Any Ford Taurus AXOD transmission guru's here?

[LiveOak]

I realize this is kinda off topic and not Dodge related but I figured there is a wealth of knowledge and experience here that might be able to help me out. The transmission in my wife's car went out about a month ago. The car is a 1995 Ford Taurus LX with the 3.8 liter V-6. The transmission will go into gear in 1st or reverse and function properly in those gears BUT will not shift into higher gears. If the car is made to go as fast as possible in 1st gear, it will try to shift up to the next gear but when it does, there is NOTHING. The engine just revs freely and the transmission stops pulling the car. From what I have been able to gather, this is a very common failure. The care has 168,000 miles on it and is not worth much. The local transmission shop tells me a rebuilt trans. will run about $1900. I can get a junk yard trans. that has about 90,000 miles on it for around $600. The problem is that car is maybe worth $500 and not worth this huge expenditure. The other problem is as I am told, these are very weak transmissions and are lucky to get 90,000 miles out of them. When we first bought the car, the entire transaxle had to be replaced under warranty with maybe 25,000 miles. I am told we are lucky we got this many miles out of this one. I am a half way decent wrench but no professional mechanic. I was hoping to let my teenage daughters use this car for learning to drive on before I buy them something better. Does anyone here have experience with this transmission and can this issue be repaired without spending an arm and a leg? Befor I spend that much money on this car, I will by a late model Honda or Toyota. I don't want to throw good money after bad. I am fed up with American junk. What if any are my options here? Thanks.

[keydl]

Buying a rustout for $1-200 is one way - you get $60-100 back for the scrap.Parts will run $60-200 depending where you buy, if you can get the parts across the same counter that the shops buy from. Most Fords are picky about lint, so get a half sheet of paintgrip sheet metal and use compressed air in place of rags. A plastic drop sheet is helpful to help control dust.They are not difficult, just do one part to a time, starting with the outside of the case before you break it down. If you feel any grit from the outside of the case - it was not clean. I can't find lye any more but paint stripper, brake fluid and oven cleaner will do for most of the heavy cleaning after rinsing in solvent or diesel. Trisodium phosphate works well as warm as you can work with rubber gloves.With a little effort an engine stand can be adapted to a transmission fixture, I think it is worth it with a modest hunt for steel and a cheap engine stand.Another way is to find a 5sp, but it gets a little more involved fooling the PCM.Might drop the pan and see if it is a band end broken off, with a book and compressed air you can find the broken part in most cases. At the mileage a set of frictions and seals. Be very careful of the coils and windings - they are not cheap and the trans fluid pulls the plasticiser out so they get brittle.If you do it, then auto transmissions will not be a mystery.keydl

[Mopar1973Man]

You might hunt around the internet and you might be able to find a FSM for that car... I just checked over at PDFTown.com and they got owner manuals but no FSM for it... :confused: But that would help alot if you could find one...