My partner has just bought herself a (Jap. import) 1994 Chariot Diesel Automatic. It has a problem with the gearbox that was not apparent during testing. After about 8 miles (when the engine & gearbox have got quite hot), it drops out of overdrive and won't go back in again until it has cooled down again. When this happens it also appears to lock itself into top gear and pulls away and stays in it all the time. Gearbox specialists have come up with different solutions, some costing in excess of £1400! A local gearbox specialist changed some parts in the overdrive clutch to no avail. I visiting mechanic plugged his ECU reader into it and it came up with a code 86. Trouble is no one can find out what this means! Has anyone got any suggestions about any of this. We were told by the cheating little s**t who sold it that it had had a replacement box put in a couple of weeks before he sold it to us. Would it be worth re-setting the ECU and if so is it simply a matter of disconnecting the battery for a while or is there more to it. An help greatly appreciated!

sounds like the lockup torque converter solenoid has jammed.I have seen this quite a bit back home in canada on many vehicles but am unsure if they are present on the chariot.I used to find the solenoid behind the tranny side pan(if it has one).I will check tommorrow if I can find out what a code 86 is for you although we have space wagons and not chariots.what happens is the solenoid jams when hot and hits lock-up.we used to just unplug the lockup in the short term to make it drivable but you do lose overdrive during this.the symptom of this solenoid staying locked up is like coming to a stop on a manual gearbox without pressing the clutch pedal down and stalling.hope it helps

My 92 'wagon drops into neutral most of the time when o'drive is switched on,but not always.It seems like a switching problem to me but my mechanic tells me the gearbox is kaput ,to put it politely.I'd be interested to hear the advice of an expert.

Thanks for the reply. The symptoms are similar to the one you describe except that when the overdrive locks out the car can be stopped without it being locked in gear and stalling the engine. It stops normally and will pull away OK except that it is always in 3rd gear i.e. it doesn't start in bottom change into 2nd and so on. This only happens after about 6 miles when the everything has got to normal running temperature. It seems as if some sensor somewhere is possibly malfunctioning and telling the EMU that something is wrong and locks the box into some kind of "safe" mode. The guy trying to sort it out is now running out of ideas. He doesn't think it is a gearbox problem as such but doesn't know what else to try. Other auto box specialists have just said it needs a new or re-conditioned box which is more that the car is worth.

if you have any local dealers close by allow them to read for dtc's(data trouble codes) in the autobox.there may be fault codes stored that can save you loads of time and cost.I personnally would do this before any serious autobox work is done.It can be worth the time and money that a dealer is worth on some occassions.this procedure should take less than 30minutes even if they stop for coffee.it does sound like a solenoid switch sticking but which is guess work without a scanner to give better info

We are having an identical problem. We have a 1994 mitsubishi chariot and have just put in a 1997 engine and transmission. Did you work out what the problem was?

hey why didnt you just get a RVR there more ruget. And did you get the chariot cheap?