A8 Trans update

[John Cody Forbes]

http://jcforbes.com/jcfpics/a8trans_3-15-09

Well that actually went rather well. I'm realising that the captions for the 
photo's are a good tool, so text is the e-mail is getting less useful ;-). 
Had I not slept in this morning there's a good chance I would have had the 
trans completely back together today. Now the larger issue is that I don't 
THINK there is anything else that can cause issues, but I don't know that 
for a fact. I've been through ELSAWin and the family album a few times and 
it looks like the only valves, pistons, and solenoids are in the pump and 
the valve body. From what I can see all passage ways lead back to those two 
areas and are clear. Even so it's still a big gamble to spend 9 or 10 hours 
to put the trans back in and then have to spend that taking it back out 
again if this fails!! Of course I bet those times are going to down now that 
I figured out what I'm doing.

I'm thinking that I may try to build a little bracket to bolt to the torque 
converter with a half inch drive socket on it. I could at least spin the 
trans up and see if it pumps oil as somebody else suggested. I know that in 
the car it didn't pump oil at all since the oil level didn't change 
depending on if the engine was running or not. ELSAWin does have a chart as 
to which solenoids should be open and closed for each gear so if I can find 
a wiring diagram I guess I could even shift it into a gear and see what 
happens.

Alas it must wait because I have to put a lower control arm on my better 
half's 5000 tomorrow night, then Tuesday the shop must be closed up by 5pm. 
The suspense is killing me and it's only been building for a few hours!


Question for the list: This trans failure has nothing to do with the 
'normal' A8 trans problems since this one is a victim of foreign object 
damage, not it's own failure. Anybody out there have any clue what DOES fail 
on these things? At this rate I could sell this car for a 1,000% profit (not 
kidding, and it would still be a good deal for the buyer) and go get another 
one and start over.


-Cody Forbes

PS. Chris your ELSAWin is comming, the only PC here with a DVD burner died 
last week but I got it going again yesterday.

PPS. Ben, I gave that A/C condensor to Leah to ship like 2 weeks ago and 
found it in the trunk of her car today :sigh:, I'll see that it gets sent in 
the morning.