Thread: 2005 4t65E wheels spin off ground in drive on lift? No movement any gear on ground.

NA car. Just bought this car today listed as transmission bad thought it might just be a broken forward band as I have fixed a few of those before in the car. It wasnt. There is a code in the computer for the internal range sensor inside the transmission. The PRNDL does light up but wont go to low 1 other gears show on PRNDL when gear shifter is moved. Not sure if the cable is just out of adjustment.

I removed the pan it was very clean and fluid nice and red. a little clutch material but nothing bad no metal shavings at all. I did not find a broken band and it was intact. The filter was loose as hell. I put in a spare filter gasket but the old filter was still loose. I did not have a new filter on hand and the parts store was closed so I wrapped some tape around the old filter and jammed it in there so it was tight just to test. I put on a pan with a drain plug so I can drop it again quick to put new filter in tomorrow.

While on the lift the wheels will move in drive when I give it gas! Reverse didnt seem to work on lift.

On the ground NOTHING. Any gear selected no movement at all.

Just got the car today so wanted to post what I know and see if anybody has seen this behavior before or have any thoughts on what might be needed to fix.

I read possibly sprag, input shaft, oil pimp shaft, stuck AFL valve, chain sprocket, chain. seems to be greatly narrowed down now that I see the wheels are spinning when I give it gas on the lift.


Thanks for any help in advance.

Could this just be a bad range sensor in the transmission?

I got to work on it a bit today and adjusted the transmission shift cable so low 1 shows on the PRNDL now. Checking with the scan tool all gears appear to show correctly in the position selected so that seems like it would b e fixed but the P0850 code still shows. I checked in the airbox and found some acorns that were chewed up so I inspected the wiring going from the ECU to the transmission computer but did not find and broken or chewed on wires.

I also found a bunch of codes pertaining to low high voltages. After cleaning all the main power and ground connections and the ECU grounds in the car they seemed to have gone away. The codes that persist are P0850 transmission range sensor. and P0318 rough road something or another.

I also tested the wheels spining on the lift again and there is definately no reverse wheel sppen. The go forward when I hit the gas in reverse.

Pulled upper tranny cooler line ran a couple of hoses to buckets started car and no fluid is coming out. Tried shifting the gears quick and nothing came out.

Could this just be a new pump swap or broken shaft if I'm lucky? Or does other stuff get taken out because of this?

I got the side cover off and found there were three 10mm bolts below the oil pump THAT WERE COMPLETELY LOOSE! Also the green plug that went into the range sensor was barely plugged in so it was also loose!


I saw some fine metal shavings when I dropped the pan again today.


I removed the pump and took out the channel plate today and the plastic thrust washer was destroyed in pieces from the pump side and the brass washer was chewed up on the side of the 4th clutch hub. I did hear a light grinding noise coming from this side of the transmission when testing yesterday. Hopefully the metal shavings were just the two washers being damaged while they were spinning with no plastic washer in there. The oil pump shaft was worn off about 1mm on the side toward the channel plate. The rest of it looks fine.


I think this transmission was rebuilt before because it has metal channel plate gaskets in it already.


I have a spare oil pump and shaft I'm going to throw in there. I think the metal channel plate gaskets can be re used. So I think I just need the new washers for the channel plate at this point.

Hopefully it was just those 3 loose bolts.....

Installed a new transmission pump, pump shaft, thrust washers for the channel plate and torqued everything properly. The transmission shifts fine now except it get a P0741 and no TCC lockup. At least it moves!

No Movement at all in this case = 3 loose 10mm bolts in the channel plate below the transmission pump.