donor transmission came from a 2001.

 

Cool, should be a direct swap then.

 

Just finished the swap.

I bought some lubegard transmission cooler flush. Both lines are not connected to the transmission. I disconnected the line that goes into the top of the radiator. I tried to flush it, and it wasn't doing anything except making a little mess. I ran compressed air directly into the top transmission cooler port, and its either clogged, or I'm working against some kind of check valve. I'll reattach the line to the cooler tomorrow and attempt to run compressed air into the lines that go to the transmission.

Any thoughts on why air won't flow from where I sent compressed air?

 

There is a check valve in the line that connects to the lower fitting on the radiator. Get rid of it.

 

Rookie mistake on my part. Check valve was doing its job. I reconnected the the line to the radiator, flushed the lines that were connected to the transmission. The flow was good, I flushed it out and the kleengard came out clear at the end. I used a compressor to push air before and after the kleengard flush.

After filling it, I took it for a couple of test drives and it shifts fine for R 1,2, and 3rd. OD will not kick in. I was going 55mph at 3400 rpms. I pushed the OD-OFF button to turn it on and off but the only thing that did was light up the OD OFF indicator light in the dash. I took it to a shop and they attached it to their fancy computer and they did connect to the PCM successfully and got no error codes.

I have been doing some reading and cannot confirm if this is a grounding issue. Should there be a mesh grounding wire from the transmission to the frame? If so, where should it be?

Lastly, After I the last fluid level check, it looks like I overfilled it by 1-2quarts and need to drain it. The fluid is at the bent part of the dipstock. Would this cause the OD to not engage?

 

O/D is controlled purely by the PCM, it doesn't care about fluid level. It just needs to know how fast your are going, how hard you are stepping on the go pedal, etc. Generally, if O/D does NOT engage, and no codes are set........ something is telling the PCM NOT to engage O/D. Generally I see this on older truck, (pre-2000 model year) with the wrong electronics in the trans. PCM thinks fluid is too hot, and won't engage O/D. Of course, that doesn't set a code either.

If you can, monitor trans temp when you think you should be in O/D. See what it says.

 

would a temp sensor wire open circuit throw an engine code? I has read that if the temp sensor was disconnected, it wouldn't go into OD either.

 

If the wire is off the plug it won't go into closed loop and sets a code. 1-4 and OD still work as does reverse..

 

It sounds like the electronics are causing the issue. You could swap the ones from your old trans and see if anything changes... And I'm not 100% but you could also try adjusting your tv cable.. I know with mine I have to stomp on the throttle to hit O/D sometimes... It could just be because my cable is stiff.. Who knows

 

My bluetooth OBDII wasn't working, I took it to a shop to get the vehicle inspected, and no codes were thrown. I just got a new cheap one from amazon and it works. Using TorquePro, it isn't reading any transmission temp at all. Shouldn't it be?

I now get 2 codes related to a major vacuum canister/evaporator leak, I'll address that later.