Getting Connected (And Staying Connected)

Written By - Ron Clark, Valve Body / Solenoid Tech Director

Being the technical director for the valve body and solenoid department, I’ve seen more than my share of errors and mistakes that have been made by people while working with automatic transmissions. The majority involves electrical components, and a majority of those involve the connectors in some way. Often damage to a connector is done during the disconnection process. We’ve all been told not to wiggle a connector to get it off; that can expand the female pins in the connector, and cause them to have poor, or no connection when plugged back in, i.e. 604’s. Also connectors can have special problems we need to watch out for, such as inserts that may come lose from the solenoid block and stay in the harness connector, like the early E4OD in (figure 1).

Listen to the Customer

Written By - Lee Cappen, Diagnostician

By listening to the customer, we can often learn not only want in needs, but sometimes we can pick-up valuable information that helps us solve their problem.  In this case, listening to the Customer helped us find an unusual problem that could have been overlooked and led to an expensive and unnecessary repair.

The Customer came into our shop with a 2005 Ford Taurus. He complained that he was having an intermittent jerk at highways speeds. The Customer had gone through the trouble of documenting the times that this jerk appeared, the temperature that it occurred and under what driving conditions he was feeling the intermittent condition.

It's Summer

Written By - Jerry Huerter, Diagnostician

A 96 Nissan 300ZX came into the shop last summer. Remember, I said it was summer which affects this story later.  The customer stated that the check engine light was on and at times would not shift into 4^th gear.  I scanned the computer, and it had a P0705 inhibitor switch code.  I cleared the code and went for a test drive with the scan tool connected; inhibitor switch data was correct and the code did not reset.  I then put the vehicle on a lift and inspected the wiring and connectors, and everything looked good.  After talking to the customer we decided to replace the inhibitor switch.  The customer picked up the car and said he would let us know if it acted up again.  Two days later the customer returned with the same complaint.  He said he would leave the car with us for a few days so we would have time to do further testing.   Again, I scanned the computer, and the code P0705 was reset.  I cleared the code and went for a test drive; the scan data was good and no code reset.  After re-inspecting the wiring harness and connectors to make sure I did not miss something, I found everything checked OK.  Then I test drove the car off and on for two days and the code never reset.  The customer came and picked up the car, and we told him if the check engine light came on again to let us know what type of driving he was doing and where he was driving.  He said OK.

Honda - No Reverse

Written By - Dana Deeke, Diagnostician

Recently I encountered a job in my shop that reminded me of the importance of never taking an initial diagnosis at face value.  When problem-solving, what you find on the surface doesn't always tell the whole story.  That was the case with the 2008 Honda Accord that showed up at our shop one day, coming to us as a sublet from another repair facility.  This adds to the challenge, since we didn't have any direct communication with the vehicle owner.

The shop told us that they had replaced the transmission and delivered the car back to the owner.  The owner drove the vehicle to her workplace with no issue.  Upon attempting to back out of her parking stall to begin her drive home after work, the unit failed to engage reverse.  She managed to push the car out of the stall, and was able to engage forward gears and proceeded to drive home.

604 Solenoid Block Mystery Leaks

Written By - Ron Clark, Valve Body / Solenoid Dept., Tech. Dir.

The 604 / 41TE has been around for some time, and we are all pretty familiar with it; however some things still pose a challenge on this transmission and one of them is leaks.

Over time we have seen numerous fixed in vehicle reports that have solenoid packs being changed for leaking. In response to that, three years ago we made a special test plate so our rebuilt solenoid blocks can be charged with compressed air, and then sprayed all over with a soapy water solution. Any air leakage would then show up as bubbles in the soap, and would expose the leak. Before that, we had an occasional one or two blocks that would leak on the dynos. Now that has gone away, and we don’t see that problem anymore.

"New" does not equal "Good"

Written By - John Griffen, Diagnostician

Diagnosis is a challenge for any shop. Sometimes things can get even more complicated by a previous repair, or a part that has been recently replaced. This case involves both of these scenarios. After all, we really want to believe that a new part is a good one, right?

The 2005 Ford Freestar arrived to my bay with 120k miles on the odometer and a complaint of intermittent neutraling and shifting issues with the transmission. A quick pre-road test inspection revealed brown and varnished transmission fluid. Although there was no check engine light on, there was a code stored in memory, P0340. This code is for a camshaft position sensor fault. I wasn’t too concerned with the code itself; the customer had reported that this sensor had been previously replaced by another shop, so it was possible that the technician had forgotten to clear the codes after the repairs. A visual inspection revealed a very new-looking cam sensor.

