I have an 89 firebird with I think a 700R4 auto tranny. Well with the ice stom last night I got my car stuck on like 3 inches of ice. I was trying to get it unstuck with no luck. The car was at a stop and I shifted it into park not realizing the wheels were still spining on the ice. It obvisouly made a nice grinding noice. Not learning I did this a couple of time before I got it unstuck. Well afterwards I parked it on a slight hill (very slight) and put it in park. Now about 50% of the time park works and 50% it rolls down the hill. I know its going into park and the shift cable is ok.... just replaced it last month. I sure the parking pawl is damaged. Do you agree? If it works sometimes and not others does it mean its just worn and not completly broken off? I can just use the e-brake but if the parking pawl is damaged does that means there is loose metal floating around in the tranny? Can I continue to drive this without doing too much damage to the tranny? I'm sure to fix the parking pawl you would have to remove the tranny and rebuild it which it would probally need with 123,000 miles on it anyways. I will not do it however just because the condition of the car so its just not worth the money. I would like to continue using it since I am in the proscess of rebuilding my chevy diesel truck and need a second car to get around while doing this. So how long does my car have before the tranny destroys itself if that is the case? Is a trip of 3000 miles from maine to florida and back out of the question? I dont want the car to be stuck so far from home. Thanks for the help.

 

327:

Certainly sounds like you have damaged the park pawl, and the park wheel. The sometimes works, sometime doesn't syndrome pretty much indicates that you have burred up the edges of the teeth on the park wheel, and the burrs are preventing proper engagement of the pawl sometimes. Any particles "floating around" should have settled to the pan and are probably stuck to the magnet. Anything not on the bottom of the pan or on the magnet will be trapped by the filter.

Even though you can use your park brake I urge you to have the transmission repaired as soon as circumstances allow. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Don.

 

Well for now it seems to work everytime. But I'm sure there is still damage to it and might not work again in the future. Could it have anything to do with the cold and the fact that it rain then turned to ice then snow and everything froze up solid since it got to almost 0 degrees? Also can you repair this with the tranny still in the car? Also I know its not gonna be good for it but could I make the trip to florida I stated earlier?