Hi I been dealing with what I thought was one problem and it seems to possibly be another problem now....

About a month ago I went through fixed all my oils leaks in the motor, then the transmission changed my oils and my fluids, being very proud of my self I started driving it a lot more cause I wasn't in fear of dumping all it's oils and fluids all over the place, well I was driving away, and suddenly I though my transmission was slipping. I am talking ratting clunking and nails on the chalk board scratching making the neck hair just to attention metal to metal noises, due to changing my Tranny fluid i though maybe it was that. Still confused though cause it would only do it on take off when it grabbed it would grab and shift via all gears with no problem and normally would take off setting you into your seat so i was dead confused cause IMO the Tranny was not slipping and the fluid never even prior to being changed smelled burnt no did it have a lot of deposits in the pan or filter.

About a week ago it did what I thought was neutraled on me, in my haste thinking Tranny I never looked at my speedometer, but in gear I was on a hill rolling backward hear this same hair standing on end racket. I put it in park, mind you I was on my brake and the jerk behind me kept blowing his horn so I tried again and this time putting it in gear it popped and went drove normally till tonight.....it made some noise from under the car somewhere only when hot and would do a brief slip so I though when hot only....so I was driving it nicely until I could afford a complete rebuild, and now..

Tonight it was driving normally no sign of problems (37ish MPH) till suddenly it was like my rear brakes locked up, I am talking rear wheels screeching and squealing going sideways locking up and rattling shaking the car, the whole way, I got off the road fast and it did not want to go backwards, I could go from drive to reverse and it seemed normal till you let off the brake and you can feel it fighting to go backwards.

At this point I was convinced it was in my rear end, so I put it in drive and this is when my serious puzzlement started, I was in drive (on my shifter not OD) and the Tranny remained in 1st gear revving in @ 4k on my Tach doing just under 30 mph "it" (something) actually locked up once in the 4 miles to my house but, not once, did it never come out of 1st gear, it was fighting the "drag" but IMO it should have shifted to 2nd anyway, but at my arrival home I slid under it and the rear punkin was hot I mean engine oilpan hot, brakes cool as a cucumber, and the punkin was wet also from the front part (not dripping but obvious fresh oil) where the drive-shaft connects, Tranny fluid not burnt smelling or cruddy still nice red and translucent no particles on the dipstick either.

This drive tonight was only a total of about 6 miles. @ 35~40 mph speed limit.

My next move at this point is to pull the rear diff cover off to inspect, but hard to believe it got this bad this fast but by the same token I never checked the oil in it either

What is your thoughts.........Theories?

 

Also another thing that I am puzzled by if it were the tranny I don't think it would lock the rear wheels, but this is my un-mechanical opinion I don't know anything about transmissions.

 

 

Pulled rear diff cover off no problems there, at all, all the gears look good, smooth, like new, no metal in the bottom at all. FML so back to the tranny, so what would cause it to lock up like this going down the road normally?

None the less rebuild time, or swap to a 4 or 5 speed?

 

Alot of times with automatic transmissions the old fluid with all the clutch material actually keeps it together and working I've seen it so many times where at work we would do a transmission service (ie. new filter and fluid) and it would actually become worse sometimes not even shift at all. How did the transmission fluid look when you took the pan off?

 

Actually wasn't bad at all very minimal stuff stuck to magnet and only way to tell what was on bottom of pan was to actually wipe it, and was no burnt smell to the fluid either.

I have heard this as well about servicing transmissions that were in bad shape, when you change it they leak and begin to slip etc.

I am still puzzled how it locked up my rear wheels and never so much as broke the casing, absolutely amazing IMO that I didn't even leave a mess of fluid anywhere not so much as a drop anywhere even as of now. Just glad I wasn't on the highway when it happened was scary enough doing 35 mph, couldn't imagine doing highway speeds

 

Even though the rear differential looks okay, you need to verify pinion shaft runout is not noticable when rocking the shaft with your hand. You should really check it with the rear u-joint disconnected from the yoke to isolate the diff. Check for backlash in the ring and pinion and mostly for lateral movement, or runout of the pinion shaft.

You may want to add a bottle of Lube Guard Red trans fluid friction modifier to the trans to help the valve body, servo, accumulators and clutch packs work more fluidly.

 

Well back lash was defiantly easier to feel with drive-shaft removed, but felt ok, as far as lateral movement that felt normal not to tight, not too little either felt like a normal rear end.

Still puzzling what could lock the rear wheels and not break anything, if I locate anything unusual prior yanking the Tranny I will post pics. So far nothing