A Case of Mistaken Identity

Written By - Dave Finley, Diagnostician

Those of us in the business have seen all different kinds of oddball installations and strange diagnosis that make absolutely no sense at all. There are so many variables that can contribute to a problem and finding the root cause is an ongoing challenge for all of us. To complicate things even further, if you don't have the background story on the vehicle you're trying to fix, you're working with assumptions that can easily get you into trouble. This story is an example of one such repair challenge.

Back to Basics - Strategy Based Diagnosis.

Written By - Chris Foster, Topeka Store Manager

A friend of mine called and asked me to look at one of his employee’s vehicles. He explained to me that it had already been looked at by two other shops in the area. The issue had been identified to be transmission related, and if he was going to have to spend any money to repair it, he would feel better having me work on the vehicle. Of course, I said “I’ll be happy to take a look at it, when can he bring it by?” he replied “We’ll be up in an hour or so…….. There is no hurry; he has another car to drive”.

Don't Forget the Basics

Written by Jerry Tipton, Diagnostician

When I was asked to write this article I thought, “What vehicle should I write about?”  Instead of choosing just one success story that applies to one vehicle, how about writing something that applies to all vehicles?  The thought that I want to convey is to pay attention to the simple things and small details alike, both when diagnosing a problem, or when removing and installing a transmission. 


With today's vehicles we all know that all of the various subsystems work together to make the vehicle perform properly.  Scan tools are a must with computer controlled vehicles, but common sense may play a more important role than meets the eye.  Our company has multiple locations, but my shop is responsible for diagnosing and repairing wholesale sales warranty issues.  These vehicles come to us from other shops that we have sold carry out transmissions to.  I am directly involved with these repairs.

Wholesale Carryout Transmission

Written By - Carman Clayber, Diagnostician

A wholesale carryout transmission can be a great addition to your weekly sales. We try to assist our customer by sharing our years of trouble shooting experience. Since we specialize in transmissions we have more opportunity to learn from the school of hard knocks.


Recently a customer called to get a quote for a 1998 Ford F-150 4X4 with the 4.6L engine and 4R70W transmission. The price was given and we had one in stock. A couple of days later they called and told us they needed the transmission. It was still in stock, but late in the day so arrangements were made to get it delivered to them the next day.

Mrs. Miller's Transmission

Written By - Scott Richardson, Diagnostician

A few weeks ago, Mrs. Miller came in with what she had been told was a transmission concern. She had taken her vehicle to several other places, including the dealer, before bringing it to us. She was very concerned since her after market warranty was only 5 miles away from running out. She stated that her 1999 Dodge Caravan wasn't shifting properly and her transmission range indicator on the dash had a malfunction, and not even the Dodge dealership could find the problem. After performing our Certi-care evaluation, which includes test driving the vehicle, scanning for service codes, and performing a visual inspection, I was unable to find anything wrong. There were no codes, shift points were good, fluid was in good condition, and the range indicator was working properly.  Since Mrs. Miller was waiting at this time, I asked if she could leave it with us for a little while to see if we could duplicate her concern. She was unable to at that moment but set an appointment to bring the Caravan back a couple of days later for us to perform Level-1 Electrical Diagnoses, which is beyond our certi-care evaluation.

Nasty Burnt Fluids...Check Codes

Written By - Carman Clayber, Diagnostician

Recently a customer called to get a quote for a 1998 Ford F-150 4X4 with the 4.6L engine and 4R70W transmission. The price was given and we had one in stock. A couple of days later they called and told us they needed the transmission. It was still in stock, but late in the day so arrangements were made to get it delivered to them the next day. The technicians in our shops jump in and do whatever is necessary. This can be from diagnosing a complex electrical issue to dumping the trash, so first thing in the morning I loaded the transmission to deliver it. The shop was just finishing removing it from the truck. I greeted everyone and together we unloaded the transmission. I checked the core for components that need to be transferred like dowel pins and brackets. Everything had been removed so I loaded the core and headed back to the shop. When I got back the core was unloaded and placed on the drain bench. I did not know what was wrong with this unit as I had not taken the original call, however upon draining it YUCK, man did this fluid stink and boy was it black and look at the nice sparkles.