Reverse gone! Did Kirt move?

[632 Regal]

Sorry for the confusion, too many posts going on. Agreed it sounds like the VB.

Jeff, I have the 5HP30 which -sure seems like- got its fame from valve body failures. bubba966 is driving a 540 now, but he didn't say it was the car with the broken circlip holder. When I mentioned the circlip to Kirt, he said that sounds more like a 5HP18 and he couldn't remember one on a 5HP30. Add in the fact that my car has not thrown a single code (eliminating the trans ECU?) and it almost has to be the valve body, or at least that sounds like the way to bet. I did tell my tech if he sees metal in the pan, call me and don't even bother installing the VB. Just in case I'm the first.

As far as doing it myself, if it were a 4-barrel Holley that I could stand on both feet to remove for a rebuild, no problem. Since I started getting junk mail from AARP (knew I should have stayed away from that Foreigner concert they sponsored) I find I would rather get a root canal than work underneath a car. The last time I changed the trans filter on the Mercedes I got an oil shampoo. Long arms, a 12" deep ribcage, and jackstands make for pretty miserable working conditions on a crawler. Maybe I need to throw the jackstand boxes away. Seeing "Made in China" every time I have to trust my life to them doesn't help any.

[zhandax]

Information overflow; bane of life in the 21st century.

I did get some good news today. I parked in the only entrance to the garage, and the service manager told the new guy to bring the car in and find a place and added that it did not have reverse. The new guy must have felt he had something to prove, and he pulled forward a bit and then shifted into reverse and gunned it far enough to build enough pressure to kick the ball over to the reverse side. He pulled back in front of the office window and forward repeatedly until I gave him the finger horizontally across the neck to indicate we got it. I told the guy when he came in the office I did not do that because I knew it would slam the transmission when the ball moved over but once probably did no damage and it does indicate we are dead on with the VB. This also indicates that the ball did not get sucked through the hole so the 60 or 80 miles I put on the car since should not have done any damage to any clutch packs. I will know the entire story tomorrow, but so far it looks like this could have been worse.

One question; I forgot to ask Kirt if he sold replacement EEPROMs for the trans ECU mapped to the VB upgrades. My tech did manage to get one from the dealer mapped to the standard ZF upgrade package. Does Kirt do anything in addition to the standard ZF upgrades, or should the EEPROM from the dealer work?