i justed picked up a nice 94 grand caravan 3.3L 134,000. it had a bad shakeing promblem when i bought it and i knew that. i got it home and went ahead and changed out both front axle shafts, ball joints, and brakes. the van drove perfect after the new parts and i handed it over to the wife. the second day she drove it she called and said the van is making a grinding sound, wont move and wont even go into park. she shut it off and held the brake. right before i got she started the van back up and everything was working. i drove it home with no promblems. i yanked the frontend apart again and checked it all out. i thought maybe the right side axle i just replaced may had been defective so i changed it again. it drove for 2 more days and then the grinding happened again and the van would'nt move. she shut it off waited a bit, tryed it again and it worked. after she got home i took it for a ride and it seemed normal. but on my way back home i noticed now it wont shift out of 1st gear and i dont hear the creaky shift noise its supposed to make when going from park to gears .

i searched the forums here and read about the shifting promblems, hard shifts, trans codes, and so on. BUT, none of the other post mention a grinding promblem. what the heck could cause it to make the grinding noise and have no gears or park. and then be fine a few minutes later. she said she stopped at a red light and then went to go and this happened. and after that the grinding noise continued when she was trying to shift thru the gears to make it move. the grinding noise would go away when shifted to park but park did not even work.
i still have our old worn out 94 caravan with a good trans im keeping for parts. need some advised before i swap the trannys out. could it be a computer/sensor promblem?. the engine light is not on.

 

Take look at the motor mount. The mount on the driver's like to break and allow the axle to rub on the K-frame. I have also seen the overdrive reaction plates break too and will cause a grinding sound.

 

when i pulled it back apart there was no signs of any rubbing or wear on the new axle shafts.

 

wied thing is it will grind, stop moving, and then be fine after the van sits. it does have some stickers under the hhood with flash date codes on them. ill try and see if i can get any codes come up .
this is the only car we have to shuttle the kids to school, i have to get the van fixed asap. i plan on swapping the transmnissions today, but hate do the swap if its a electicle/TCM promblem. i guess i bought a lemon. we drove our other 94 van for 7yrs and it was flawless other than general maintenace. heck the darn old van with 200,000 + still runs great, just body and undercarrage is wore out. so we bought this other one last week.

 

how bad are these transmission to remove ?. anything special i need to know ?. i have done many trans swaps but none on a caravan.

 

todays update:
parked the van 3 days ago when it would'nt shift out of first gear. i just took the van for a drive today and its working fine. shifts threw all gears and drives good.
i did a code check and got code # 12 & 32. not trans related. as of now im not going to swap the trans out. what ive read thru the forums, im going to disconect the battery and check the trans harness for water and go from there. kinda hard to fix a promblem with the van when its driveing fine as of now. im thinking maybe the grinding noise the wife herd was from the trans gears getting hung up from not shifting properly. electronic shift sensor got hung up maybe ?. we did have 3 days of rain and may have cause some electricle promblems. ill see what i can find and give a update .

 

drove the van over 100 miles today with no promblems. the trans fluid is looking a little dark . no burnt smell, but im going to change it anyway with +4 fluid and a chrysler filter.