Transmission problem after motor swap

[haux]

Original thread: What is your opinion of NTB? Motor swap?

I got my car back from the motor swap last Monday. Everything seemed alright.

I just drove home from Atlanta, GA to Oklahoma. As I'm driving to my parent's house, I exit the highway, and upon acceleration... the car stops accelerating and I hear a spinning noise. None of the gears work. No L, 2, D, and P will not hold. The e-brake must be used to hold the car in place.

I don't really believe in coincidences. There is no way I could have blown a headgasket (or whatever the issue was) and then a week later the transmission goes.

My guess is something was not done properly during the motor swap. I have no idea how a motor connects to a transmission, so I don't know what the issue could have been.

Any ideas?

[Mister_Perkins]

Check underneath the car.. I bet One of your axles separated from the transmission

[Maim Menu]

I remember an old thread here of a TN member that did not re-install his tranny properly and damaged it when he bolted it back to the engine. the car would not shift in any gear.

If this was the case, I guess you would not have been able to drive back but who knows?

Do you hear or feel the tranny shift when you put D or Reverse?

check your axles like perkins said, and report back so we know wtf going on.

[haux]

There is absolutely NO shifting from any gear into any other gear, except the weird grinding noise when shifting into P. But like I said, P does not hold the car in place.

I also read on another forum about an axle separating from the transmission and causing the same problem... I'll have to check into that.

Maim Menu, to my knowledge, the transmission was not removed for the motor swap. Or was it? I really don't know what's involved in a swap.

[mattjm]

Did you check your ATF level? Check with engine running after running through all the gears (P through L...put back in P before checking). Level should be between the two "cold" notches on the dipstick.

Could be a torque converter issue. There's a pump in the torque converter that provides the hydraulics with the pressure to shift into into various gears. Low/no pressure could be cause by low ATF.

I'm not an AT expert, but if you don't even feel it dropping into gear I'd suspect a pressure problem (could also check the electrical connections). I think there is usually a port on the transmission to hook a gauge up to for diagnostic purposes.

Matt

[carsrus]

Originally Posted by haux

There is absolutely NO shifting from any gear into any other gear, except the weird grinding noise when shifting into P. But like I said, P does not hold the car in place.

I also read on another forum about an axle separating from the transmission and causing the same problem... I'll have to check into that.

Maim Menu, to my knowledge, the transmission was not removed for the motor swap. Or was it? I really don't know what's involved in a swap.

The transmission has to be unbolted from the engine block. Or alot of the time a used engine already comes with a transmission and it jsut gets replaced as one unit.

If your problem is so severe the car isnt even in gear, either one of your axles busted (If motor and tranny were swapped as one unit usually they come w/axles). Your shift cable could possibly be messed up. Or you had major transmission failure.

Ive never seen something fail to the point the car wouldnt stay in park so hopefully one of your axles snapped.

[carsrus]

Or actually with that much mileage your transmission aged along with your old engine. Once your transmission was put up to higher power from a newer higher compression engine, it coulda killed it.

Just a theory though.

[JohnGD]

That's a good point. The shop might have replaced the engine/transmission combo during the swap because that's what they got from the salvage yard (thinking they're doing you a lower miles favor and less work too) However, they could do only the engine too.

Haux said the Parking position doesn't work (doesn't lock the wheels). This can confirm a separated axle or to an internal problem. Haux - does the speedo spin when you step on the gas? Exercise braking precautions of course. If it spins it's most likely the axles (or something downstream from the differential ring gear).

The speedo gear senses the differential turning. So if the speedo is good, then all points from the engine down to the differential are probably OK. In that case also check the right axle support bearing and see if it's tightened to the "new" engine block, and make sure the engine mounts aren't shifting. Also check ATF and differential fluid levels.

Originally Posted by carsrus

The transmission has to be unbolted from the engine block. Or alot of the time a used engine already comes with a transmission and it jsut gets replaced as one unit.

