I recently bought a 1995 Chevy Astro for a really good price. it ran fine for a few days

The previous owner said that he had replaced the trans fluid filter and gasket. said the filter was a 12 dollar part off ebay

Wife drove the van to the store and when turning back onto our road said that it felt like it had no power or wasnt engaging the gears. now when i try to put it into gear from park the van literally jumps like something is bound up and dies.

I would really like to use this opportunity to learn more about cars.

thanks in advance

 

The pan is currently empty of fluid. i figured there might be a chance he had improperly seated the filter. Im currently looking elsewhere for information.. mostly google and youtube. from the looks of things i think i will be taking out the wire harness and solenoids for testing. i heard or read somewhere that its a bad idea to directly put 12 volts to the solenoid so ill be testing the ohms. will hopefully be able to report back within a couple hours. im a third shift worker so im just getting started.

thanks for readin!

 

Are you saying the fluid disappeared?
If yes, then you have a major leak, likely in the cooling lines.
Solenoids are NOT your problem; even with bad solenoids you still have a few gears and always Reverse.

 

any insight to what the problem is? I had her read all the tabs i had open about the solenoids. she confirmed thats what it sounded like to her recollection so maybe we can use that info still.

I dumped the fluid when going back in to check on the filter. knowing there are still problems I didnt want to throw 20+ bucks worth of fluid back in to waste it. Not sure if my environment is clean enough to reuse fluid or if its common to reuse new fluid. probably best for me to minimize any chances of contamination. which coincidentally i came here to ask about. but it sounds like i need to take a few steps back.

Ive been unable to get the harness plug with the 4 tabs off the case. so no real updates at this time. I found a small mirror, maybe i can shimmy myself and my view well enough to poke my multimeter into that plug to check the tcc. Im starting to think theres a possibility there is some junk on the solenoid screens from that cheap 12 dollar ebay filter.

 

If you keep things clean you can reuse the fluid; I do.
Actually $12 for just a filter is a ripoff; IIRC my local shop charges me only $5 or $6.

I still don't think you have a solenoid problem, but you can replace both shift solenoids at about $12 each.

Do you have Reverse?
If not there is a major problem with the pump, other internal pump or the converter.

 

I dont think its either of the shift solenoids. never have. im not going to start throwing parts at it. besides i havent had much luck with plug and pray. up till last night i had no other reason to think it wasnt the TCC.

I dont have any gears. see whan i tried to put it into gear the car would die, every time after some internal battle no side could win. to me it was a lot like popping the clutch on a manual. it took hold of some gear or another but it was like it could barely stand to move the vehicle and died. thats why i think the tcc or something close is the culprit.

 

sounds to me like the converter is locked up...

 

If putting the trans into drive immediately kills the engine, then yes, the TCC is locked up.
Either the converter itself if bad or the trans is applying the lockup clutch when it shouldn't.
To test this, disengage the TCC lockup solenoid. This is the solenoid held with 2 bolts to the front pump part of the trans and visible when you drop the pan. Some people just let the solenoid hang in the pan; I bolt it in place with two 1/4" spacers and longer bolts so that it is disengaged but not flopping around.

 

just a small question.. actually 3. i tried like freaking hell to not tear my gasket at the 1,2 accumulator. but i did. totally torn out along the edge of the 1,2 like it was meant to tear that way. can this test be safely done before replacing the gasket? and since i will have to replace the gasket anyway. while im that deep and since i have 115k miles would it be a good idea to test my luck putting in the hd2 shift kit without replacing the clutches or making sure things were in spec?

i really appreciate yalls help. ive been reading up a lot. i can probably identify almost all 4l60e and 5r55s parts on sight but havent quite built up the confidence to get in there so a lot of what i read and see still looks a lot like spaghetti.

tomorrow after work ill see if i cant muster the energy to lift this bad boy up and get to checkin. assuming no one speaks out against using a torn gasket around the 1,2.