Hi guys,
No real urgency on this, just might be a compound issue, so couldn't pick a section.
Swapped a used auto tranny into my '88 Voyager recently, has the 3.0 but since tranny and electronics are the same I figured the problems might be familiar to everyone.
Now, it was running almost perfectly, but I had a kind of slight hesitation, not enough to splutter the engine, but kind of like a feeling of no power going through about 2000 rpm sometimes... was thinking that was a motor issue, maybe needing oil change and tune up (It's currently got some thick stuff in it to silence a rod knock that wasn't there)
But driving round yesterday, around 2100 RPM at about 65-70 kph it was misbehaving on the TC lockup it felt like, surging on and off, going +/- 100 rpm. Now this was a longer, hotter drive than I'd had it out for since putting the tranny in, was wondering if it didn't like the fluid hot maybe. Lockup was quite positive in previous testing, came in noticeably. It was hard to tell whether it was motor or transmission related, I could see the rpm needle flicking up and down a little and feel it surging... If I gave it more or less throttle it settled down i.e. drove at under 65 or over 75kph.
But because of the hesitation issue at around the same RPMs and same lightish throttle position, I was wondering if it isn't a problem with the transmission, fluid or TC clutch, but instead with the motor or actuators and sensors. I seem to remember some time ago that I was suspecting the TPS, throttle position sensor, for some issue, can't remember what or why, but now again, I'm thinking it could be a glitch in the TPS making it do that.
The tranny has been behaving great otherwise, has enough fluid, it's not aerating. One suspicion is a slight input shaft seal leakage or something, because when it was first in, it was buzzing in the VB which went away, so thinking that maybe a dried up seal was leaking a bit, then it swelled up with being run, but it hasn't quite sealed perfect?
I did have some stumble at idle and low idle issues, but those seem to have been going away with use, it was sitting around for months, so maybe something is degumming or wearing a bit of stickiness off.
I've got 2 "spare" throttle bodies lying around but they're the later 48mm ones. I think I remember looking at the TPS on them and found they had different connectors on them. I think electrically they should be the same.
I'm thinking that if I rig a test light to the TCC solenoid and it's flashes on and off, that's a motor/electronicals problem, and if it stays steady while it's pulsing, then that's a transmission problem right? Is there an easier way to tell than that? Coz I think to do that I'd have to cut into the harness, which I don't really want to do just for testing.
Gotta check the spare throttle bodies again, but maybe the TPS was cut off the other side of the harness connector on one of them. If so should I "upgrade" my harness to the later connector do you think, or splice the lead from the old TPS on... normally I'd think keeping it stock would be best, but OTOH I'm thinking that if I get a 58mm TB to swap in, or get wrecker spares, they'll likely be 90 or later (not quite sure when they changed it) and need the later plug... so I might end up swapping that one TPS pigtail multiple times...
So, thanks in advance for any thoughts on what this is, or how to better isolate the problem so I can be sure of what is causing it.
RW222
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12.57@104 :O) 
Originally Posted by turbovanman
how come my '88 never had a problem and then '91 does... and what was the actual production fix? If this is what the issue is though, I'll be trying varying amounts of type-F and lucas tranny fix in it until it stops... and if it doesn't, figure out a way to flush my '88 converter and try that.... though I might just rig a dash switch to the solenoid for on/off/auto
