i just swapped a transmission from an 01 a/t crv into another one. i have no reverse, though it worked in the car that provided the transmission. there is a cover on the passenger side of the transmission (bottom) with a large wiring harness going to it (nearest to firewall). The piece it connects to has an adjustment slot. The trans i installed had loose bolts so it needs to be adjusted. what is this part and how do i adjust it?

 

looking on line, it appears this is called a position sensor switch.

 

i got a great answer to this in my e mail but for some reason it does not show up here. i wanted to update the info as the problem is not fixed.
i have replaced all 3 solenoids. I swapped the transmission from another working crv.
The atf is new , honda dw1 and is full.
I also changed the pcm so it came from the same car the transmission came from. the donor car and the receiver car are both 2001 crv's.
It has exactly the same problem after all this work so i am, now thinking its electrical
No check engine lights. the backup lights are on and it only starts in park or neutral so the original question seems solved.
When i first start it, i have reverse and forward gears. i only pulled it in and out of the shop so i don't know if all forward gears worked
after about 1-2 minutes, i no longer have reverse . it does move forward in the d gears.

I'm at a loss of what to do now. thanks

 

seems to be slipping in drive if i start in drive, if i manually shift 1st , that gear is fine. 2nd works intermittently and drive eventually goes to neutral, when the gears work, they seem fine. when they don't they dont work at all. it still seems like electrical problem. all solenoids and speed sensor are hooked up. speedometer works.

 

Are you certain this transmission was working in the vehicle it was sourced from . You could swap the clutch pressure solenoids, the oil pressure switch and temp sensor and the shift solenoids from the other trans

 

i know that the donor trans was ok because i drove the donor to where it is parked. i have basically changed every sensor because i replaced the entire trans , sensors and all, with the donor trans. both of them were complete. i have been checking plugs, and so far all look ok. could this be a grounding problem? is there a particular ground i should be looking for? it just seems that it is more than coincidental that both transmissions act exactly the same , which in this case is not a good thing.

 

Yeah that's a bit of a head-scratcher. There are a couple of grounds one of them I believe is attached to the camshaft covers and then goes to the body and there should be another one somewhere on the back of the block I think it's been a while since I'd have to go and look at the 98 that I have parked outside in the daylight I'll take a look tomorrow. It's too bad you don't have a shop manual for this vehicle...my shop manuals are 05/06 I don't have anything for this model year. It's frustrating it is it is you may want to go online and see if somebody has a shop manual you can download for 40 or 50 bucks. It will save you a lot of aggravation.

 

great . thanks for the link. i'm reading it now.

 

working on this again. I found i could drive this car manually shifting it. seemed like there was no second, would go from first to drive. or if starting in drive seemed like it was starting in third. After some reading i decided to replace neutral safety (transmission range) switch .. I checked it for continuity in neutral and park and it showed good. My wiring diagram was for 98-00 and this is an 01. I found park had continuity at 1 and 10 on the plug and neutral had continuity at 1 and 8, the reverse of what my book showed. I assume the plug changed between 00 and 01. ( the haynes manual seems to be for all models in a single table, even though there was d4 only for 2 years.) At any rate, no crank, no start, and key sticks and have to disconnect battery to release. If i put it in park, i have to use the release button to go to any other gear. tail lights work, horn fuse ok. Im kind of stuck again.

 

clarification. i had continuity between pins 1,3 and 10 in park and between pins 1,3 and 8 in neutral with the switch bolted in place

 

I got the no start condition fixed. it turns out a gasket in the plug had rolled up inside the plug and prevented it from making contact. it starts, runs and key comes out. still starts in drive, not first or second. manually, it will start in 1st, but when i switch to second, its in drive, and no change in speed or rpm switching to d.


i tried testing the transmission range selector side of the plug for each gear for continuity pin by pin and gear by gear. I only show continuity for neutral and park . no continuity for any other gear. does anyone have any experience with testing these switches for continuity? its not the meter, i have 0 resistance between the leads.

 

update. finally did a stall test in each gear. in D2, rpms were really high compared to all other gears which were about 2700. This indicates a bad clutch for drive, although if i remember right, it was not for D2. I was hesitant to try this test because of all the warnings. If your brakes are good and you want to check the trans, go for it. You set the parking brake, block the wheels, start the car and in each gear put BOTH the gas and brake to the floor for no more than 6 seconds. rpms should be about 2500-2700 and max out at that level in every gear position. This really heats up the transmission, so to cool the trans let the car idle for a minute or two between each gear you are going to test. I wished I had done this in the beginning. On the other hand, i know alot more about the transmission range sensor now...