Willidog

So I got all of my brackets and cables, got my transmission hooked up and thought it was good to go. I finished putting the exhaust together and thought I would see if the car would move under it's own power. Put the car in gear and the only thing it will do is go in the forward direction. No nuetral, no reverse. When you put the shifter in these positions (nuetral and reverse) the transmission continues driving the wheels in a forward direction. Now I'll tell you that the fluid level is a little low (bottom of the dipstick), would this cause me to have no reverse or nuetral or could it be something mechanical?

Olds64

Ensure your fluid level is correct and then double check. I wouldn't think that low fluid could cause this but it might. Better to be safe than sorry.

dan2286

It sounds like the valve body is not doing something right. I would definately put the fluid to the correct level.

don71

Yea, sounds like something is sticking in the valve body. It sounds like sooner or later you will be removing the pan to check on things. When you do, be sure to confirm the linkage is actually moving the manual selector rod internally when moving the shifter.

At this point, it would'nt hurt to hunt the shelves at the auto parts store for some "mechanic in a can". Maybe.....a solvent product could soften up the sticking valve body, IF.. thats the case. You have nothing to lose at this point. Good luck.

Willidog

Got a little scary today, I started the car, put the fluid level to normal and let it warm up. After it was warm I revved the engine a little while it was in park and found out that it wasn't really in park, just the park pin engaged. When I revved it up the park pin must of let go enough for the car to start moving forward at a pretty high rate of speed straight for my 04 Trail Blazer! Luckily when I let off the gas the park pin re-engaged and stopped the car before it hit my truck. I moved the Trail Blazer after that and set the emergency brake on the car until I was done testing. I think you guys are right that something is stuck inside. I am going to drop the pan and see what I can see down there.

dan2286

At least no one was in front of the car! That could have ended up bad.

Olds64

Glad you didn't hit your truck. Sounds like it is definitely time to drop the pan. Hopefully you just have to adjust the linkage. If you have to drop the valve body use diesel fuel as a solvent and make sure you don't get any debris into the valve body.

Willidog

Dropped the pan today and found the "S-clip" disconnected from the shifter. Put it back in place and reassembled it. I am going to put fluid back in there tomorrow and test it out. I wanted to give the RTV time to set up before I put fluid in it.

Olds64

That is a good idea. IF you use RTV on an automatic transmission pan gasket be very careful. The valve body has ZERO tolerance for dirt and debris.

Willidog

Put the transmission fluid in tonight and conducted an op test. It works, just need to do some tweaking with the cable position to make the shifter match the transmission a little better, but the beast is now moving under it's own power!