Stuck on the side of the road. No drive....ideas please?

[francophile1947]

It is reckoned that the earlier Mazda auto boxes (and maybe later??) are Nippon boxes as used in Taxis so I would have thought the gaskets easier to source (??) ..

When I took my bongo in to .. https://plus.google.com/106592590594812 ... l=uk&hl=en .. he was not fazed that it was a Bongo and said I could book it in when ever ..

I think you mean Nissan

[helen&tony]

Hi Franco
Perhaps, as it was an early Bongo, it had an antique gearbox
Cheers
Helen

[AeroNut]

Looks like I'm now resigned to having my gearbox refurbished.

Has anyone got do's and don'ts for carrying out the removal of the box.
Has anyone done this before and written a blow by blow, fully photographed explanation? (where's the haynes manual?)

Any assistance would be apprieciated.

Regards
Terry D

[Alacrity]

Presumably, if the garage used the wrong type of ATF, they are taking some responsibility for rectifying the resultant fault?

They didn't. Dexron 2 is fine in a Bongo trans. The gearbox has filled itself with debris, for whatever reason. When it is started, it will pick up drive but the filter does its job & filters - eventually blocking itself with the detritus so you loose drive. Switch off & leave for a short while & drive returns for a short while. Why? Because when you switch off the oil in the pump passages runs back through the filter acting as a back-flush. And so on & so on. Needs a rebuild I'm afraid.

I'm sure there are 'experts' on here who know better of course. Always used to be.

[teenmal]

Presumably, if the garage used the wrong type of ATF, they are taking some responsibility for rectifying the resultant fault?

They didn't. Dexron 2 is fine in a Bongo trans. The gearbox has filled itself with debris, for whatever reason. When it is started, it will pick up drive but the filter does its job & filters - eventually blocking itself with the detritus so you loose drive. Switch off & leave for a short while & drive returns for a short while. Why? Because when you switch off the oil in the pump passages runs back through the filter acting as a back-flush. And so on & so on. Needs a rebuild I'm afraid.

I'm sure there are 'experts' on here who know better of course. Always used to be.

[mikeonb4c]

2nd that. For the avoidance of doubt, there are a handful of people I always listen to on here and Alacrity is one of them. Fully qualified by professional experience, an autobox specialist, he is also a Bongo owner. If I needed work doing and he wasn't so bl**dy far away, I'd have him do it. Autoboxes are not for amateurs like me!

[ELZE]

I can only guess at, having the gearbox cleaned out maybe wasn't such a good idea. I've since understood they put dex 2 in when I believe it should be 3... Can't see that would be catastrophic ...I asked the garage to clean the labarinth out. Now I can only think that may have moved some sludge the wrongvway and blocked the valves....
Bottom line some nasty metallic scraping sounds coming from the gearbox area and then no drive. if I wait for 10 mins not running Start it up I get drive for 500yrds then it lets go again. Checking the oil level its full and clean...

Could it just be the torque converter? I don't know enough about autos... I guess I'm gona learn...

Regards
TJD.

My guess is the torque converter. Auto boxes are usually bomb proof. In my time on this planet I have had two go on me. One Jag and one Landrover. Each time it was the torque converter. Sadly it was cheaper to replace the box on both occassions rather than overhaul. I recon you have to be really unlcky to get a duff autobox.

[Alacrity]

It isn't the torque converter. Converters on Bongo's do not normally give trouble, they just get contaminated with cr#p from the failed trans which is why they are changed (or always should be) when a gearbox is reconditioned.

Auto gearboxes are not bombproof - I have no idea where you got that idea from. If they were I wouldn't have been rebuilding them for the last 34 years employing 10 people would I? If you read my earlier post I have explained exactly what is happening. It is a textbook failure.

I said there would be 'experts' on here that knew better didn't I!

This is exactly why I hardly ever post on here now, I understand everyone is entitled to an opinion believe me, & some of the transmission queries on here have been real head scratchers & I am not saying I will always get it right (I am in this case though) but some of the uninformed posts on here do nothing to help & can lead people up a (potentially expensive) garden path.

[teenmal]

It isn't the torque converter. Converters on Bongo's do not normally give trouble, they just get contaminated with cr#p from the failed trans which is why they are changed (or always should be) when a gearbox is reconditioned.

