s'ko Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 (edited) I helped a friend install a 4eat in his 1999 outback this weekend. Right now the car will not start. We pulled the engine b/c it was easier to mate the tranny to it and to get the torque converter secured. The only sound it makes is a ticking sound when the gear selector is put into gear. I removed the shift cable and moved the selector by hand into the gears and the tranny ticks when it is put into gear. The ticking is coming from the tranny oil pan. Tranny was from a mail order company and we do not have a history on it. It looks like it came from a car that was in a fire b/c the wires are badly burned. Have you ever run into a situation where the tranny will tick like that. any possibility that there is internal damage to the tranny due to fire? BW Edited October 12, 2009 by s'ko Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdjdc Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 You may need to take the harness off of the old tranny and use it. It sounds like you have an electrical problem and if the wires are burnt, then you may not have good connections, thus causing the no start issue. The first thing you need to do is to get the engine started. Personally, I would have turned the tranny back with damage due to burning, but that is another issue. The car will not start because one of the tranny sensors is not communicating with the ECU. Swap the harness and sensors and then get the thing started. Once you have done that, you can see if there are any issues with the tranny. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s'ko Posted October 12, 2009 Author Share Posted October 12, 2009 You may need to take the harness off of the old tranny and use it. It sounds like you have an electrical problem and if the wires are burnt, then you may not have good connections, thus causing the no start issue. The first thing you need to do is to get the engine started. Personally, I would have turned the tranny back with damage due to burning, but that is another issue. The car will not start because one of the tranny sensors is not communicating with the ECU. Swap the harness and sensors and then get the thing started. Once you have done that, you can see if there are any issues with the tranny. Good luck I was pretty skeptical with the condtion of the tranny, but he said that they "tested" it. We did swap out the tranny harness and all off the sensors in the tranny with the one from his old tranny. Condition before the swap was that it would start and move but not get faster that about 30 mph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdjdc Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 Recheck all of the connectors. If the engine ran before the job, then it should run now. I am willing to bet that one or more of the connectors is either unplugged or loose. Especially check the cam sensor plugs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s'ko Posted October 12, 2009 Author Share Posted October 12, 2009 Recheck all of the connectors. If the engine ran before the job, then it should run now. I am willing to bet that one or more of the connectors is either unplugged or loose. Especially check the cam sensor plugs. we didn't remove anything from the engine harness. I did a search and it sounds like the buzzing is a shift solenoid. does the shift solenoid require ATF in order to operate properly? I put in 5 quarts in a bone dry tranny. I know that the torque converter needs some as well, but I have not been able to turn it over to get the oil in there. I am pretty sure that I have all of the engine harness stuff connected, so there is a problem with the tranny computer not giving the ok signal to the Engine ECU. Might be the neutral park switch that is keeping it from starting. Do you know if it is possible to drain and remove the ATF oil pan to see what solenoid is making the noise? BW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdjdc Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 First things first. Does the engine even turn over? Are you getting power to the starter? Is the starter hooked up to the ignition. There are the two battery cables and then the ignition wire. It is a smallish brown/black wire that hooks onto the starter. Without it the starter won't even click. As far as the ATF, the tranny will take around 10 ats from bone dry. The tranny pan holds just under five and the rest is in the body and torque converter, but you need to get the engine started in order to get the fluid to be pumped around. Let me know if the engine is even turning. If it is, you may very well have a bad neutral safety switch. If so, I have one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s'ko Posted October 12, 2009 Author Share Posted October 12, 2009 engine does not get any power at all. BW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbone Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 First things first. Does the engine even turn over? Are you getting power to the starter? Is the starter hooked up to the ignition. There are the two battery cables and then the ignition wire. It is a smallish brown/black wire that hooks onto the starter. Without it the starter won't even click. As far as the ATF, the tranny will take around 10 ats from bone dry. The tranny pan holds just under five and the rest is in the body and torque converter, but you need to get the engine started in order to get the fluid to be pumped around. Let me know if the engine is even turning. If it is, you may very well have a bad neutral safety switch. If so, I have one. I 2nd the bad neutral safety switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdjdc Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 I have a known good switch sitting right here with me. I pulled it for another board member several months ago and he flaked on me. I can have it boxed up and in the mail via priority mail tomorrow. If you want it just paypal me 30.00 and I will send it tomorrow. That will be the total cost shipped My paypal acct is midlochiro@verizon.net Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zstalker Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 an automatic transmission is basically impossible to test or diagnose unless you can get the torque converter turning to get the fluid moving If you find out which wires the neutral switch uses you could bridge them to see if bypassing the switch will allow the engine to start. Pretty much like stated above, get the motor running first, and with a bad (or at least not connecting for some reason) neutral switch will 100% disable the engine. ~Erik~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s'ko Posted October 16, 2009 Author Share Posted October 16, 2009 he took it over to a shop to fix. Will post on what was going on. BW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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