Auto transmission

mingle417, Mar 9, 8:16am
this might sound dumb, but me and my mate installed a new trans into his ford laser and he mentioned that he couldspin his wheels with the car in park after we had put the trans in. i was wondering if thier has to be trans fluid in the trans for the trans to actually lock the wheels up in park. i always thought the trans fluid was only needed for all the other gears. please note: we wernt dumb enough to have the car going with no fluid in it if someone was wondering

m16d, Mar 9, 8:22am
Yer gear lever is out of adjustment.

dent, Mar 9, 8:23am
Thats normal I believe it locks one wheel opposite to the other. So they will spin individually. But if you try spinning them together in the same direction they should lock. And i wouldn't of thort there would need to be fluid in the trans to make this system work. Its completely mechanical.

hatchback, Mar 9, 11:53pm
Sounds to me that you have bent the jabbawoky wheel while you were lining up the halfshafts.

richardmayes, Mar 10, 12:12am
When you say he could "spin the wheels" does this mean

(A)The wheels spun (and the tyres smoked) when he took it for a test drive and planted his right foot on the throttle!

or

(B) the front end was still jacked up in the air, engine was not running, and when he turned the left wheel by hand the right wheel rotated the other way!

It makes a big difference.
(A) Would be pretty impressive for an automatic Ford Laser, but it would indicate that the shifter linkage isn't adusted properly, and the trans is really in "Drive" when the shifter is in "Park".
(B) is normal, and would suggest the park lock in the trans is working fine!

mingle417, Jul 9, 1:58pm
Option B lol. we knew it was all lined up cause the shaft wouldnt move once it was fitted so we knew it had lined up with the sprockets and stuff but wasnt sure if the wheels would spin in Park with the front end in the air