Help! Allison transmission control problem!

[michaeldterry]

This evening, Vita and I went to the storage lot to take Evangeline for fueling in preparation for a trip to Chattanooga, TN this weekend. She started and aired up fine, but when I got ready to roll and punched the "D" pad on the transmission shift control pad - nothing!!! The reverse pad works, the "mode" pad works, but "D" is totally nonresponsive! Has anyone experienced this problem before and know of a "work around" method to get the bus to go into gear so we can roll?

I'm admittedly not mechanically inclined and don't know where to begin to troubleshoot this issue, but I suspect that the problem is in the keypad contacts. Does that make sense?

Because the bus is in a secure storage lot and won't go into a forward gear, I can't even drive it to a repair shop to have it diagnosed and repaired!

I'm on the verge of being in the doghouse big time with Vita and our daughter because this Chattanooga trip was a Christmas present to our daughter to take her and her best friend to Chattanooga in the bus to see her favorite comedian, Brian Regan (never heard of him before this!) Sunday night! Of course, Vita and I are seeing our favorite comedian, Ron White, at the same venue the night before (Saturday night).

So, I've got to work fast to solve this problem before I ruin the weekend with a broken bus! Can anyone provide some emergency guidance?

Thanks!

[dale farley]

Michael,

I assume you tried shutting the engine down and restarting to see if that made any difference. Also pull up and push down your emergency brake switch to make sure it is all the way engaged.

[Coloradobus]

Michael, sheepishly I will ask, did you place your foot on the brake pedal before you pushed the "D" on the tranny pad. Just a thought

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Several things prevent it from going into drive such as trying to shift on high idle, or if the temperature in the transmission is less than a certain value.

I suggest trying to shift at low idle after warming up the coach.

You also have the ability to read codes so if it still will not shift see if there are active codes which can be accessed and read from the keypad.

[Steve Bennett]

We have seen some of the pads that become stiff with cold weather. Try pressing very firmly in the center of the D with the coach @ low idle.

[merle&louise]

Michael,

The same thing happened to me about 2 years ago. I found that pressing down firmly and rolling my finger around on the "D" would get it to work. It did this 4 or 5 more times so I started looking for a new selector pad on eBay. They were expensive if I remember correctly, about $600 so I just kept looking trying to find one at a good price.

After a month of looking on eBay the problem disappeared! It has been 2 years and the selector has worked flawlessly! Go figure!

Hope rolling your finger on the "D" helps. Just keep messing with it, and it should work.

[michaeldterry]

Michael,

I assume you tried shutting the engine down and restarting to see if that made any difference. Also pull up and push down your emergency brake switch to make sure it is all the way engaged.

Dale - Yep, I shut down & restarted twice and also engaged a disengaged the emergency brake a few times making sure that the button was firmly pushed all the way down.

[michaeldterry]

Michael, sheepishly I will ask, did you place your foot on the brake pedal before you pushed the "D" on the tranny pad. Just a thought

Jim - yes, I was depressing the brake pedal throughout the process. <shrug>

[michaeldterry]

Several things prevent it from going into drive such as trying to shift on high idle, or if the temperature in the transmission is less than a certain value.

I suggest trying to shift at low idle after warming up the coach.

You also have the ability to read codes so if it still will not shift see if there are active codes which can be accessed and read from the keypad.

Jon - I'm certain that I had switched to low idle before trying to shift. In fact, I shifted successfully into reverse and moved the bus back a few feet and then tried to shift to Neutral and then Drive again. It went to Neutral with no problem, but would not respond when I pressed the "D" pad.

The ambient temperature outside at the time was about 41 degrees and I had warmed the engine up on high idle for several minutes.

I'm unfamiliar with how to read or interpret the codes you mentioned.

[michaeldterry]

We have seen some of the pads that become stiff with cold weather. Try pressing very firmly in the center of the D with the coach @ low idle.

Thanks Steve - I'm going to try again in the morning and hope to have better luck!