Auto gearboxes are not bombproof - I have no idea where you got that idea from. If they were I wouldn't have been rebuilding them for the last 34 years employing 10 people would I? If you read my earlier post I have explained exactly what is happening. It is a textbook failure.

I said there would be 'experts' on here that knew better didn't I!

This is exactly why I hardly ever post on here now, I understand everyone is entitled to an opinion believe me, & some of the transmission queries on here have been real head scratchers & I am not saying I will always get it right (I am in this case though) but some of the uninformed posts on here do nothing to help & can lead people up a (potentially expensive) garden path.

Again

[ELZE]

well thats me told!

[mikeWalsall]

The last manual motor I had was a Lotus Cortina .. had autos ever since .. from a 16 valve Dolomite sprint to a 2.5 MK2 V8 Daimler ..

The only auto problems I have had in all that time was the V8 refusing to go into reverse and a 2.8 Granada Ghia estate that the box had a mind of it's own on when to change gear ..

I took the V8 box to ATP auto gearbox specialists who today are one 'prestige' auto box specialists in the world ..but back in the 1960's had a unit a coal yard in Hendesford / Cannock ..

The guy dropped the sump took one look .. said you have the wrong valve block .. fitted the right one cleaned every thing like new .. charged me £30 (pre vat days) .. and I was on my way within half an hour ..

Next one was the Granny .. it always had weird ways of when to change gear .. I swapped the box for a known to be good one to find that one was doing exactly the same .. a though search revealed ....... a split vacuum hose ...!!

[ELZE]

The last manual motor I had was a Lotus Cortina .. had autos ever since .. from a 16 valve Dolomite sprint to a 2.5 MK2 V8 Daimler ..

The only auto problems I have had in all that time was the V8 refusing to go into reverse and a 2.8 Granada Ghia estate that the box had a mind of it's own on when to change gear ..

I took the V8 box to ATP auto gearbox specialists who today are one 'prestige' auto box specialists in the world ..but back in the 1960's had a unit a coal yard in Hendesford / Cannock ..

The guy dropped the sump took one look .. said you have the wrong valve block .. fitted the right one cleaned every thing like new .. charged me £30 (pre vat days) .. and I was on my way within half an hour ..

Next one was the Granny .. it always had weird ways of when to change gear .. I swapped the box for a known to be good one to find that one was doing exactly the same .. a though search revealed ....... a split vacuum hose ...!!

Again As I said auto boxes are usually bomb proof.

I too had a MK 1 Lotus Cortina manual...awsome! Then from the 60's -80's I had Jags, Rovers, Toyota's Landrover's Mercedes and some I have forgotten. Mostly Autoboxes which were brilliant.

That's my experience anyway, but it seems only experts can comment on in this thread (not)

[helen&tony]

Hi
Alacrity...
That "Bombproof" image is the result of some clever marketing strategies in the '60s by Borg-Warner ( I think)...well, anyway, I presume the sales of Autos outside the States were lagging behind sales expectations, as Stirling Moss was employed to supposedly test autos to hell and back , or destruction, whichever came first....so, of course, he succeded in setting up a legend for autos which still lives on buried deep in the motoring psyche....I remember looking at a car for sale, and my Father said it sounded good...but it was cursed , inmy book...it had an auto, and only grannies drove auto, so Dad reeled out the Stirling Moss saga...not that he ever drove, or wanted an auto!....he was just fed up with looking at cars with me
Anyway, I know very little about them , and have no preference, except that they are easier on my knees, back and gear-change wrist...that's why I have a manual car as well as the Bongo ...anyway, the sales gimmick of Borg Warner restored a bit of popularity, so paying Stirling Moss to breathe "Bombproof" really helped in the end...just shows the power of advertising! ....not to mention the gullibility of the public!
Cheers
Helen

[teenmal]

Funny that you should mention Rolling Moss, he was not a fan of women drivers, he once stated that women did not have enough intelligence to compete in F1..(or words to that effect).

[helen&tony]

Hi
Why did he teach his sister to drive, then????
I remember him being more appropriately named Stirling Toss.....

Cheers
Helen