- Location
- Sandy, Ut
(Not related to the stick versus manual conversation 
)
So I recently picked up an older Land Cruiser with what was described to me as a "bad transmission". This particular transmission is called an A440F and was used in Land Cruisers in the late 80's/early 90's behind an inline 6 motor (the 3FE). I had very little history on it, other than something like "I was driving to work one day and it went out". Fast forward 6 months of sitting and its now mine.
It starts up and runs great (engine wise), but there is absolutely nothing out of the trans, no squeaks, no squeals, no grinding, no lurching, not a thing. It acts as if its in Nuetral in every gear, zero feedback. You can run it through each gear, high idle, revved, etc and you get absolutely nothing.
I'm very naive with autos, nearly every Land Cruiser I have owned (albeit my other FJ62's) have had manuals that are literally trouble free. The most I've done on these tranny's is a fluid/filter change.
I did the obvious and crawled underneath to inspect the linkage, it sure looks like its shifting through the motions. Obviously I can't see whats happening on the inside of the trans regarding the linkage.
My question is this... does an auto tranny really just "fail" as in every single gear does absolutely nothing? What sort of failure would cause this? Could it be a failed torque converter?
I've been out on the trail with other auto failures and helped somewhat naively diagnose others, I've never seen one do nothing. They either makes some noise, have no reverse or slip in first type of deal. I do have a complete used A440F trans that came out of what I was told was a running/driving vehicle. What would you do before installing that trans? (have factory service manual and am 100% confident on the install itself). Should I have it inspected at a trans shop while its loose? Would it be wise to have the torque converter inspected or rebuilt?
Dollar wise I don't want to do an auto overhaul, if it comes to that I'll do a 5 speed transmission swap that is literally a bolt in for this application with the correct parts. The downside is that setup is ~$2k, worth investing into this clean rig but still a bunch of $$$ to toss into a spare vehicle.
)So I recently picked up an older Land Cruiser with what was described to me as a "bad transmission". This particular transmission is called an A440F and was used in Land Cruisers in the late 80's/early 90's behind an inline 6 motor (the 3FE). I had very little history on it, other than something like "I was driving to work one day and it went out". Fast forward 6 months of sitting and its now mine.
It starts up and runs great (engine wise), but there is absolutely nothing out of the trans, no squeaks, no squeals, no grinding, no lurching, not a thing. It acts as if its in Nuetral in every gear, zero feedback. You can run it through each gear, high idle, revved, etc and you get absolutely nothing.
I'm very naive with autos, nearly every Land Cruiser I have owned (albeit my other FJ62's) have had manuals that are literally trouble free. The most I've done on these tranny's is a fluid/filter change.
I did the obvious and crawled underneath to inspect the linkage, it sure looks like its shifting through the motions. Obviously I can't see whats happening on the inside of the trans regarding the linkage.
My question is this... does an auto tranny really just "fail" as in every single gear does absolutely nothing? What sort of failure would cause this? Could it be a failed torque converter?
I've been out on the trail with other auto failures and helped somewhat naively diagnose others, I've never seen one do nothing. They either makes some noise, have no reverse or slip in first type of deal. I do have a complete used A440F trans that came out of what I was told was a running/driving vehicle. What would you do before installing that trans? (have factory service manual and am 100% confident on the install itself). Should I have it inspected at a trans shop while its loose? Would it be wise to have the torque converter inspected or rebuilt?
Dollar wise I don't want to do an auto overhaul, if it comes to that I'll do a 5 speed transmission swap that is literally a bolt in for this application with the correct parts. The downside is that setup is ~$2k, worth investing into this clean rig but still a bunch of $$$ to toss into a spare vehicle.
