88 929 trans problem

[squidly]

My Daughter has an 88 929, it has stopped going into reverse and now drive however it will drive in 1,2,3. does anyone have any ideas on this besides replace the transmission?

check your ATF
if its ok that take it to a shop to have it look at
it maybe the filter and needs service
other than that there is nothing else i can think of

[donbryce]

Originally posted by squidly@Oct 18 2004, 05:22 AM
My Daughter has an 88 929, it has stopped going into reverse and now drive however it will drive in 1,2,3. does anyone have any ideas on this besides replace the transmission?

[snapback]206394[/snapback]

Check all the electrical connectors, located at the right side in a cluster, and a couple on the left side. As Saint suggests, if there is no/low fluid, or blocked passage/filter, there's no hydraulic pressure. However, if it will run in the 3 gear positions you noted, then that doesn't seem to be the case, except for reverse. Inside the pan there are 3 solenoids that control shifting. One of them could be bad, so a shop visit might be in order. The dealer will have a special tester for this transmission (N4A-EL) as well, so perhaps they can retrieve fault codes. Good luck.

[felixTibs]

Is the HOLD light flashing or staying on?

[old929guy]

One of the more common failures on this tranny is the "inhibitor switch" located on the side of the tranny where the gear selector connects. I would first change the transmission fluid, twice if it hasn't been done in a long time. Second, I would add TRANS-X to the fluid just on basic principals. It works well and is a highly thought of product for fixing up old tired Mercedes transmissions (check mercedesshop.com). Third, if you're doing all this, replace the metal transmission cooling lines. They tend to rust out over the years. The solenoid pack is only available as a complete unit and cost more than the car is worth; see if you can get one out of a wreck. They don't seem to fail often. One of my 929's went to 300K miles with no tranny problems, but I serviced it every year.