Worst feeling ever

[LJ - Nik]

Upon working like a dog all day , going to your car and having it give you problems is the worst feeling ever. But heck that’s why we’re still Tj-ing or LJ-ing (in my case ) - but now that that’s out the way..

Giving the car gas - nothing happens but high RPMS.
I shift car to park , turn car off.
Turned car back on , shift to drive.
no problem shifting gears , give it gas …

NOTHING!
JUST SAME HIGH RPMS.

Backstory ..

I’m currently on top of a hill , while it’s snowing ..I thought my 33s weren’t gripping correctly. AND … these NYCs assholes honking non-stop… just exacerbated all “Ramona’s” issues .. or that’s how it felt like

Anyway…I shifted “Ramona” to Neutral and parked her 500 ft at the bottom of the hill.

Upon , parking her .. I noticed that one of my hose connections going to the radiator was completely popped off. Pretty sure it’s where the trans line is hooked up ? Might be wrong

Tightened that back up , let her cool off , tried to add coolant …FULLY TOPPED.

This morning I returned back to her , and checked transmission oil .. NONE.

I wanted to let the engine warm up and keep an eye on my gauges but don’t want to cause more damage then I already did.

I’m just waiting for Monday so I can call my mechanic and have it towed to her , but in the meanwhile does anyone have any idea what could have caused this issue? Or what I’m looking at like.

I’m going to take an educated guess and say when that radiator hose popped off , I could have been loosing tranny oil ?

I also attached the picture of the radiator where it was popped of clearer , I replaced the radiator February of this year.

Sorry in advance for the story format but English isn’t my first language

I’ll give you guys an update on Monday when I bring her up on stilts and see what the hell is really going on..

Just wanted to speak to my therapy group before

 

[macleanflood]

Complete wild ass guess...head gasket went, over pressurized the cooling system, that blew off the radiator hose and something nicked a transmission cooler line.

Something crazy sure happened. How hot did it get on the dash gauge?

-Mac

 

[Frank M]

If the transmission line to the bottom of the radiator feel off, you lost transmission fluid not coolant. Check your transmission fluid level, probably real low. The transmission will not work if it's low on fluid.

 

[dbbd1]

How low was the coolant? It looks to me like that is all transmission fluid, from the popped off line. Fill up the transmission and give it a go. But it sure sounds like you might need a rebuild on it.

 

[dbbd1]

Once you have figured out whether your transmission is okay or not, replace those lines (and clamps) from the transmission to the radiator, just in case...

 

[Strizzo]

Was the engine running when you were trying to add trans fluid? If you checked the trans fluid with the engine off, it will show full when it isn't unless its completely completely empty.

 

[LJ - Nik]

Check your transmission fluid level, probably real low. The transmission will not work if it's low on flu

Was the engine running when you were trying to add trans fluid? If you checked the trans fluid with the engine off, it will show full when it isn't unless its completely completely empty.

hey , checked transmission oil this morning while car was off for 12 hrs. No oil in transmission line. Checked engine oil and it was adequate levels.

I’m hoping I just lost tranny oil while being on top of that hill, I rolled the car in NEUTRAL , all the way down the hill , so fingers crossed I didn’t cause crazy damage.

 

[LJ - Nik]

Complete wild ass guess...head gasket went, over pressurized the cooling system, that blew off the radiator hose and something nicked a transmission cooler line.

Something crazy sure happened. How hot did it get on the dash gauge?

-Mac

Oh man , this ISNT the case .
For my sake

 

[Mall'er]

Transmission cooler line popped off and pumped a bunch of the atf4 out. That caused the slippage. Just make sure the line is tight and refill the transmission with the correct ATF4 and you should be just fine.

Of course, check for leaks afterwards.

 

[JEEPCJTJ]

Transmission cooler line popped off and pumped a bunch of the atf4 out. That caused the slippage. Just make sure the line is tight and refill the transmission with the correct ATF4 and you should be just fine.

Of course, check for leaks afterwards.

That is the answer. It's exatly what happened to my TJ, what I did to correct it, and where I'm at today just under 2 yrs later.

