Every gear is forward on A413

[Dodge Aries K]

I'm getting an 88 Aries from someone who lost their license a few years ago. The car has been sitting since 2011. Started it up and put it in gear and... nothing. Put it back in park and checked the fluid which was low so I added a quart of atf+4. After that, I put it in gear and it engaged. Had to really step on it so the car could pull itself out of a rut it was stuck in. After that, I noticed that no matter where the selector was, it was always engaged into gear. In drive, it will still shift from one to two no problem and with a bit of slipping it will go into 3rd.

I'm guessing the transmission is shot... I haven't messed with it much further than that... just wanted to make sure it could make the hour drive it needs to make from where it's at to my house... but if it's fixable I'd rather fix it than put in a different transmission.

[shadow88]

I suspect the linkage is causing your problem.

[Dodge Aries K]

Oh, I forgot to mention that it does start just fine in park and neutral. Reverse lights work. Parking pawl works too, the car won't "move" in park but you can tell it's still under load.

[Khajjathefang]

I had one of those on my tbi in high school

[wallace]

the forward clutch is probably seized from sitting for so long

[RoadWarrior222]

Might free up on the drive home. IMO atf+4 makes any pre '95 3 speed slip more than it should.

[shackwrrr]

Or the manual valve seized in the valve body and the lever popped out of it.

[Dodge Aries K]

Well, I should be getting it home this Sunday and I'll start messing with it then. I know this sounds silly but is there any way to "unstick" the forward clutch if that's what it is without removing the trans from the car and tearing it down? I've never messed with that sort of stuff so I'm not sure how all of that works... but I guess there's only one way to learn.

[RoadWarrior222]

Get it good and hot and beat on it, if that don't work try some shifts into park from about 10mph.

[Dodge Aries K]

Might free up on the drive home. IMO atf+4 makes any pre '95 3 speed slip more than it should.

You were right, on the drive home it stopped being dumb and works great again! I'll be changing out the trans fluid and filter though since I'm sure it's some very old and very nasty fluid. Then I have to fix the oil leaks, power steering leaks, and some new front brakes and she'll be all set and ready to be used again.