1985 Toyota Van LE Automatic Transmission Issue

I have been working to restore an 85 LE automatic with low miles. The seller told me the only issue with the Van at the time was a hard jerk into second gear. After painstaking work I got the engine up and running and ran into the same issue as the previous owner. The Van shifts great from first but hit second really hard, so much so it chirps the rear wheels. Once i got it home from the mechanic i noticed it was leaking a bit of oil from the real axel. Im looking for advice on whether i should start with transmission cables or the rear axle? Once the Van settled the oil leak stopped. Look forward to some guidance.

For the leak on the rear axle, do you mean the rear axles from the differential to the rear wheels? If so the issue with that is not so much the leak itself, but if too much of the oil (gear oil) leaks out, there won't be enough to lubricate the gears and they will destroy themselves. This shouldn't be causing your shift issues, but I'd check the level in the differential to make sure there's still oil in it. Remove the fill plug and check with your finger that there's oil in there. The level is supposed to be up to that hole or close to it. The harsh shifting issue could be caused by an out-of-adjustment cable at the throttle. This linkage adjusts fluid pressure and shift points in the transmission. It seems strange that it would only affect the shift in one gear, but it's worth checking on the adjustment. This image is from an '87 van, but the procedure should be the same.Attachment 12936

Hi, thanks for the reply!!! My mistake the oil is leaking definitely from the differential where the drive shaft connects to the rear. Having it looked at tomorrow and I’ll keep an update if this works or not, thanks again!

So it would seem luck is not on my side as the transmission was deemed bad. I had the choice to rebuild but found a replacement. I wanted to know what the difference between a 03-72L vs 03-72LE?

i am not entirely sure about their naming convention, but it seems the E version is electronically controlled. I don’t think the van’s are electronically controlled, I think the only wire going to it, is the overdrive switch.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_A_transmission

• Letters representing particular features:
  
  • D = Separates 3-speed A4x series from 4-speed A4xD series
  • E = Electronic control
  • F = Four wheel drive
  • H = AWD Transverse mount engine
  • L = Lock-up torque converter

This was posted recently.
https://www.toyotavantech.com/forum/...-transmission-!

Thank you for the info!