I've got a mid to late 90s Plymouth neon I got off my cousin. Its going to be a demo car we already gutted it welded doors shut ran exhaust straight out of the hood etc.. anyways after we got it all finished we fired it up and backed it out of the drive and went for a drive around town. *got plenty of wtf stares* everything was going great but all of a sudden it lost reverse and now all of the gears are drive including park. It does not roll forward in park however because of the park pin but you can tell the tranny is still in gear. If I move the gear selector to 1 it goes into neutral. I've already ruled out linkage

 

the car also moves if you try to start it in the neutral. The starter makes the car roll forward then when it starts it takes off

 

Melted the clutches together? I had a SAME problem with a neon a bought. It would only go forward, even in reverse, neutral, and tried to move in park. I never took it apart but was told something is stuck/melted together in there. the 3 speeds are a dime a dozen, finding a good one is the adventure.

 

See I thought this too but when you pull it into 1st it doesn't move. And when you first start it in park it doesn't go into gear until you pull it into drive then back into park. Then it goes into gear. It shifts perfectly and drives fine forward. Runs through all the gears

 

I would shift it through the gears and have someone listen and watch the cable up front. You may have a bracket coming loose up front or under the shifter. If thats not the problem it will be internal. Hows the fluid look on it? Burned varnish smell?

 

The fluid looks good doesn't stink or anything. Could the problem be in the valve body? Its hard to hear what is going on because it doesn't have any windows and the exhaust is straight pipe straight out of the hood

 

I have a friend that works down the hill and runs a tranny shop. He is also big into dodges and has rebuilt these trannys in the past. Let me run this information by him for a more professional opinion because unfortunately auto trannys are not my strong point. I want to say yes sticky valve body could be in question. Let me see what he would recommend and I can get back to you on Monday.

 

Actually just talked to him. He said he of course cant say for sure without seeing it but it sounds like the linkage may be screwed up, otherwise the clutch pack is melted together. He said doing fluid and a filter more then likely wont help (I just asked to be sure). He said if you cant find the problem in the linkage then pull the trans. He also mentioned the good thing about pulling it is there are a few little cheap upgrades you can do to pep up the auto trans also while in the rebuild stages. Hope this helps.

 

Well im going to keep my fingers crossed I dont really want to dump a ton of money into a car that im only going to run 2 or 3 more times. Depending on how long the engine can hold up.

 

When my car was doing it I drove it like this for a year, and when I bought it the kid was driving it a year prior like that also. I just made the mistake of pulling into a driveway the first day I had it. Anyways it should hold, just need to push it for reverse. I can buy those trannys used all day around here for $100, so I am sure you can find one cheap if it comes down to it.