Fj62 Kickdown Cable

[EscapeWagon62]

Well the cable only affects line pressure so my only thought would be (and please don’t be insulted for the basic nature of this) is that your fluid is low.
I had low fluid once after a drain and refill and reverse made one hell of a racket. I could drive it forward with much less noticeable noise.

 

[Michael Hanson]

Hi, What's the mileage on the truck ? Mike

 

[Fish929]

Escape, that was my first thought and I made a point of adding more as, you’re right, fluid went everywhere throughout the process. Will add more tomorrow and holler back. Michael, she has just a little over 210k on her.

 

[Fish929]

How much ATF should this thing take? I know the manual says 6L if you just drain the pan and like 16L from completely dry, but I’m somewhere in between. Thoughts?

 

[EscapeWagon62]

When I drained mine, pulled filter and re-did the valve body it took about 2.7 gallons.
I saved all the drippings and fluid so I knew what to put back in.

If you didnt it’s best to add until it shows up on the stick in the cold range when cold but idling.
Drive the truck until the tranny is warm, check while idling and add (in small amounts, drive, add small amount) until the level hits the high hot level on your stick (a 30 year Toyota mechanic recommended high hot vs mid hot to me)

It took me 4 times to get it perfect.

 

[Fish929]

So checked the fluid, was a little low, so kept adding, driving, adding, still no reverse. Any ideas other than ATF fluid level? Kind of dead isn’t water with it. Thanks guys

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Well that’s no fun.
If I were in your position I would
1. Drive the car for 20 min, preferably freeway and pull over to check the fluid level at operating temperature. It would be your easiest, cheapest and happiest fix if low fluid is causing the issue
2. Double check your shift linkage. It’s possible, though not probable, that the arm going into your tranny isn’t lined up and it is t registering reverse in the proper place. Other signals that this is the case would be putting it in park and it doesn’t always engage the parking pawl
3. I re-read your post from the beginning and saw you had to reverse/forward out of a mud pit. It is possible you burned the clutches out.
4. Unlikely thought: stuck valve body. Unusual for this to be sudden.

I’ll defer to others on clutch packs etc as I’ve never attempted that. The rebuild kit is roughly $500, labor is thousands.

 

[Fish929]

Thanks Escape. At 210k it may be time for a new or used rebuilt tranny. When I first got the truck about two years ago the transmission would overheat a lot so I added a supplemental cooler but the damage could’ve already been done. Wonder what putting a new tranny costs these days?

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Lots of folks going with H55
If you want to stay A440F the guys swapping H55s in put theirs up in the classifieds. Cruiserparts.net has used AF440fs in stock and Wholesale Automatics (rep’d by 2 US importers) sell fully refurbished with new torque converters and extreme valve bodies for $6,500.
Plenty of H55 conversion threads...looks like a $4k job.

 

[Michael Hanson]

I'm thinking valve body. Mike

 

[EscapeWagon62]

Worth a shot @Fish929
Doable repair, you just need readily available gaskets, a few gallons of ATF, time and patience.
Fj62 Valve Body...I’m going in!

 

[Fish929]

Thanks guys. Will take it to the shop and get them to check everything out. If I do stick with the auto and get a used one, which of these would be best? The top one with fewer miles but no transfer case or the one below it for $250 more?

 

[EscapeWagon62]

If you do it yourself option 1
If you are paying someone else option 2. The extra $250 you spend will likely save you more in labor

 

[Fish929]

So took it the local shop that specializes in Cruisers and they pulled, cleaned, and put new gaskets in the valve body. So reverse is back, thankfully. It drove fine Wednesday night on the way home from the shop but since then it won’t shift past second. Goes from first to second fine but won’t shift to third. Even if you push it to 4K rpms it won’t shift to third. Any ideas?

 

[89BIGBLUE]

Fluid level?
Linkages?
Thinking at it...

 

[EscapeWagon62]

When you experience this again, move the great lever to neutral for a second and then into drive.
If it drops into drive with no issue then it’s fluid level or your kick down is too tight.
If not....exceeds my ability seeing as you already cleaned out the throttle body.

 

[robjanson]

@Fish929 Did you ever figure this out? I had my local tranny shop install a Nomad Valve Body in my FJ62 A440F last week. Everything was fine until they installed the Nomad other than it getting hot in 3rd on long grades, which is why I pulled the trigger on the Nomad. Now it's been nothing but headaches. Started out missing 4th, which had the shop perplexed. Then intermittently started missing 3rd. Then no 3rd. Now no Reverse either. Sounds similar to your experience.