Weird AOD Problems

[joshwfl]

I've done alot of searching, but nothing useful to my situation yet. I have an 87 LX 5.0, here's the symptoms:

- When I bought it the tv cable was unhooked becasue the grommet was missing on the TB. I replaced that and the car drove fine, just shifted hard. It's a project car, and I probably put 4 miles on it.

-It sat for a few weeks and when I went to start it the dash lit up, but wouldn't turn over. I jumped the selenoid and it started, but was in forward gear even though the lever was in P.

-Every Gear position was a forward gear, Drove and shifted normally, just very firmly.

-Dropped the pan last night to check the linkage and everything looked good. No burnt fluid, no flakes, nice and clean.

-Put it all back together and had the same exact problem.

-Shut it down, restarted by jumping the selenoid and now every gear is a neutral. Still won't start with the key.

Questions:

-Does it sound like a bad torque converter?

-What position should the manual valve be in when replacing the pan?

-Should the manual valve have enough free movement that I could slide it out of the valve body?

-Any other thoughts or suggestions?

 

[stykthyn]

Sounds like your neutral position safety switch is toast.

 

[joshwfl]

I agree. That explains not starting with the key, but if that were the only problem I wouldn't have the all forward or all neutral situation.

 

[stykthyn]

I had a similar issue with an a4ld. That was the culprit.

 

[joshwfl]

Worth a shot for 40 bucks. That would be great if it solved the problem, but Idon't want to get my hopes up!

 

[StormWatch]

Sounds like the detent (shifter) cable is not adjusted properly. This is easy to adjust and it's located on the driver's side of your AOD.

 

[joshwfl]

Just jumped the neutral switch and it started right up, still no gears though.

As far as the detent, the linkage moves fine and I can hear the teeth on the inner linkage popping in place with every shift.

What I really need to know is when putting the pan back on, what position should the manual valve be in relevance to the detent pin?

Also, I still don't know if the manual valve should have as much range of free movement as it currently does.

 

[joshwfl]

Also- I just let it run for 30 min, level never dropped on the dipstick. It's reading about 2 inches above the crosshatch, and I know I didn't add too much fluid. After replacing the filter it only has 5 quarts and reads way too high. Bad pump?