91 auto trans.
350k on motor/trans (probably all stock, this isn't a daily by any means)

I picked this thing up for like 300$ a couple of months ago with the intent on having a little project. Shifting into first would always be a little rough (more like a noticeable thud) but after that, the gears were fine.

So now I have a mystery on my hands. The trans is non responsive, only Park works. Putting it in other gears does nothing.

I wasn't driving the car, someone else was, but they said that all of a sudden it just stopped accelerating. I looked underneath the car and noticed a bunch of trans fluid covering the protective plastic skid plates, checked the res and it was bone dry. It was dark, so I don't know if the housing is cracked or what exactly happened just yet.

So here's the question - will a complete lack of fluid make the trans not shift into gear? I haven't worked with automatics in the past so I really don't know how they work. I'll be checking out the housing tonight and will report back, but would like to know this in the mean time.

Thanks.

 

ATs use hydraulics to function. No fluid, no pressure, no go.

 

Gotcha. Just need to find out why the fluid leaked out in the first place.

There are no cracks on the housing, no seams separating or anything like that, but fluid is all over the place down there. I've yet to have the time to go and get more fluid and put it in to see what happens.

 

Found out the issue.

One of the two hoses running from the top of the trans to the bottom sprung a leak. Need to simply replace it.