I'm changing the solenoids in my AT, putting things back together. I go to replace the pan gasket, and I find this big black spring, about 2" long, stuck to one of the magnets in the base of the pan. It looks like it might be designed to fit into the round hole in the filter housing, but it doesn't quite fit in there. I can't see where else it would go. Does anyone know???

post a picture, please.

That is an accumulator spring it rests on the valvebody as you bolt it up.
There's a hole it fit perfectly in that's where it goes buy some vasaline and stick it to the valvebody when you bolt up and you should have no problems

Maxed--

Can you give me an idea where it goes? This is a pretty good diagram http://maxima.theowensfamily.com/tsb/NTB98-043.pdf. The only spring I see is the one in the inset on page 7, but I'm pretty sure that was much smaller, and is still in place. This really only shows the underside, though. If I drop the valve body again, am I going to see a hole on the top of the body?

I'll be honest I didn't click the link.
But... If you look at the trans without the valve body installed you should see three round gaskets. The hole is in the trans. Now, looking at the "top" of the valve body the part you don't see with it installed you should see 2 plates that look like were round but the ends were chopped off. The spring sits on the left one I believe. looking at the front of the max. no special retainers or clips hold it in it just sits there. That's why it ended up in the pan. Line up the valvebody and set the spring there. Then you should see where it goes.

I hope this helps.

Maybe here?


Looks like this are here. Did you remove valve body from the trans housing?

bingo

make sure you torque the valvebody to the exact spec or your trans will shift all stupid

Yes, To what he said and don't forget to put all the bolts in the same exact spot where you took them out of because the bolts are in differents sizes and if they are in the wrong spot they will snap in half and then you will have to dremel the bolt out not a good idea. The bolts are color coded and I assume the FSM is also colored them also.

whats the point of changing valve bodys? maybe thats what mine needs?

You should never have to "change" a valvebody the solenoids take a dump and you have erratic shifting or a loss of a "gear" but if you remove the valve body and solenoids an go to town with brakekleen you can fix all sorts of problems the valve body is the brain and if a tiny piece of dirt gets stuck it can make it retarded and shift stupid

Thanks, guys. I figured out where the spring goes and got it back together, but I screwed something up, and I'm dead in the water. I'm going to start a new thread on that.

i have the same problem now. i forgot the spring and my car shifts wierd. is it ok to use brake cleaner on the valve body?

To keep the clutches cushioned drop the VB and throw that spring back onto the servo-release accumulator. Using brake cleaner with a lint free rag will not harm the VB. I used it on my VB when I modified it with the transgo shift kit.

i had 2 codes before i replaced the solenoid pack they were p0731, and p0733. i forgot the spring now the codes are p0733,and p0734 do you guys think that the spring is the cause of this.

you got 4 post & 3 of them are today (within 10 minutes of each other) resurrecting older threads to inquire about the same thing...didn't you even consider that that's a bit much? start a new thread or at least have the common courtesy/sense to only ask your question in 1 post/thread. what's in your head; really??

http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...ems-p0734.html
http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...solenoids.html

Just put the fukcing spring in and go from there.