Jatco F3A Auto gearbox – no reverse after rebuild

[Agustin Alfonso Cesar Charles]

Hi guys, I really, really didn´t wanted to come to the forum for this because I felt that it wasn´t something so relevant like the rest of the people´s problems around here but I have nowhere else to go but to you guys, I know you are busy but I really don´t have any other person to help me 🙁 . I spent days looking at shop manuals, going around town asking, checking videos in a crappy internet speed line but… damm, I feel more sad than Droopy.

The story goes: my car has an F3A gearbox, the Ford Aspire, Mazda 323, Chevrolet Spectrum and 3 other cars have the same gearbox, and the shop manuals matched the hard procedures and I was able the disassemble and assemble withouth much trouble over the course of 3 weeks.

Why I took so long? well, because I really wanted to get it done right, since my car is my daily driver and I do a lot of traveling with it, I wanted to have the gearbox done right with quality and love, lots of love.

But, when it came the day of testing, something went wrong, the following is the description of what happens on every shift position.

Park = Ok, is parked, duh 😛

Reverse = Engages, but not enough power to wheels, the engine drops rpms like it is engaged but there is not enough force to go backwards, didn´t wanted to go above 2000 rpms because the stall speed is around that point so, I guess there is not enough force for the plates to engage.

Neutral = Again, Ok, is neutral 😛

Drive = took it for a spin and it changed gears correctly and according to the manual everything seemed fine.

2nd = Stays in second and I feel engine brake in second, so, the drum and the band seem to be good.

1st = Stays in first, BUT, there is no engine brake, and that´s weird.

If I understand correctly from the shop manual I could have a problem with the Low and Reverse system or an hydraulic problem with the valve body, but since I took 3 weeks to do this, with so much love and effort, I really feel like I am stuck in some lonely place withouth corauge or will to go on 🙁 Damm, I really thought I could nail this one, and the gearbox is quite easy is you see it completely disassembled on the bench (AKA dinner table, I have a really small place).

And since I really don´t want to go again to the car without some pointers, I really didn´t want to come to you defeated and with scratched hands. (lots of sharp edges, really).

Topic

[college man]

see if this helps. sounds like a pressure problem.

http://www.justanswer.com/australia-car/460sq-ford-laser-hi-i-just-finished-rebuilding-jatco-f3a.html

[Agustin Alfonso Cesar Charles]

Just got the car fixed, took the tranny to a shop and found out that I installed an spacer wrongly, besides that, everything else was good. Now I got a problem with the torque converter.

I found out that the Ford Festiva and the Suzuki Swift share the same tranny but the torque converters have different bolt distances, the new torque converter that I bought was for the Festiva :S and I didn´t notice. And since it has a 6 months warranty and is NEW, I decided to use it instead of the original remanufactured (the remanufacturing process was kinda shady so I decided not to use that TC). I sent the drive plate to a shop so they could make 4 new holes and balance it.

The problem is that the TC works, but it has a whine sound that goes away as I speed up, funny is isn´t? I don´t know if it is because the TC has something different or something else is happening.

On the Stall test there is no sound, I repeat, no whine at the stall test. But the stall speed is quite lower (1500 rpm, against to what the manual says that it should be 2000), so I think it may be due to the fact that is for the Festiva, maybe? The whine is only present from stop to go, and it seems to dissapear when the TC matches the speed of the turbine (as far as I understand how a TC works, so I kinda think that´s the issue)

Another thing is that the TC has only 2 bolts installed on the drive plate (is that the correct name? is the plate that is connected to the crankshaft and that plate connects to the TC). Since I am testing the transmission, maybe that whine sound could be for the 2 missing bolts and the plate is just vibrating, maybe tomorrow I may install the rest of the bolts just to be sure.

So far, the car goes nicely and everything is good, just that sound that I can´t diagnose. I doubt that the TC is bad, because the sound would INCREASE as I speed, not the other way around.

What do you think?

[Agustin Alfonso Cesar Charles]

Just to finalize, the problem with the sound was that the TC was too close to the crankshaft. The pilot of the TC is not the same as the original, so I putted a spacer on each bolt to separate around 1/8 inch and that solved all. Now I am rolling. B)

[Author]

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