hi all,

the short version:
how can i test oil pump and converter in auto geabox?

the long story:
we have that stupid car together and all is smooth. it starts easy and we are very happy with our work. However the auto gearbox is not working anymore. No idea if it's a C4 or a C6.
The car was driving before we took the engine out and rebuild engine. never even touched the gearbox apart from mounting.

the problem is that no matter what gear you shift into (R-D-3-2-1) I can't hear the engine reacting to it and the car is not making any attempt to move. When in park (engine off) i can turn the output shaft and it locks up. That seems to be all I get to work. the shifter changes the gears in transmission (click/click), so it doesn't seem to be linkage.

we had that thing out for the 4th time, but as none of us knows anything about autos we're stuck.

If I had to go by nose I would say we have no oil pressure in there, but that's just a wild guess. We've taken out the torque converter, made sure its filled with oil, we've taken out the fuel pump, made sure that turns. we tried overfilling and underfilling (oil level). I have tried to rev the engine to 4 grand in gear with foot on brake. nothing happens

what could have caused it:
a) the owner sandblasted the front of car with the gearbox and converter in place (no engine and no cover). Could that have blocked the transmission fluid ports? there was sand all over the box
b) we installed a wrong flex plate. could notstart engine, could not manually turn engine with installed box. So we cut the ring gear from new flex-plate and welded to the old. that works perfect now and engine turns easy and free with installed gearbox

the short version:
any ideas on what that could be?
I've seen the test with compressed air on youtube and will follow that, but how can i test converter and oilpump?

Kalli

 

i checked plenty of pictures on the internet, and I'm 99% sure it's a C6. i am half sure that the bellhousing is same piece as trans (not detachable) and I am sure that speedo cable is rear top driverside, and the linkage on driver side.

there's a B&M shifter in there. although it's flicking through the gears, would it be worth it to disconnect the shifter and actuate the linkage slowly to see if there's any response?

as said, any ideas welcome!

Kalli

 

i just heard the oil-pump was out for cleaning. any chance that was mounted back the wrong way? i couldn't imagine that you could do something wrong there

 

I am assuming this is the 400 cougar and if memory serves me right the flexplate was a 1/4" taller than the correct flexplate. It is very possible that when the wrong flex plate was installed that this shoved the TC back into the pump and bound it up. Probably need to swap the pump out.

It would have a big block pattern C-6 behind it.

 

Pull off one of the tranny cooler lines and when you crank it, it should squirt about 10 feet if the pump is working. When the converter is put in, it HAS to engage "3" TIMES!!!!!! It first engages the small input shaft, the bigger stator shaft and finally the pump which is the 2 flat edges on the converter. If it isn't put in enough, it WILL and COULD destroy the pump TAGS on the inside of the pump and on the converter thus not giving any pressure. The pump can be rebuilt very easily by replace either the whole pump with a rebuilt or just the tags. I recomment the whole pump available at any trans shop. The other problem is if you did hurt the pump, you most likely destroyed the converter which means the whole converter is junk! You can have a converter shop just change the tag but it would COST you more than a converter will. Sorry about the bad news but I hope I helped.

 

Also, forgot to tell you. It's easy to tell the difference between trannys. The trannys have a different amount of bolts holding the pan on. The C-4 has 11 bolts, C-6 has 17 bolts. If by some weird chance you have an FMX, it has 14 bolts.

 

thanks lads. yes, that's the cougar alright (i hate the car by now. want to see that out ...).
the pump was out and the lads say it would turn easily, so i assume that is all ok
we had once trouble with a TC getting it on, because the input shaft stuck out too far, so by now we learned when its seated. inpt shaft, then the gear where the stator sits on then the oilpump flaps (struggling for a better word). otherwise the whole thing wouldn't even bolt together.

anyway thanks a million for the idea with the lines out. we'll definetly try that. see how far that stupid thing can spray ...
i won't be over tonight with them, but i'll tell them to try without shift lever and check the pump. at least that's a start

the gears of the pump (inner and outer) might be in the wrong way round ... could that cause it?

kalli

 

well if this post isn't amusing ... that might change.

a fella who's business is repairing JCBs and machinery like this called and said... well shove engine oil in there. if the car then makes an attemt to move its the torque converter.
well they got the car moving this way .... really really crappy, but it makes an attempt .. i don't know what to say to this