If your problem is so severe the car isnt even in gear, either one of your axles busted (If motor and tranny were swapped as one unit usually they come w/axles). Your shift cable could possibly be messed up. Or you had major transmission failure.

Ive never seen something fail to the point the car wouldnt stay in park so hopefully one of your axles snapped.

[Mister_Perkins]

lol dude i promise your axle is broke or disconnected from the transmission

Originally Posted by Mister_Perkins

Check underneath the car.. I bet One of your axles separated from the transmission

[Maim Menu]

Knowing first if the transmission was removed during the swap would be a great help.

I found that old thread : Automatic tranny malfunction after engine swap (3VZ-FE)

It was after a 3vz (old V6) tranny swap so it might not be what you are experiencing.

Originally Posted by deepsun

Hi guys,

it was a quite stupid mistake:
While I had the engine out the torque converter must have slid out a bit.
I just pushed it back in, and that was the mistake.
When installing the torque converter two things have to match up:
the shaft coming out of the tranny with the "center disk" (sorry I do not know the technical term for that) inside the converter, that matched up in my case.
But also the two groves at the end of the pipe-like thing sticking out of the converter have to align with two knobs inside of the tranny. This pipe-like thing is part of the torque converter-housing which is bolted to the flywheel, thus it is allways turning and powering the oil pump of the tranny.
Since in my case the groves did not line up with the knobs, I pushed parts in the tranny back while tightening the engine to tranny bolts.
That broke the tranny's oil pump and some clutch plates inside.

I had to buy another tranny... a stupid rooky mistake... But at least I won't do that again... :-)

Next time when I install a torque converter I insure that it is properly positioned: you can check that by measuring if it slides into the tranny far enough. You have to measure the distance from the front surface of the tranny to the torque converter, for the A541E, the tranny for the 1MZ-FE it has to be more than 0.539 inches. (page AX2-36 of the '94 Camry repair handbook posted as a sticky thread here in the forum). I hope it is the same distance for the A540E, the tranny for the 3VZ-FE engine.

I hope you understood what I was writing, although I do not know all the technical terms for the parts of the torque converter.

If you have more questions, feel free to ask!

Cheers,
Andie

[Mister_Perkins]

Originally Posted by haux

There is absolutely NO shifting from any gear into any other gear, except the weird grinding noise when shifting into P. But like I said, P does not hold the car in place.

This weird grinding noise is because your vehicle differential is spinning and when you put it in park, the parking pawl is trying to engage but it can't quite engage with the parking pawl skipping past the hole on the differential.


Axle separated or broken. I promise

[reluctantmechanic]

Originally Posted by Mister_Perkins

This weird grinding noise is because your vehicle differential is spinning and when you put it in park, the parking pawl is trying to engage but it can't quite engage with the parking pawl skipping past the hole on the differential.


Axle separated or broken. I promise

my money is on Brandon here. I might be mistaken, but I believe the axle snap ring (the one that goes on the very end of the axle, and inputs into the diff) is strongly suggested by the manual to be replaced when removing the axles for this very reason.

It's also possible they didn't properly seat an axle...and it slipped out.

[Maim Menu]

^^ I agree the axle seems to be the most likely cause, but wouldn't you feel something when shifting the tranny even if the car doesn't move?

Just curious

[SirThomas88]

I'm placing my bets on an axle being loose as well. If one is spinning freely, then the other one wont spin either due to the open differential which makes it so that if one wheel looses traction torque is taken away from the other wheel.

It is a good question whether your speedometer gauge is rising. Although, I'm not sure how the speedo acts when one wheel has no traction and the differential is taking torque away from the other wheel... hmm.

[Mister_Perkins]

you would notice RPM and speed changes with an axle disconnected because the speed sensor detects how fast the differential gear is spinning. (the gear at the bottom of the VSS has a splined gear that meshes with the differential).

But like someone else said, the camrys have an open differential ; not Limited Slip Differential. If we had LSD, the car would still move even with one axle disconnected.