bullzeye

I bought an '88 Prelude Si 4ws back in December, and man did I get taken on it. The car seemed to be in good shape and ran well, but it has been 1 major problem after another.

At the moment, I am having problems with the transmission. (auto) It worked perfectly when I bought the car and I haven't done anything to it. The problem started after switching engines. Remember, I bought a piece of crap..... anyway without going into detail the engine that was in the car when I bought it was no good (wouldn't pass emissions, the head was junk and the main bearings were all but gone) so I got ahold of another one and made the switch. (it's a 16v FI engine) So a few minor problems and a lot of sweat later, I had the new engine in and fired it up. Runs like a dream, no problem. I go to test drive it, and the damn transmission will NOT shift out of first gear. I have a factory service manual for the car, so I go through everything I can find in there. I adjusted the throttle cable and checked the throttle control cable, checked the shift control solenoids and wiring, speed pulser and wiring. I changed the control unit too.

Here is a list of how the tranny acts:

If I drive normally, it will ONLY shift to 2nd gear at about 5000rpm and will go to 3rd at about the same.

Once in 2nd or 3rd gear, it will downshift as soon as I let off the throttle.

If I floor the accelerator, the engine will bog down and the transmission will shift through all 4 gears in rapid order, about a 2-3 second delay between gears.

If I put it in 2, it will go to 2nd gear and stay there the way it should.

A few other notes..... When installing the new engine I noticed that the connector for the speed pulser was broken. The wires had pulled out of the connector and one wire had actually broken off of the pin. I repaired the broken wire by soldering it back to the pin, but didn't disconnect the wiring harness first, so that was the first thing I thought of to be the cause of the problem. That is also why I replaced the control unit, thinking maybe i spiked it with the soldering iron. I have checked the function of the speed pulser and it is working properly.

The original AT control unit was flashing codes for both shift control solenoids (blinking 8, then 7 times alternately). I thoroughly checked the operation and wiring of the solenoids, and they are working properly. The new unit does not flash any codes.

I have checked the adjustment of the throttle control cable, however I am not completely sure that it is adjusted properly. I was going to adjust it from scratch, but the adjustment nuts down near the control lever are frozen, and I havent been able to break them loose yet. I am guessing that my problem is likely related to this, but like I said, it SEEMS to be adjusted correctly.

The only other thing it could be from what the manual says is internal transmission problems or too much fluid. I find this unlikely because it worked perfectly before the engine was changed. I did not remove it when swapping engines and have never opened it up other than checking the fluid. I plan on changing the fluid tomorrow in a last ditch effort.....

So, does anybody have any ideas about this? I would greatly appreciate any help that anyone could offer!



[Modified by bullzeye, 12:03 AM 3/15/2003]

bullzeye

*bump*

roadawg

what engine did you replace the old one with?

bullzeye

It's the same stock engine. Guess I should point out that I am not interested in anything high performance out of this car, just reliable cheap transportation. I have other cars for fun....

bullzeye

UPDATE:

I was able to get the throttle control cable loose and adjusted and changed the fluid. Didn't help, still having the same problems. Does ANYBODY have any ideas? I know most of you have manual trans, but maybe somebody knows some things about automatics?

hatchblack

how did you swap the motor without taking the transmission off the block? as soon as you take the axles out of the transmission, the atf pours out. then, when you take the tranny off the atf pours out of the center. so you must have drained the fluid and put more in, correct? how much did you put in? are you putting in the correct amount? also, check the flexplate. did you bolt that back up to the torque converter? perhaps that is warped and causing weird problems. check those. good luck.

bullzeye

I just un-bolted the transmission from the engine, removed the drive plate to torque converter screws, un-bolted the intemediate shaft bearing and pulled the engine. I didn't lose any ATF because I never removed the axles. The trans. was supported with a jack and by the rear trans. mount during removal/installation.

I did bolt the driveplate back up, but i didn't use a torque wrench so perhaps I overtightned it? I will check that later today, thanks for the response!

bullzeye

Just figured out what was wrong and fixed it 10 mins ago. The engine I bought came from Japan, and the throttle angle sensor jack was setup 180 out, in other words when I plugged the cars' harness into the sensor, it was plugged in backwards! The transmission thought the throttle wide open at idle. The easiest way to fix it was to swap the outer wires in the plug around.

Just thought I'd post what I found in case anybody else gets a Jap motor and has weird problems. Thanks to those who tried to help.