of transmission, and I don't necessarily mean Ford, and spend the $$ for a thorough going over. It may cost an hour of shop time but by the end of that I think you'd feel much safer. If that shop says that they suspect trans problems then you've got a lot of ummph behind you to get the insurance company to cough up further work on your van. Insurance companies will do the least amount of work, take the most amount of time and then claim it was normal wear and tear on your van, not the deer incident.

I'd be documenting all that happened, from pre impact (and how well the van was running) the accident, and then how the van drove after the accident. I didn't do this and, as I said before, I had to replace the transmission. This cost to me could have been avoided but "because I didn't think it was that bad" I ended up paying a ton of dough. I'm a big fan of doing auto work myself but this is one of those situations where I feel that we pay for insurance, use it.

FWIW, my 2 cents.

Piper