 

[JEEPCJTJ]

And it has to be ATF+4

not correcting Mall'er, just being a bit more detailed because I'd hate to see the 20 yr old parts store geek hand you 4 quarts of some random ATF and say, "Here you go, sir."

 

[Mall'er]

And it has to be ATF+4

not correcting Mall'er, just being a bit more detailed because I'd hate to see the 20 yr old parts store geek hand you 4 quarts of some random ATF and say, "Here you go, sir."

Correct!! And bring a funnel. You are going to want a funnel.

 

[tr21triton]

Complete wild ass guess...head gasket went, over pressurized the cooling system, that blew off the radiator hose and something nicked a transmission cooler line.

Something crazy sure happened. How hot did it get on the dash gauge?

-Mac

Are your radiator hoses 3/8 inch ? Mine sure aint ! I'm thinking he has a lot more trouble than that though. I bet he hit the brakes hard and blew up his vacuum booster which caused a sudden loss of vacuum which in turn shot his #1 spark plug out of the head which caused the head gasket to blow and dump all the coolant. but that spark plug shot off the hood then the fender and frame and knocked his trans. line loose dumping all his trans fluid. Santa Claus stopped by last night and filled his coolant but doesn't use ATF4 in his sleigh so didn't fill it. Oh and I bet there's a hole the size of a spark plug in his left front tire too !

 

[DuckNut]

Look at the first pic and the last pic. Spend one second analyzing the clamps in each of the pics. Which one is still attached?

Change to that style of clamps. On everything that has a clamp constraining fluid.

Further analyzing pic 1, looks like the clamp is too far from the end resulting the hose to be clamped on the hump on the barb, not before the hump.

 

[LJ - Nik]

Thank you all ;
Water pump overpreasurised the lines , which caused the transmission line to pop off ; just how @Mall'er suspected.
Water pump replaced , thermostat replaced , radiator replaced.
4 quarts ATF tranny fluid.
Just finished driving 100 miles with her after receiving her back on Friday …

 

[John Cooper]

Your water pump can't over pressurize, it is a circulation pump not a pressure pump.

The transmission lines don't get pressure from the water pump or radiator, they just use the lower radiator to cool the transmission fluid.

Not sure what you paid to have done, but even a bad thermostat won't blow the transmission line off.

 

[tr21triton]

Thank you all ;
Water pump overpreasurised the lines , which caused the transmission line to pop off ; just how @Mall'er suspected.
Water pump replaced , thermostat replaced , radiator replaced.
4 quarts ATF tranny fluid.
Just finished driving 100 miles with her after receiving her back on Friday …

You got bent over. Find another mechanic ! If that's what happened you need a new transmission now because they aren't supposed to have water in them.

 

[LJ - Nik]

You got bent over. Find another mechanic ! If that's what happened you need a new transmission now because they aren't supposed to have water in them.

Who said anything about water in the transmission? lol

 

[LJ - Nik]

Your water pump can't over pressurize, it is a circulation pump not a pressure pump.

The transmission lines don't get pressure from the water pump or radiator, they just use the lower radiator to cool the transmission fluid.

Not sure what you paid to have done, but even a bad thermostat won't blow the transmission line off.

Water pump fails or any component from radiator fails? ; engine over-heats , lines pressurize and can pop off if not tightened completely ?

Tranny line 100% came off and spilled everywhere.

with the addition of atf fluid around my car , coolant was everywhere. That’s why he proposed to swap out ALL parts.

Thermostat&waterpump&radiator and refill all tranny fluid lost from line being compromised.

Car is 21 years old and the last owner never swapped radiator, made sense lol.

 

[Claytone]

Water pump fails or any component from radiator fails? ; engine over-heats , lines pressurize and can pop off if not tightened completely ?

Sure, that's a possibility with a hose holding coolant. Engine temp spikes and builds pressure in the system. The radiator cap is supposed to be the fuse for that but a compromised hose could go first.
The transmission cooler circuit doesn't share pressure with the coolant side, so that line coming off was coincidental.
Either way, good that you're back up and running.