Automatic Transmission Problems

[Taxevasion]

Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what could be causing my problems. Recently, I was able to take out my 93 320i autotragic for a drive after 3 months of sitting and although it started fine, it wouldn't shift into reverse or drive. Applying throttle with either selected was the same as doing so in neutral. Also, I'm not too sure if it's related, but in park I found that the car was able to roll the entire length of my garage, and when I bought it it was somewhat difficult to physically select park. My initial thoughts was the TCM, but the neutral safety switch works properly, and I also thought it might be trans fluid but I didn't see any leaks under the car. Any help would be very much appreciated and thanks in advance

[shogun]

check the bowden cable from shift handle to transmission side. Also check the manual shift valve, that is connected to the bowden cable and goes into the valve body, so actually you can select any gear, but nothing happens inside the valve body when the manual shift valve is broken, see pic I posted here https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...al+shift+valve
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...al+shift+valve

[Taxevasion]

Hey sorry if its a stupid question but how do you access the valve body/bowden cable?

[whiskychaser]

One end of the bowden cable is attached to the shifter inside the car. The other end goes to a lever on the side of the trans. It is that lever which operates the manual valve inside the trans as well as the 'park' locking pawl. If the manual valve breaks, you won't get any gears except park as that is purely mechanical. But if the car is not driven for a couple of weeks, the inner cable at the trans end can simply rust. So when you try to move the shift lever, it can jam. You only get part of the range of movement of the shift lever - or none at all. As your car has been standing for some time, try spraying the cable inner at the trans end with penetrating oil and then moving the shift lever. The photo at post 9 in the link below shows the end of the bowden cable where it attached to the lever on the side of the trans. It also shows a broken shift valve. Part of it is still stuck in the valve body. To see that, you would need to drain the ATF and drop the pan.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...t+valve+broken