Transmission BLOWN?! please help

[shodazzl]

I have a 93 ATX with a rebuilt Frod trans, I was driving right after work today and the gear should have been in was D and after pressing on the accelerator it just decided to go Boom!(it wasn't that loud of a bang but a bang anyway) Now the car will not budge in 1,2,or D as well as R. If a transmission does blow wouldn't at least one gear work. Why are all gears not engaging? Can this be rebuilt or is the whole trans shot?
:hpoop:

 

[CerberuS]

any fluid on the ground?

 

[Axianator]

If a transmission does blow wouldn't at least one gear work.

Not necessarily. When my factory-original '95 ATX bit the dust at 137k miles, the only "gear" I had was park. All of the other forward gears (including reverse) would give me a horrible "belt-rubbing" sound whenever I attempted to engage them. Unfortunately, it is very rare for one to have more than one workable gear with a potential transmission-related failure like you have described.

Can this be rebuilt or is the whole trans shot?

Unfortunately, there's no real way to answer this without cracking open the transmission for a closer inspection.

Out of curiosity, how many miles are on your rebuild? Also, who performed the task of installing the unit in your car?

 

[shodazzl]

No fluid on the floor. and now that you mention it i did smell a burning smell a couple of times I drove the car hard but never got around to checking to see if i had fluid in the trans. Yes it way my big mistake.

The Ford trans was installed from Ford at 79K and the car now has 197K. I changed the trans fluid once. The trans currently had no issues at all and was still good -no slipping what so ever: firm kicks from 1 to 2 ever since I bought the car at 79K. I think there just may not be any fluid in the trans . This maybe because of a missing dipstick an not a great cap that I replaced it with.Oil dried out? If I were to put fluid in it do you think it may go into gear?

 

[1993MTXSHO]

When my 95 GL tranny went I only had 1st, thats the beauty of a mtx, when a manuel "blows" you usually dont lose all the gears, you can usualyl limp it home. Like was said you really havt to crack it open, it might be time for a new transmission.

 

[typhoon5000]

Did you check your CV's and halfshafts? When I blew my diff in my 95 ATX it didn't leak any fluid either and no gears worked. It made a horrible grinding noise every time I tried a drive gear. I luckily had a parts car to pull a tranny from and I just got a tranny shop to swap them for me and they said the old tranny was scrap.

 

[naval-avi8or]

I have a 93 ATX with a rebuilt Frod trans, I was driving right after work today and the gear should have been in was D and after pressing on the accelerator it just decided to go Boom!(it wasn't that loud of a bang but a bang anyway) Now the car will not budge in 1,2,or D as well as R. If a transmission does blow wouldn't at least one gear work. Why are all gears not engaging? Can this be rebuilt or is the whole trans shot?
:hpoop:

The week point on these trannies are the planetary gear. When the planetary gear goes there is nothing to drive any of the other gears. Happened on my tranny years ago.

 

[Axianator]

The Ford trans was installed from Ford at 79K and the car now has 197K. I changed the trans fluid once. The trans currently had no issues at all and was still good -no slipping what so ever: firm kicks from 1 to 2 ever since I bought the car at 79K.

If you've put over 118k miles (197k-79k) on a remanufactured Ford AX4S, then I would consider yourself most fortunate. Even the most recent remanned units (with all of their TSBs and updates applied) leave out a few small details that can eventually lead to some sort of internal transmission failure. This problem is made worse when the unit is goverened by a "soft" factory shift schedule program.

If I were to put fluid in it do you think it may go into gear?

If your ATX was run dry on fluid, then there is little hope for it. Unlike some types and models of transmissions, the '93-'95 SHO ATX (like most automatics) use the transmission fluid for lubrication, cooling and as an agent for controlling the various aspects of transmission behavior. If your transmission interals were starved of this precious fluid for any length of time, then it's very likely that one or more areas of your transmission have melded and "become one" due to a lack of lubrication, cooling or both.

The week point on these trannies are the planetary gear. When the planetary gear goes there is nothing to drive any of the other gears. Happened on my tranny years ago.

Actually, the problem wasn't/isn't with the planetary gearset itself - rather, the problems lies with the amount of lubrication (or lack thereof) to the front and rear planetary gearsets in factory trim. Proper and complete installation of a TransGo or Sonnax shift improver kit will correct this and many other problems that are inherent with the original factory design.

 

[thecrew2999]

hey well since were on topic if you need a good atx i got one with just under 100,000 miles on it and runs perfectly fine. i took it out for a atx to mtx swap i got the half shafts and all to go with it (motor mounts etc) it just needs a new speed sensor and speedo cable.
ill go pretty cheap on it since im looking for money for a tweecer.
the thing is in great shape. PM me if your interested.

my guess is that your gears might be in a bit of damage. i never had that happen to me.
when my GL trans went it would just slip real bad then fluid ran out all over (all of it) and smoke from the fluid on the exhaust. that was it, it just didnt wanna keep fluid in anymore.
so i dont know much advice to give ya without opening it of course. id say its screwed but thats me

 

[shodazzl]

I will check the CV and Half shafts.

If I decide to rebuild just the planetary gears (if thats the case) Everything else MAY be alright? I am not too familiar with transmissions.

The 1-2 kick is firm and know that it has never slipped in any gear which leads me to believe the rebuilt should not be that costly???

Yeah, it maybe done. Just a shame.

Thanks for everyone help.

 

[shodazzl]

OK Peeps,

I have lots of transmission fluid in the trans. Halfshaft and CV joints are ok. Transmission never showed any signs of slippage, Firm shifts always. Its currently at my cousins gargage and we will be taking it down. If as specified that the Planetary gears is the problem could I just rebuild that part of the trans. Any ideas on cost?

 

[Minnesho]

You're best bet would be to find a good used one, or have it rebuilt. Due to your lack of knowledge on transmissions, I don't think its a good idea that you attempt it yourself. And even though it didnt show any signs of failure, it is not uncommon for it to fail suddenly. There are so many varaibles that until the transmission is disassembled you'll never know what the exact cause of the failure was. So don't just assume it was a planetary assembly until its thourally inspected.