G'day all,

Recently my EF falcon auto has been playing up. The issues are as follows.

1. You can be going along at a constant speed on the freeway (100kmh) and all of a sudden the transmission will start slipping as if its shifted into neutral (revs increase, no drive at all). If you let off the accelerator it will pick up drive after a second or two. I believe its probably slipping when the torque converter is locking / unlocking so maybe its the lock up solenoid sticking between? I dont know if this would cause it to lose drive or not because it still should have 4th engaged?

2. Sometimes when you are going along at any speed the car will labor and basically refuse to shift down when normally it would, even tho the accelerator is 3/4 the way to the floor (ie. doing 60 up a hill in 4th). Other times when your going along normally, accelerating very lightly (to keep the car at speed) it will shift down for a few seconds for no reason then back up.

Otherwise the transmission is a little rough at times but its probably no worse then any other 20 year old falcon. I feel that it probably comes down to throttle position sensor, inhibitor switch, solenoid(s) or something of the like. The car is a 94 model and is just about to tick over 300,000. I last changed the oil probably 40,000 ago but its looking a bit burnt these days but its not bad, still a redish color. I dont want to change the fluid if the transmission is only going to give out in a few weeks anyway, I could probably get half way to buying a second hand tranny for the price of fluid. In previous experience changing fluid on failing transmissions does more harm then good anyway. Any opinions on what the issue is would be appreciated. Im prepared to pull the valve body apart if I need to if its going to fix the thing or replace what ever switches / sensors may be the issue. Ive done some research but there isnt allot that matches my issues on any of the forums.

Thanks allot,

Jay

Sounds like the inhibitor switch on the side of the gearbox. I had both of those problems on one of my falcons when this was faulty. Put the dash in diagnostic mode (info is on this site), and leave it showing the shifter position (P,R,N,D,3 etc). Mine was showing as neutral when the lockup would stop working on the freeway, and when there was a random downshift, it'd show 2.

Thanks for the advice natho. I put it into doignostic mode and found that for the first 5 minuits of driving d is displayed as you would expect. after that it went to a 0 and stayed there, no matter where i put the selector. then it started showing d when the car was in park and back to 0. if you changed to drive it would sometimes show d and sometimes 0 but never anything else even if you put it in reverse or nutral or whatever. so ide imagine my issue is the inhibitor switch. Is it possible to dissassemble and clean or should i just go get one from the wreckers to see if it fixes it. interestingly when i let the car sit for 30 minutes it goes back to showing the correct gear again for a while, seems it may be heat related. could also be a crappy connector i suppose.

Thanks allot, hopefully i can sort it out tomorrow.

regards,
jay

I've always just replaced them, but I would imagine its possible to clean them. The biggest problem with that is they can be so rusted on that you end up breaking them to get them off.

Hope you get it sorted.

I went to the wreckers today and bought 2 switches for $15. I pulled one apart, which is quite easy, and cleaned it out with a rag and contact cleaner. Its reasonably easy to reassemble if you have 3 hands. Inside is very simple and it all stays together by itself although I would be careful and make sure I did it on a bench with some newspaper down encase bits fall out.

After doing this the dash displays the right gear constantly and seems to shift much smoother. I will report back if anything changes.

Thanks allot,

Jay

I had a very similar issue recently with my NA series 2 Fairlane - lost drive going up a hill but then back to normal. I pulled the inhibitor switch apart, cleaned with contact cleaner and its been fine since, but I've also grabbed a couple of spares from u-pullit so if it plays up I'll just swap in another one. Dunno if you priced a newie - Ford want $155 and the auto trans place near here wanted $120 - hence the wrecking yard specials!

Bursons have them for $78.

Is Burson's an eastern states store? Don't think we have them here...(SA)

Ebay,

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/261586532916 ... 1423.l2649

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/161118702138 ... 1423.l2649

Bursons stores SA

http://www.burson.com.au/store-locator.php

Ah, OK cool, thanks SWC very helpful as usual ! MUCH APPRECIATED!

If the used one works and fixxes the problem, then worth the new one.

I am going to look at this as well for the wife's wagon as we have had slip issues with 4th gear, pull it back to 3rd and all good. Push it back to drive after that and all fine. Makes me think the inhibitor swith now after reading some of the comments.

that's exactly what the Fairlane did. took the one on there apart, contact cleaner etc and its not done it since......

Beats getting the gearbox overhauled.

I wonder how many transmissions have been rebuilt because the shop misidentified the issue, didn't replace the switch, only to have it do it again after the rebuild! You would think they would be on top of it now considering the cars have been around 20 years.

After a few days and a few hundred k's its still going good, shifting much smoother aswell.

I will defiantly buy a new one if the issue re appears. Putting the dash in diagnostic mode to monitor the gear position is a great way to see if this is your issue as in my case after 5 minuets the reading would disappear and become erratic. If you wanted to prove a point you could work out what resistance drive should be and put a resistor in to bypass the switch and see if it fixes the issue. My ecu had logged a fault code with the gear selection aswell so that may be further proof.

Jay