caravan transmission problem, advice needed

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d55dave

d55dave

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I recently was given a 96 caravan 3.0 3 speed auto with a bad transmission (31TH / A670 Torqueflite). My initial thought was to get a transmission from a local wrecker, but I am unable to find any at a reasonable cost. As I am making this a father-son project I thought it would be a prime opportunity to split the transmission and see what can be fixed. The van was running and driving fine - until it was stuck in the snow, and was rocked (probably quite hard) between reverse and drive to get it un-stuck. After this, the van had no reverse. I drove it today for the first time and it is delayed in shifting into forward gears, but will drive once it engages, and it definitely has no reverse. The fluid level is full My thoughts were a broken band, smoked clutch pack or a bad overrunning clutch. After some research though I have read about bad (plastic) governor pistons in these transmissions which break, affecting fluid line pressure. It appears that the governor piston is the same as the aluminum one used in 904's. I think that I may drop the valve body first and check things out. Does anyone have any ideas or advice?

Thanks
 
We replaced those transmissions every 30K back in the day. They are problematic. A used one would not be advised. They had issues, and do you really want to spend all that time taking out a bad 17 year old transmission to put in another 17 year old transmission that you have no idea how it's been cared for? Taking it apart and fixing it is complicated, but an interesting project. What do you have to lose? And you get to spend time with your son. They used to leak at the cooler lines and run low, and these transmissions never did well on low fluid. The planetary would blow out quite often. You lose reverse first, then the planetary blows and you lose forward gears. It sounds as if you are almost there now!
 
If you do end up going to the auto wreckers, try to find one with a rebuild tag, and of course probaby the cleaner the fresher the rebuild. I did this with my dads 01 Caravan, and it on its third year now. It has the 4 speed auto in it. They gave it a way last year to a student and had just a bout 380,000 km (240,000 miles) on it.

The thing is my mum got it stuck and blew out the first tranny...
 
d55dave said:
I recently was given a 96 caravan 3.0 3 speed auto with a bad transmission (31TH / A670 Torqueflite). My initial thought was to get a transmission from a local wrecker, but I am unable to find any at a reasonable cost. As I am making this a father-son project I thought it would be a prime opportunity to split the transmission and see what can be fixed. The van was running and driving fine - until it was stuck in the snow, and was rocked (probably quite hard) between reverse and drive to get it un-stuck. After this, the van had no reverse. I drove it today for the first time and it is delayed in shifting into forward gears, but will drive once it engages, and it definitely has no reverse. The fluid level is full My thoughts were a broken band, smoked clutch pack or a bad overrunning clutch. After some research though I have read about bad (plastic) governor pistons in these transmissions which break, affecting fluid line pressure. It appears that the governor piston is the same as the aluminum one used in 904's. I think that I may drop the valve body first and check things out. Does anyone have any ideas or advice?

Thanks
Click to expand...

You are probably right about the overrunning clutch, as this is usually what breaks when they are "rocked"
One big pain in the butt on those is the torqued nuts on the shafts inside.
Since they are a transverse drivetrain they have changes of direction of the powerflow and this makes them somewhat more complicated to work on. (a lot of the bearings are tapered rollers that need to be at a certain preload)
If you decide to tear into it, chk the diff carrier bearings closely, as they commonly wore and caused halfshaft seal leaks.

You are also right about the accumulator servo's, they shatter.
I don't know if they are the same as the 904 though.
 
Yikes, that sounds like loads of work, but keep everything organized on a BIG clean bench and you should get some quality father-son time out of it...at least! Hope my '06 holds up..alternator overrunning clutch dealy-bob is wining....
 
Worked on many of these and you'll be better off with a reman. Part availability and cost will be a problem. These transmissions were very light duty for v6 and planetaries wore out and broke a lot. Chances are you're going to need a lot of parts to do it right. $$$$
 
1975 PROSTREET DUSTER said:
Worked on many of these and you'll be better off with a reman. Part availability and cost will be a problem. These transmissions were very light duty for v6 and planetaries wore out and broke a lot. Chances are you're going to need a lot of parts to do it right. $$$$
Click to expand...

Mine had a broken planatary or something ( memory failure ) in the trans of a 93 Lebarron. Very thin walled neck that bearing ran on had cracked completely off. I think the total cost was 704.00 w/ remand tq converter. I did the R&R here and carried the trans out and back. I had to buy and install a new trans cooler also to get a warranty on the rebuild.
 
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