Hey Guys,

I finally replaced my burnt out transmission with a new one. get this, when the old one broke down and i had it towed to the shop they shop owner replaced the fluid with engine oil. whats neat is i was able to drive it for a few weeks with that oil. how much longer i wouldve been able to do that is up in the air, and sure that trans is completely shot.

anyway, new one is in, got the old one out, new one in, double and triple checked everything when i was done that everything was tightened and hooked back up properly. put the car back on the ground, started the engine and the trans made this absolutely god awful squealing sound, similar to a belt squeal but i know it wasnt that. the car went into gear for a second and then lost it. i originally thought maybe i hooked the trans cooler lines back up in correctly, i had to bleed the lines of the engine oil so i disconnected them at the cooler as well and i thought maybe i put them back on the wrong lines. swapped them this morning and no difference. that was the only thing i did that felt questionable during the whole process. i cant think of anything that would cause that and the guy who helped me whos an actual mechanic is stumped as well.

any possible ideas?

 

Yes, putting in 30w oil was an old fix for automatics, ATF is about 10w
Automatics run on Fluid Pressure, thats what makes them GO
When they don't GO or don't GO well, lol, it is usually a Pressure issue, internal leaks, so the 30w can increase internal pressure enough to get them GOing again.

And yes they will not last long running 30w, but trans is shot at that point anyway.

The 30w left in trans cooler wouldn't hurt anything, and trans cooler doesn't have an IN or OUT, so doesn't matter which hose goes where, same as a heater core

When you install any automatic transmission there is one VERY VERY.......VERY important thing you have to do, and that is to SEAT the TORQUE CONVERTER
The torque converter drives the transmissions Main Pump(front pump), you slide the torque converter onto the input shaft and slide it back until it stops, THEN you turn it while pushing in and you will feel it SEAT into the drive shaft AND Main Pump, it should slide in two or three times, you can feel it and hear it.

When it is seated fully you should be able to put a straight edge across bellhousing and it won't touch torque converter
When you mate transmission to engine, the bellhousing should go on and seat against engine, you should NEVER EVER have to use bolts to get it to sit flush to engine block
Once bellhousing and block are bolted together you slide the torque converter forward to bolt it to the Flexplate, if torque convert is TIGHT then you have probably FUBARed the Main pump, broke it because it was not seated.
If you have to tilt trans up in the rear to get it into place you have to make sure torque converter didn't slide out, you need to make sure it gets re-seated

Since all automatics run on Pressure, and the Main pump provides that Pressure...............well a big NO GO in any gear when Main pump is damaged.

I did this many years ago on my First Automatic install, costly OOPS, my was also a fresh rebuild, and I broke the main pump, full disassembly and reassembly is needed to replace it.

Hopefully this is not what happened, but.................your question about the transmission cooler lines leads me to believe it might be your first automatic replacement as well

Short Video here on seating torque converter:

 

so i definitely didn't do this. we bolted torque converter to the flywheel and then mounted transmission to the engine....

In light of this discovery....did this kill the transmission? or just the torque converter? where is the main pump you speak of? if the torque converter is fried, while annoying is not the end of the world, i still have the old torque converter from the previous trans which i believe is fine. but if i just fried my brand new trans im gonna be really really pissed off.

side note, if you put the torque converter in the bell housing and then put it on the engine how the hell do you line up the flywheel with the bolts to the torque converter?

 

Yes, you killed the main pump in the transmission, which "powers" the transmission
Automatics are assembled from the front to the back, and disassembled from back to front
The Main Pump is also called the "front pump", although there is no "back pump" so...............it is the only pump
To replace the main pump you need to disassemble the transmission completely
Torque converter will be fine.

With an automatic it is called a Flexplate, Flywheel is for use with a clutch, just FYI

You can remove a transmission with torque converter still on flexplate, although it is better to unbolt it and pull it off with transmission, less of a mess with the ATF leaking out of torque converter

Once transmission and engine are bolted together you can rotate torque converter to align it with holes in flexplate and pull it forward a bit when bolting it down, then you have to rotate the engine to get access to the other torque converter bolts.
If torque converter uses studs instead of bolts then align the 4 studs once transmission is on the engine but not tight, it will rotate easily


This video shows how to align main pump in your transmission, not that you will be doing this, it just to shows you where main pump is and how it is first thing you install when putting a transmission back together: www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-L71-udS_g

C&P the link

 

Ron I may be wrong here but can't the pump be replaced/repaired just by by removing the bell housing only on the a4ld/4r44e? Doesn't it assemble through the back of the bell housing which is then bolted to the otherwise intact trans?

 

On most automatics you can try it that way, problem is that it is hard to get it aligned again, and if misaligned you will have a pool of ATF under the vehicle within a minute or so after startup

 

Well gentleman, the stars aligned and by some miracle the torque converter seated itself and the trans run beautifully. the reason it wasnt going into gear is because my dumbass didnt put the o-rings on the filter in the pan, so it had no pressure. that whining i heard was the catalytic converter. when we were reassembling it we heard some rattling in the exhaust so we shook it out and iridium and all that fell out so we knew the cat conv broke but we assumed we got it all out. obviously not.....once we realized thats where the sound came from we cut off the cat converter, welded some pipe in its place and no more noise. we dont have to pass any emissions where i live so theres no problem there.

now i just need to replace the front end (which a brand new one is on the donor truck), figure out why one of my cylinders are misfiring (im thinking fuel injector. spark plugs, wires, and coil pack were all replaced already) and try to figure out where the leak is on my A/C.

 

That was a lucky break for sure, good work