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Thread: TSG's Unified Fleet Thread

  1. #2191
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    I wanna do something like that next year - it's probably too much for me to deal with in the next couple months... year-end for whatever reason is our seasonal home improvement time, and we gotta long, long list.

  2. #2192
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    The maiden voyage of the $760 9-3 did not go terribly well. It started off really strong - 12 miles of zero issues, everything doing exactly what it should and being actually quite pleasant to drive. I got cocky and decided to give it a little boot merging onto the freeway and got a Check Gearbox fault and no 4th gear. I drove it eight miles home limited to 3rd (which is fine for surface streets) and went looking for problems, pretending like I know a damned thing about automatic transmissions. Please. I did find these:



    That's the connector for the coolant level sensor (so that's why the warning is always on) and the ground for the transmission temperature sensor. It seems like this car had spiders and mice. I fixed them, found no other damage, changed the transmission fluid a second time, and then had the exact same problem again, reaffirming the fact I don't know a damned thing about automatic transmissions.

    So I spent most of the evenings this week reading. I have some experience with this AW50 transmission - it's the same transmission that's in the Volvo 850/x70 - but not really any knowledge. Context is good though, so I dove in. I've read all the technical documentation I can find, all the service manuals, and I've reviewed both Volvo's and Saab's factory documentation on them.... which is by far and away the most useless. The Swedes apparent don't fix transmissions, they replace them. Got fault? Get a new transmission. Lame.

    Anywho, with what I learned and the tests I can do with Tech 2, I still don't know shit. Automatics are HARD. The AW50 is a simple transmission - two drums, two clutches, a single band, no overdrive, two shift solenoids... kind of the pinnacle 4-speed in terms of simplification. It just doesn't have a lot of parts. Because R,1,2,3 all work properly, it suggests that all the parts work properly, so the lack of fourth is a mystery. There is inconsistency is some of the materials I read - one manual suggests that the C2 clutch is used in R and 4 (and that makes sense to me, R being direct drive) but another suggests C2 is only used in 4th. If the former, then the clutch is fine because R is fine. If the latter, then maybe C2 is busted. I could see someone stuck in limp home mode just fucking up the C2 clutch, but I have no proof. Failing that, my only idjit explanation is that there is not enough pressure to shift into 4th, either due to a pump issue or an obstruction somewhere... like perhaps a shift solenoid valve body. Thus, my plan for tomorrow morning is go get a valve body from the junkyard and give it a go. It's not too difficult to replace - a handful of bolts and some time for sealant to cure. What's the worst that could happen?

    Assuming I'm staring down the barrel of a transmission replacement, it's not even a bump in the financial road - $200 from the dismantlers (they'll even load it in the truck!) - it's just a lot of work and hard to do single handed. One of those "lower the transmission onto your chest" scenarios. Really hoping this weekend yields a 9-3 with a junkyard-healed transmission so it doesn't come to that.

    Unrelated, I got the final electrical doodads I needed for the SPG, so it's going back together. Got some of it done tonight before it got dark. I think my fake night panel is rad:





    The whole cluster will get redone at some point with the tach I ordered, but I was so over budget and over time on this stuff (stupid mission creep) I had to call it. It'll be fine as is until I return to it... hopefully sometime before May '18 and miss all the good driving weather again.
    Last edited by thesameguy; November 8th, 2017 at 07:16 PM.

  3. #2193
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    Apropos of nothing, I keep forgetting this. If I write it down, I will remember it.

    https://www.powertraincontrolsolutio...ller/TCM-2000/

  4. #2194
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    There was one '00 and one '02 9-3 at the junkyard, both automatics, so I headed over there and grabbed both of their valve bodies because why not. It was not so difficult - in all seriousness the worst part was the upper bolt on the transmission mount bracket, as it's covered by an AC tube. Getting a wrench in there was very problematic - literally the most difficult part of the operation. Everything else was smooth - a couple dozen easy bolts. I was not particularly proud of this:



    But it worked. Yes, that's a lug nut and two banjo bolts keeping the transmission off the subframe. I just wedged them in there before removing the transmission mount and nothing bad happened.

