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  • May 25, 2011 6:38 p.m. psychic_mechanic Dork

    I've got a ratty 2000 saturn with the DOHC engine and a poorly behaving automatic transmission. It doesn't seem to want to shift out of one forward gear, which feels like second or third and keeps giving me 10 OBDII codes for improper gear ratios, torque convertor, etc. I have tried flushing the trans and leaving it in reverse against an immovable object to flush out the valve body, swapped out one of the solenoids that tested out of spec, retorqued the input and output shaft nuts and it is still acting up.

    Instead of spending $200 on a valve body I was wondering how hard it would be to swap in a stick shift from the junkyard. There are a couple complete cars in there which look to be about the right year, so disregarding the legality of the swap, how hard would it be? Can I get away with just a pedal assembly and trans? Would I need to get into the harness and the TCM/PCM? Would it be easier to swap this engine into another car? Should I push it off a cliff?

  • May 25, 2011 7:13 p.m. psychic_mechanic Dork

    I answered my own question after a while, here's a link if anyone else wants it

    http://www.differentracing.com/tech_articles/tranny_swap.html

    I will need a PCM from a car that was optioned the same if I don't want check engine light on all the time.

  • ProDarwin

    May 25, 2011 10:59 p.m. ProDarwin Dork

    A trans swap is cheap and simple. A valve body is cheaper and simpler.

  • 92CelicaHalfTrac

    May 26, 2011 8:56 a.m. 92CelicaHalfTrac SuperDork

    Push it off a cliff.

    You WILL have to pull the entire drivetrain, and they aren't fun to do on those cars. Requires fairly extreme angles with a load leveler, and lots of cursing.

  • May 26, 2011 1:25 p.m. psychic_mechanic Dork

    ProDarwin wrote:

    A trans swap is cheap and simple. A valve body is cheaper and simpler.

    But then it would still have an automatic. I talked to my local yard and they quoted me $200 for the trans swap goodies or $300 including another engine.

  • May 26, 2011 3:05 p.m. skruffy SuperDork

    Pull the whole subframe out the bottom. Otherwise everything just bolts together.

    Also, check all your fuses, I had a similar issue with an old saturn that ended up being a blown PCM fuse.

  • ProDarwin

    May 26, 2011 8:21 p.m. ProDarwin Dork

    92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

    Push it off a cliff.

    You WILL have to pull the entire drivetrain, and they aren't fun to do on those cars. Requires fairly extreme angles with a load leveler, and lots of cursing.

    It's not hard. It takes like 5 mins to hoist it out once you have everything disconnected. Actually less for him because you can disconnect the auto and just let it fall out the bottom. I've done it plenty of times. Saturns may suck, but have to be one of the easiest cars to work on.

    How many miles on it?

  • May 26, 2011 9:59 p.m. psychic_mechanic Dork

    ProDarwin wrote:

    How many miles on it?

    No idea, I don't think the odometer is working. It's had a hard life though, so I am toying with the idea of swapping in an entire junkyard drivetrain and rebuilding the original engine with my kids as a learning experience.

 
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