Quick history. Was in the desert, coolant lines got severed, lost all fluid (didn't know it until issue presented), wound up having to tow car home. While loading it onto the trailer, car would rev up to 4-5k RPMs just to move.

Fast forward a couple months, I went ahead and replaced tranny filter/pan gasket and fixed the lines. I put it in a gallon of fluid and test drove it. It seemed all fine except when I would stop at a light/stop sign, the car would rev up higher than normal before the car would move. It's really intermittent but it's there. I did a fair amount of web searching for this issue but came up with only a few things that are somewhat related. Some said TPS sensor, some said brake sensor.

If anyone could direct me to a thread with this issue or maybe brainstorm a little, it'd be great. =)

 

I know it sounds dumb but are you sure the tranny has enough fluid in it?

 

If you lost ALL fluid and refilled with a gallon...the answer will be "no".

 

Aw4 holds about 9-10 quarts

 

Oh and did u specifically used Dexron/Mercon III fluid?

 

sounds like a fluid issue. The reason it revved so high when loading is that the auto trans relies on hydraulic pressure that is rerouted throughout the transmission to move. Each time you change a gear / downshift, the fluid is rerouted and helps the vehicle move. When you dump fluid, it doesn't have enough to maintain a consistent pressure. Adding X amount of fluid doesn't mean its full. You have to know how much your trans takes (first), then add fluid per the factory recommendations (ie: add fluid, shift through all gears (while stopped), and do this a few times, then check fluid level while the vehicle is warm / up to operating temp. If low, add a little more at a time. overfill is worse than underfill, and you will need to drive it a little after getting as close as you can to the fill mark. After driving a little, making sure its fully warm, stop at a gas station on level ground, and check the fluid level again.

 

And know it only takes 500 ml to go from add to full on the dipstick

 

Could also have burned the tranny up.

 

For those of us on the English system, that's about 1 pint, or half a quart.

 

Service manual said 4qts. I'll double check the fluid. If anything is burned up I'm hoping it's only the torque converter but I'll check fluid again and see where it's at.

 

Oreilley brand but yes it's dextron 3.

 

The bands are what burns up.

 

If they did, is it an expensive fix? Assuming I do it myself.

 

Well it turns out that it was indeed low on fluid. I misread my Haynes manual. It did say 4qts capacity but in parenthesis it said that was only if it was just a filter/gasket replacement.

It was low by 2.5qts. Slippage seems to be gone.

 

That's a relief.

Rebuilding an automatic transmission can be pricey. No, you can't do it yourself.