    I hope I didn't ruin someone's life, but I just cut the entire harness off the inside of the transmission. That plastic seemed really fragile and I did not want to mess with it without a clear view and good access. So, those things are useless now. Both valve bodies took less than two hours not a big deal at all.

    Then I totally screwed the pooch. Somehow while being handled - between the yard and my house - I wrecked BOTH lower gaskets in exactly the same place. I didn't notice they were there, and then it was too late. FML.

    When I found the damage I decided to make it worse by dismantling one of the valve bodies. What was there to lose? That got me to here:



    I called all the major local transmission supply warehouses and nobody sells a replacement gasket set. Then I dug through all the manuals I downloaded and found no part number, or even a kit which includes these gaskets. FAIL.

    That left me with needing to salvaging the gasket from the valve body that's coming out of my car. Back in the '90s I did this more than once with the terrible automatics in the early 9000s (4HP18, IIRC) and I didn't even have any service manuals for them. What's nice about this transmission is that there are intermediate plates between each part of the valve body so there is far less risk of losing a check ball or filter, but it's still a bit nervewracking.

    Interestingly the '00 was in bad shape, very rusty and deteriorated under the hood. But, the transmission bled bright red. The '02 was in pretty good shape (for a junkyard car) but the transmission bled nasty black like mine had. Both appeared to be original - the same pink sealant on the covers, etc.

    Before I started on my replacement operation, I got The Fear so I went back to the junkyard to remove yet another valve body to salvage a gasket. Better safe than sorry, and I'm getting really good at it. Check out my sexy transmission mount... 2nd generation, totally refined:



    Took the thing apart in the junkyard...



    All I needed was this gasket, so paying for a whole additional valve body seemed silly.



    Some interesting details.... the '99 valve body and '00 is different from the '01+. These are the two versions of the pressure solenoid:



    And these are the two versions of the S2 shift solenoid:



    I don't know if there is a functional difference, but I didn't want to chance it. My '01 was the same as the '02 part I junkyarded, so I left the '00 one on the bench and got to it.

    Getting the valve body out was not difficult (obviously, I had so much practice) and getting it back in was a little nerve wracking as I didn't want to damage the rearmost gasket, but really not difficult. I was nervous about fitting the cover in without tagging anything with wet sealant, so I practiced putting it in place several times before actually going for it. My work probably would have been easier had I removed the downpipe, but I didn't. As a result, I had to go in through the side. Since none of the underbelly plastic was in place that was a convenient approach. The key here was unbolting the forward subframe bolt and instelling a 1/2" spacer between it and the body. With that tiny extra space, getting the cover in was not a problem.



    I let the sealant cure for 36 hours. It can take "up to 50 hours" for Reinzosil to cure but as little as 5 in ideal conditions. I split it, seemed good enough.

    The road test was total failure - no change in performance. Actually, a SLIGHT change. When I left the house, it shifted into 4th and THEN threw a check gearbox warning. I cleared the error but never got back into fourth... I kept driving, maybe 10 miles. Still no slipping, good R,1,2,3 shifts, but no fourth no matter what I did... shifting manually, sport mode, high revs. All the things.

    So, I am writing it off. I can return the valve body so all I'm out is about three hours and $25 worth of transmission fluid. It was a good experiment, I learned some stuff, whatever. I'll pick up a replacement transmission this week and hopefully install it over the holiday weekend. Seems like it'll be rough without a lift, but I can go slowly. We'll see!

  5. #2195
    Member Member 21Kid's Avatar
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    Has anyone heard from TSG lately? This seems like an awful long time to go without updates.

  6. #2196
    Yeah I was wondering the same. Russ?

  7. #2197
    mAdminstrator Random's Avatar
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    There was an intense discussion in the Gaming Forum, and tsg appears to be taking time away.

    I really hope it's temporary.
    Whoomah!

  8. #2198
    Consultant KillerB's Avatar
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    Ditto. I hope that argument was worth it to the other participants.

  9. #2199
    Come back Justin!

    [I rarely venture into that forum and I'm not going to go read the argument, but I for one have enjoyed tsg's contributions to this community.]

  10. #2200
    Bad Taste novicius's Avatar
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    Whoa! If there's anything I said in that thread that caused him hurt feelings, I absolutely apologize!!

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