Level was fine and ATF was lovely and red. Looked brand new. Selector switch operating as it should.
Sadly this is not the 2-3 solenoid as on a road test the gearbox was also losing drive when changing from 1-2 and just randomly jumping out of any gear. It would also on occasion lose drive in "snow mode" while it's not doing any sort of gear changing.
Removal of the front sump did not reveal a thrust washer however the ATF in the bowl contained loads of black bits (not metallic) that looked just like chewed up thrust washer to me.
My theory is that the thrust washer failed for the previous owner, hence why he removed the sumps and changed the ATF. This is supported by the fact recent work has been done, you can see that the underside of the gearbox sump (main one) has been totally cleaned, and that the gasket on the front sump which I removed was almost certainly brand new (it was a composite type gasket, not the original factory rubber one). The securing clip which is held on by one of the front sump bolts and holds one of the gearbox oil cooler pipes was also not present, again indicating someone has been messing about with it.
I'd be prepared to bet the majority of the thrust washer was removed by the previous owner and we found the remains of the rest within the ATF today
It may well be possible to repair the box, but when Robsey can supply a good AR25 which is proven working for £70, then three hours or so of work to fit this will guarantee a fix, as opposed to messing around with the broken one for goodness knows how long
My advice to paul is therefore to just put a known good box in there.
I may also need a new gearbox on my Elite (subject to doing checks on my existing one) and therefore logistics permitting, we're planning on having a bit of a gearbox party on a dry day and just do them both
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Topic: 2.6 Auto Gearbox problem ? (Read 2291 times)