so i was drivin' downtown last night and my drunk idiot friend decided it'd be funny to throw it in park as i was slowing down for a red light. I was goin pretty slow when he did it, like 8-10mph, but it of course made an awful grinding/clicking noise. As far as i know the 700R4 still works fine, just wondering if there's anything imparticular I should check out to make sure he didn't do any real damage. thanks.

-drew

 

Ummm, ouch...

I would drop the pan and check for big chunks of metal, if theirs just a small ammount of crap i would just throw in a new filter and fluid and drive it till it blows. If you have a lot of metal or big chunks in the pan i would start looking around for another tranny.

 

I was always told that clicking noise is normal when you do that (some sort of protection thing). I think your ok if it is still working like before. Atleast give your friend a good punch in the face though

 

Yes it is called the parking pawl. It is designed to ratchet if the car is moving above a certain speed. They can be easy to break however. If you do break the parking pawl it is no big deal really you can replace it by simply dropping the pan and replacing the broken parts. I is usually just a stamped "claw" that bites the input shaft. I dont know all teh specifics but it is pretty simple.

 

The parking powl is made of hardened steel. Its hard to hurt it. I stuck it in park with the car up in the air and the speedo said 60. Did zero damage. I wouldnt sweat it.

 

Yeah it probably didnt hurt anything. I recently went through some issues with my parking pawl and learned alot about it. According to the guy that rebuilt my trans, the pawl is not a wear part. So it either works or its broken. It makes a horrible grinding sound when you put it in park while the drivetrain is moving, the pin is trying to engage. The safest way to test it is to put the car in the air on jackstands, put it in park, and use all your strength to try and turn the driveshaft. If it dosnt turn then its fine. Another way to test it is to leave it on the ground, put in park, and try to push the car. But thats kind of dangereous because if it is broken the car will roll, easy to get out of hand real quick if by yourself or on a hill. The pawl stops the car from rolling when its in park, so its definately something you dont want to have broken, car might roll away some night while parked.

 

My Brother used to own 2 tranny shops in Iowa. I wouldn't sweat it. Pretty hard to break one and like some of the other posts have said they are either good or bad (BROKE). If the car doesn't roll down the hill when it is in park it still works. ODDs are it didn't even put any metal shavings in the tranny, these are very hard steel and don't usually put off metal shavings. Even if it did they would have to get threw the filter to go internal on the tranny and the odds are they would just sit on the bottom of the pan anyway. If it were my car and if it had alot of miles since the tranny filter has been changed I personally would pull the pan and install a new filter. When you are at it B&M and other companies make a drain plug kit that you can install in the pan. You just drill a hole in the tranny pan and you put the kit sandwiched between the inside and the outside of the tranny pan and you can now change your tranny fluid like an oil change. The biggest killer of an automatic tranny is neglect. The local Police dept takes all of it's new cars and welds a nut on the bottom of the tranny pan, every other oil change they change the tranny fluid in the pan. You are only actually getting around 4 or 5 quarts of fluid changed because it isn't dumping the torque converters fluid. This has more then doubled the milage they get out of their trannies. They also pull the pan and change the filter every 15,000 miles. If a person just changed the few Quarts of tranny fluid in the pan every 3rd or 4th oil change it would save them alot of expense in the long run. By the way the new drain plug from the kit you install is magnetic so the steel metal shavings will stick to it if you have any. Anyway I wouldn't worry much about your friend throwing it in park if it is still working, But I would make it real clear not to try it again!!!! Nothing is worse than walking home when your buddies threw your Drunken Body out of the car and told you to walk!!!!!

cabsales1

 

Thanks for the info guys.

-drew

 

"Friend" or drunken nimrod? I'm glad for your sake (and others) that this amusing, fun-loving rascal wasn't driving.

JamesC

 

Double post.

JamesC

 

Beat the Living Shi* Out of him. OooOo Can I do it? No Respect.