Help with the caravan

Ugh. Dropping the trans sounds no fun.  You're a braver man than I

In reply to 2002maniac :

Braver... or stupider?

I've already spent $300 and a day not fixing the problem. What's another $150 and another day?

Either that or a car payment.

Another two days.

I did it though. The hardest part was getting the transmission back into place. It turns out there is a midshaft on the passenger side, between the transmission and the CV shaft. There is an idler bearing which has a pressed on bracket at the end which bolts to the block, but it's behind the boss on the block for the tensioner. So you cannot take the midshaft out without first separating the engine from the transmission. That isn't a big deal. What is a big deal is that the midshaft has to go back in, in the right place, before the engine and transmission will touch all happy-like.

I've put three trips on it now, each over ten miles, and no CEL yet. I am low by another half-quart of so, and will rectify that at lunchtime, but for now, it seems OK.

Note to those, true love is when the wife comes out to work the floor jack while you work the prybar and cherry picker when it's 35 degrees, dark in a thunderstorm.

Congrats on finishing it.

Hope it stays fixed.

Excellent, I hope it stays fixed!

I know i'm late, but if you worked at a trans shop the line "i cant tell if the converter locks" wouldn't get you far with your boss or your customer. Since you are both in this case maybe you should give yourself a talking to.  

It's fairly easy to tell if a converter is locked up. First thing is simply vary the throttle slightly while watching the tach. If the converter is locked you will see no rpm change by moving the throttle around slightly (like in a 10% range). Another thing you can do is drive in a condition when the converter should be locked (used to be ~50+mph and light throttle for at least a few consecutive seconds, with modern cars the operating range is broader) and, without taking your foot off the gas, lightly touch the brake pedal. Tach should jump slightly as converter unlocks in response to brake pedal switch. No change means it wasn't locked.

Anyway, here's hoping it stays fixed!

In reply to Vigo :

TunaDad says that those old tricks to unlock the converter don't work anymore, and that the electronic trickery is too sophisticated to unlock the converter just because of a brake tap.

I decided to do it anyway, perhaps it was a bad call, but it's done now.