Transmission Catastropic Failure

[Magna86]

Well the other morning driving to work the 89 LXI auto transmission let go. I was at a red light and went to go when it changed to green. Hit the gas and it sounded like a bag of marbles went off in the transmission and all kinds of other fun noises. Transmission no longer holds park and basically is in neutral at all times. I towed it home and took the truck to work. Car has 155k on it and is really clean but not sure I want to play the used transmission game and change it in the driveway. I'm more mad because I just spent $$ on tires/cv axles/shocks for the car. I've done FWD transmissions before but that was on a lift. So I maybe putting it up for sale as is. I was told you can pull the trans out from the top to make it easier? Who has done this? Im not interested in a manual swap as it just wraps up more $$ into the car. Being that hard parts failed it will need a full rebuild are the hard parts available for these trans if I wanted to rebuild this one? Are there any remans available? Thankfully I have my truck so I don't have to run out and spend $$ or go buy another daily driver right away.

[Oldblueaccord]

Well the other morning driving to work the 89 LXI auto transmission let go. I was at a red light and went to go when it changed to green. Hit the gas and it sounded like a bag of marbles went off in the transmission and all kinds of other fun noises. Transmission no longer holds park and basically is in neutral at all times. I towed it home and took the truck to work. Car has 155k on it and is really clean but not sure I want to play the used transmission game and change it in the driveway. I'm more mad because I just spent $$ on tires/cv axles/shocks for the car. I've done FWD transmissions before but that was on a lift. So I maybe putting it up for sale as is. I was told you can pull the trans out from the top to make it easier? Who has done this? Im not interested in a manual swap as it just wraps up more $$ into the car. Being that hard parts failed it will need a full rebuild are the hard parts available for these trans if I wanted to rebuild this one? Are there any remans available? Thankfully I have my truck so I don't have to run out and spend $$ or go buy another daily driver right away.


Since you just had alot of front end work done I would look and see if one of the CV shafts slipped out of the trans or has failed. The manual and auto have different length shafts I believe.

[Magna86]

The CV axles are still intact and were the correct ones.

[Dr_Snooz]

Please open that trans and show us what happened! These autos are pretty hardy and a failure like that would be rare if you weren't drag racing or playing Dukes of Hazzard.

The trans drops out the bottom easily with the car on jackstands.

I seem to remember someone on here complaining about the diffs being weak. If that's what failed, it would be an easy part to find at any self-service wrecking yard. Pick up a scrapper trans for $150, a rebuild kit for the same amount, have the torque converter rebuilt and you'll be rolling again in short order. Download the manual from my sig and read carefully before starting. There are some tricks inside that you don't want surprising you.

[carotman]

Transmission work is easy on these cars.

I removed a transmission in a pick and pull junkyard in Montreal. Did it in February (on a not too cold day), only using a standard tool set. No jackstands or anything fancy. Took me like 2.5 hours or so. (removal only)

All you need to do is lift the front of the car and if will come out from the bottom.

[Nickv1]

Jesus ! That scares me I have the same car and I need to replace the axles here soon, now I’m scared to replace them, I hope I don’t have the same issue.. good luck :/

[conozo]

These auto trannies are pretty bullet proof. I would look for a replacement from a junk yard. At least you can take both apart and rebuild it one. They remove from the bottom, the only trouble i had was sliding the tranny enough to the left to free the input shaft, i had to disconnect the drivers side motor mount and tilt that side of the engine up then the tranny slid out just fine under the passenger wheel well. If i knew i had to do that before hand it would have been pretty easy. I lowered the transmission by hand, its heavy but not un-liftable like many other transmissions. You can put a 2x4 across the engine bay with some ropes around the tranny to help lower it if you want to. I did not have a tranny jack or anything under it to support it.

[Magna86]

Ok here is an update of my current status. The car is in the driveway with the transmission sitting on the ground waiting for me to put it back in. I found a local trans to swap in and when I got done dropping mine I discovered I was sold what I believe is a Prelude Transmission. So you can imagine my frustration at that point. My axles done fit the trans and its case is slightly different along with some other things. So I confirmed with the junkyard that they will take it back and I'll get my $$ thankfully. But I can tell you it was an easy transmission to remove! So in new discovery I think my trans didn't fail at all. When I drained the transmission I found no metallic particles at all which should of been present if something exploded inside. Upon removing the pass cv axle I found that it had stripped the splines just pass the locking clip which would indicate that the axle wasn't seated all the way and they finally let go. The rest of the splines on the axle were fine and the trans splines look good from what I can see. So best guess is when the axle was tightened down in the front hub it pulled it out of the splines and there something just alittle bit different to cause the issue. So at this point Im going to reinstall my trans with a new axle and fluid and see what she does. I installed my old axle and the drivers side to see if the trans is holding and it does.(I had no park but if that axle stripped its not there to counter turn the other) While I had the trans out I replaced my oil pan gasket and checked my transmission mount. If anyone is curious the axle I had installed that was new was GSP North America Co Inc. NCV36034. My new axle is a Duralast Gold 7030N. When I get home from out of town for work I'll try this fun again! Also looking at replacing my master and booster while I have the car down in pieces since there are signs of leak on the booster with paint bubble and rust.

[Oldblueaccord]

Since you just had alot of front end work done I would look and see if one of the CV shafts slipped out of the trans or has failed. The manual and auto have different length shafts I believe.

Double check the length of the shafts too there is a difference between the auto and the manual and I don't think there is a consensus on lengths. Everything is "remanufactured" but there is no guarantee your getting the correct part,like you found with the trans deal.

[Dr_Snooz]

x2. Sounds like you had the wrong axle in there.

[Magna86]

So finally an update the transmission is back in the car with a correct axle/new seal and she drove great! I still have to swap one cooler line out because I didn't have enough hose to change both/rewire my fender turn signals/newly discovered front upper control arm bushings and a good bath/scrub. After that hopefully she'll be fine. Thankfully this is fixed because my truck I was driving in the meantime developed a serious misfire and I can no longer drive it safely! That's on the list to fix next wk!

[InAccordance]

Yay!

[Dr_Snooz]

Pleasant surprises are always so nice. Congrats on getting it going again.