1994 Cougar 3.8 - Various problems - Any ideas?

[Piero 'Giops' Giorgi]

Hi you all!

I joied this group because I am the {Lucky?) owner of a nice "Big
Cat".
A 1994 Cougar XR7, 3.8 V6 with 51k miles on it.

I got this car about two months ago, she was in perfect shape, drove
well and even with perfect interior and no paint fading at all.
(Just yellowed headlights... Sacramento sun does not forgive...)

After a few days, she started making a loud hissing sound from the
engine and quit on me in the middle of the freeway (3rd of five
lanes... scaaaaary!!!).

Turns out that she melted the right catalytic converter, and all the
pieces went downstream and clogged the rear one.
GREAT! The spare part is almost 1200$ (The whole Y pipe assembly - No
universals here in CA).

I'm waiting now for the spare part to arrive (2 weeks) and in the
meantime I tried running her "Open pipes".
She's not that loud and sounds absolutely gorgeous (I wish I could
keep her this way...) but another problem is coming, I think.

When the engine is warm, the "Check engine" light comes on, and that
is ok, i guess, given that there is only the driver side catalytic
converter and the rest is just a pipe. No backpressure.

She is doing strange things with the transmission. I'm running 65 on
freeway (FLAT ground), at about 1700 RPM and, all of a sudden, she
downshifts and starts running about 3000 RPM, for a while, and then
shifts back up again to the 1700 RPM.

Now, given that the transmission is controlled electronically, could
this thing be related to the fact that there is no backpressure from
the exhaust system? Or that the emission control system goes nuts
trying to adjust the mixture?

I mean... is it worth spending 1200$ for the exhaust or should I just
give the car away for spare parts?

Any ideas?

Thank you all and have a great day! (Or night, depends on when you
read this)

Piero

[John Kaiser]

The neutral position sensing switch, on the side of the transmission is bad.

Do not attempt to replace it yourself, an alignment tool is needed. The
whole job,
parts and labor should be about a hundred.

Been there, done that.

[Piero 'Giops' Giorgi]

On Jul 19, 4:37 pm, John Kaiser <j...@frontiernet.net> wrote:

> The neutral position sensing switch, on the side of the transmission is bad.
>
> Do not attempt to replace it yourself, an alignment tool is needed.  The
> whole job,
> parts and labor should be about a hundred.
>
> Been there, done that.

Cool news!

I've been reading a LOT on the Internet and it seems that the
"Transmission Range Sensor" could have a part in this, too, am I
correct?
(As you can sure understand, I don't know much about Automatics... I
would NEVER do something to the transmission by myself!!!)

To the engine/suspensions/bodywork, ok... but not to things that have
no clutch pedal... :-)

Thanks

Piero

[John Kaiser]

Same item different nomenclature

[Piero 'Giops' Giorgi]

On Jul 28, 7:10 pm, John Kaiser <j...@frontiernet.net> wrote:

> Same item different nomenclature- Hide quoted text -

Ah-HA! Thank you!

Piero