On Superbowl Sunday a friend and I were doing doughnuts in a snowy parking lot while in 4WD. It was a blast until my 96 Disco stops driving. I had her in D and thought for sure I blew the tranny. She is a 1996 and has just under 200K miles on the original engine and tranny. I switched the selector into 1st gear and realized that she would run in every every gear but I had to shift manually through them. She’ll work in 4WD just fine too. I had a friend remove the transmission pan and clean the tranny and replace the filter but that did not change anything. He thought it might be the torque converter, but he’s not an expert. She is an expensive car to fix and I can’t afford to lose her right now. Nor do I want to start spending money on things that don’t fix the problem. I would be so grateful for any help with this!!!
I’m not a tranny guy, but I have to say what everyone else is thinking: if you can’t afford to fix it, you should nor be doing doughnuts in parking lots with it.
I do know that if it’ll work fine shifting manually, it isn;t the torques converter that’s bad.
"if you can’t afford to fix it, you should nor be doing doughnuts in parking lots with it."
We all did crazy things after watching the half time show. That clydesdale commercial was hysterical.
If all the gears work OK manually, you may have blown either a valve in the valve body or damaged the speed regulator. Either way, you’ll need a shop to look at it. You may get lucky enough to avoid a full rebuild if you can find a good shop.
The disco will go through each gear and they don’t slip but it won’t move when I put it in D. It will only start moving if I put it in 1st and then shift up through the gears. Once it gets in into D (drive) it it runs fine and I can even slow it down to 5 mph’s and it’ll downshift and shift up through the gears into D again. Does that change anything? Thanks for the post guys!
U start disco. Put it in D, it does nothing? Engine revs but no movement at all? But, if u put it in 1, and take foot off brake, it moves? U have to have foot on brake to shift out of park? Yes?
Not sure he means you can manually shift from 1 to 2 to drive and it works in high gear (drive) or if he can shift from 1 to 2 and then it neutrals out in drive. If that’s the case, certainly could be the high gear clutch is shot which would mean overhaul time.
I intrepret what the OP is saying that when the manual selector is in D and the truck is starting out, the transmission is ‘neutraled’ from a stop i.e. first is not engaging. However, if you start with the selector in ‘1’ and then shift up, it works automatically all the way to top gear.
I suspect what is broken is the first one way clutch. When you are in manual low i.e. ‘1’ there is a backup clutch to hold the first reaction component. Once the governor is able to force a second shift then the transmission can proceed automatically. Practically all automatic transmissions rely on a first gear one way clutch for breakaway. It allows the transmission to downshift into first without causing a bump i.e. the engine and torque converter reengages the drive train when the vehicle has slowed enough.
The bad news is still that the transmission will have to come apart to replace that one way clutch. You might not need an overhaul but one is usually done when the shop has to disassemble the transmission.
Correct Stoveguyy. Just like you said and once moving in 1st I don’t need to press the brake to shift, only push the thumb button.
Shadowfax, I’ll try what you’re asking and get back to you.
That is a huge help Bing, Researcher and CSA- thanks! I was hoping to get another 4 months out of her and put her to rest, before I move cross country in July. I know it’s impossible to predict precisely, but does anyone have an opinion on how many miles I may have remaining on the transmission before it is completely inoperable? Will the condition its in lead to a rapid deterioration? Is there anything I can do to prolong the life of it?
If it sometimes get into D and works fine, it maybe that the shifter handle is off a bit where it locks into place. I took my 96 apart once for another reason and afterwards had to adjust this a bit to work properly.
There is less than a month until the 2014 Super Bowl. We all need to hit on a solution for Landy Lover so she will be again prepared to do doughnuts for the upcoming Super Bowl.
