Autoboxes are just not my area of expertise. This is an 85 245 with 155k miles on it. Purchased recently for the graduate, as his car is down for the count, trans was working perfectly Friday, Saturday morning suddenly no reverse. In fact the car is in drive as soon as you start it. You can feel it pulling and it won't rev in park. Will drive in reverse or neutral, but won't shift correctly. In drive everything is fine. Downshift cable was sticky last week, freed it up and no further issues, but found it snapped yesterday--no idea when it happened. Replaced it. Fluid was not very dirty. No bits and pieces or metal filings in the pan, just clutch soot. All mounts are good. Going to disconnect the shift linkage and operate the trans directly today, just for kicks, but I don't think that's it. Something stuck in the valve body perhaps? Any help or hints will be appreciated.

My gut says shift linkage. I've had more than one aw70 die on me, and various malfunctions with the ones that didn't, but never anything like this.

Shift linkage...external? External is all good. Nothing has come loose, so that's not it. Or internal like Chuck suggests? Any insight into the location of the pin he mentioned?

Thanks,
Dave

I was thinking external, Dave, but if that checks out, perhaps it is related to the shifter mechanism internally. I've never seen an AW70 fail in any but two ways: sticky/impossible shifts due to valve body check balls and slipping or stripped clutch packs.

There is a green book for the 240 transmissions posted on Turbobricks somewhere. That might help, but it don't have the link.

Sorry I was so unhelpful.

Sean

Hey Sean, I'm always grateful for ANY and ALL info that comes my way. In this case, I'm the one that just hasn't been thinking. I have the green books, both the teardown and the maintenance and troubleshooting books. Sadly the diagrams all show the valve body and related gear exploded, so there's no way to figure out if the "cock's comb" is on one side or not. Gary Sellstrom believed it was. And he's right. Sadly, the retainer and pin are indeed obscured by the valve. body.

Not that I had to see any of that. It wasn't until I took the pan off again this morning that I remembered that the stupid selector shaft goes all the way to the other side--Gah!!! Easy enough to determine if the pin is sheared--and it's not--the other side of the shaft turns--dunh.

The car is over at my trans shop now. I am very much hoping it's a valve body problem--something stuck--but I have to admit I think the constantly engaged drive is evidence of a clutch pack all worn down and welded to itself. We'll see. I'll post back with results.

No apologies necessary by any means sir!
DS

pull the pan. sounds like the roll pin that connects the shift shaft to the lever on the outside sheared. haven't had this problem in 20 years since a 76 264 that was towed in. easy fix. change the filter and fluid, too. good luck, chuck.

Thanks Chuck, sure sounds like a possibility. Question though, I'm looking at the green book. Isn't that connection covered by the valve body? Or is it "next to" the valve body?

Dave