hesitating going into reverse

[pudman]

My daughter's 96 3.8l mustang has a hard time going into reverse. This is an automatic with overdrive. The shift lever moves freely, but when you put it in reverse it just stays like it is still in park. It used to take maybe 10 seconds for it to catch,but now i have to give it a little gas while keeping my foot on the brake for it to engage. When i park it on a hill with the front facing up it seems to work almost perfect. It's only on level ground when this happens. Fluid is full, and just recently changed. Other than reverse it runs just fine in drive. I need lots of help. Auto transmissions are very new to me. I've always and still only have manual cars

 

[tloughrin]

When the fluid was changed was the filter changed as well? A dirty filter could be a problem.

 

[pudman]

everything was replaced, flushed, cleaned, etc. even put some Lucas trans fix. like I said everything else works perfect. Put it in drive from parked...goes right in. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[hellraiser03]

I've got the same problem except I just bought the car at auction. It needs new head gaskets so I havent really messed with the tranny yet. Fluid looks dirty but seems to be full. Exes granpa had problem with same tranny and had a plugged line but tranny wasn't working at all. Did you ever figure anything out. I bought this car for my brother and am now obligated to fix it. Any suggestions would help.

 

[MustangLX-5.0]

Hmm, I must have missed this thread from last year. Since it's obviously not a low fluid problem, it's possible it could be the reverse shift solenoid taking too long to engage. It's an AODE, so it has solenoids that electronically control the shift points. Other cause could be, valve body clogged or trans filter clogged. Maybe fluid is having a hard time getting through that portion of the valve body for reverse? i'm not sure yet.. just a thought .

 

[pudman]

upgate

guess I should update this since there is still some interest. should have
done it anyways. sorry guys. anyways ended up having to replace the tranny.
don't know what the exact problem was, but a very trusted mechanic said
it was basically cheaper and more guaranteed to be fixed to just
replace it. it did have 180,000 miles on it