non swepty, but need help with this plymouth P.O.S...

[wideblock]

mommainlaw has a plymouth grand voyager mini van. its a 90 model, 3.3 v6 and an auto trans. its stuck in second gear, well not stuck, you can move it to park, you get reverse, you get nuetral, but when put it in OD it stays in second gear. wont go to first, wont shift up. i have tried manual shifting it to no avail. any ideas on what may be causing this??? she doesnt have the cash to be spending on a bunch of expensive tests, so i figured it was worth a shot to ask here.

btw, the gear indicator is showing its in second regaurdless of shifter position. normally i wouldnt think much of a broken indicator, but im wondering if it may have some sort of sensor hooked to it that is linked via computer to the trans. im clueless when it comes to the newer cars, especially a front wheeldrive mini van. any help or advice would be appreciated. has anyone "been there and done that"???

[PatS]

A transmission guy told me that many times the Caravan transmissions will act up because the battery is weak.
They are shifted electronically so it does make sense.

Also, never drive one for long with a weak battery for the same reason...it's causing some significant damage.

There is also a solenoid pack under the fender...at least on the newer ones. Try replacing that with a wrecker unit to see if it makes a difference.

[65alive]

I've done a little work on the aforementioned "P.O.S" mini vans (I hate to admitt ). The transmission is probably in "limp-mode", when the computer sees an electronic fault, it defaults to second gear by turning both shift solinoids off. It could be any number of things to make it do that, but the main thing I see that fails on that trans is the output shaft speed sensor, either metal shavings sticking to the magnet in the sensor, giving it a false reading, or a failed sensor.

Good luck