1996 Chrysler Town & Country Transmission Problems

I have a 1996 Chrysler Town & Country 3.8V6 with a transmission
problem. For several days, there would be an intermittant problem while
stopped at intersections. At idle the vehicle would try lurch foward
without applying any gas.

This afternoon, a bigger problem occurred. While accelerating out of a
90deg corner (at about 15mph) engine clunked loudly several times and
then the engine revved up high without any power being applied to the
drivetrain. After the van was pulled to a safe spot, I tried the
following:

Running the engine at idle:
Engine runs fine.

Shifting into Neutral:
Engine still runs fine

Shifting into Drive:
Engine shakes, sputters, and shortly after trying to lurch forward
dies.

Shifting into 3rd or Low:
Same as Drive

Shifting into Reverse:
Engine idles fine, but when you accelerate, it is like it is in
neutral. The engine revs and no power is applied to the drivetrain.

I've towed the Van home to research and decide what to do. Anyone have
any ideas of what is wrong, what happened, or comments on what they
would do?

 

Sorry to tell you this but if it has no drive in reverse you have broken
a gear in the transmission, and the entire thing needs to be torn down and
rebuilt and the converter replaced.

Reverse and 2nd gear are the two "always working" gears on this
transmission, that is, they will work even if the computer on the
transmission
is shot. See "limp mode" referenced in many prior posts in this group.

Here's what I did:

http://freebsd-corp-net-guide.com/94tcpics/project.html

Ted