The fickle-ness of the e34 and grounding

[ryan roopnarine]

about 3 months ago, i finished swapping autoboxes on my 92 525i with the US equipment 4l30e by gm. in my haste to test drive the car, i gave up about 30 minutes into trying to extricate the transmission computer from the passenger side footwell, and simply rested the transmission computer in the passenger side footwell with the harness connected to it. I found that not only would i get a trans program, but a lack of any locking into the 3rd gear "limp mode" when moving the car, resulting in a car that could move forwards or backwards about 30 feet before immobilizing itsef. after being significantly POd at my situation, i took a nap in which i dreamed about a grounding issue (i think on a fluorescent light). For shiats and giggles, i fished a set of jumper cables out of the taurus and clipped one side to the TCU, and another to the metal in the footwell. Success!! (kinda). the car still has the transprogram, but will lock into limp and move around in 3rd without incident. i suspect that the transprogram may have to do with the CCM message that i am getting, but more likely has to do with the fact that the driveshaft tore the wires out of the O2 sensor at the base, and the car is rolling with nothing attached to the oxygen sensor harness. I plan to get the codes read by someone this weekend (hopefully) and hope that it is something simple like a speed sensor, or more optimistically, that oxygen sensor.

[whiskychaser]

I'm surprised they used the EGS body as a ground! Learned something. If you ever put all your experiences with that tranny in a book I would buy it. Not everybody's cup of tea but I'd pay you a tenner