stuck in 2nd gear

[sundanceuk]

Hi, I'm a vanner from the UK.
I have a 93 Astro, stock drive train with 129000 on the odo
I was driving on the highway at about 60mph, up hill, the transmission had kicked down and all was well, Then there was a loud click from the dash/footwell area, when I looked at the dash the speedo was reading 90mph !!!, No Way was I going that fast, The click was the speedo needle hitting the end stop.
The speedo needle was stuck at 90mph, the battery guage reads zilch, all other guages are stuck at the position they were in at that moment in time.
I was then away that the engine was revving quite high and realised that the transmission was in a lower gear and was not shifting back to drive or over drive.
once of the main higway I realised that ther was no shifting of gears as the road speed increased, the tranny is stuck in 2nd or 3rd gear !!!.
Investigation so far has revealed that a 30 amp fuse has blown in the fuse board labelled "guages", when replaced with a new fuse it blows as soon as the ignition is turned on.
If I try to shift gears manually nothing happens, it is still in the one gear.
I can select reverse ok and it will drive in that gear.

Any Ideas PLEASE

I realise that this post may not be a TRANSMISSION/REAREND/BRAKES/STEERING related item, but you didnt seem to have a electrical or general section, I am sorry if Ive posted in the wrong place

[leadtrombone]

Not being really versed in all things. But it sounds like you have something shorting out..

And or ... Not sure if the 93 models had the electrically shifted transmission. But perhaps the electrical shifting component is shorting (where the gear lever is and causing a short with the gauges cabling) and keeping the van in 2nd.

AFAIK the selection of 2nd gear with the lever will keep the transmission in 2nd from the start. In other words the van will be in second from stop and not shift out of second until you put it in 3. or D.]

Perhaps someone else will have some more specific info..

good luck on the trouble shooting.

[LiftedAWDAstro]

Your 93 does have an electrically shifted transmission. Sounds like you need to start disconnecting things that are on the gauges circuit. Hopefully someone here can get you a wiring diagram so you can see exactly what is on that circuit.

[sundanceuk]

Thanks for the advice, I still not sure if this is a electrical problem with the dashboard or the transmission, My money is on the dash (cos I aint got no money for a new tranny !!!!)
The van goes into the workshop on monday, they have full diagnostics, so hopefully it will rule out the tranny and then we start looking for a chaffed wire or the like, or a failed component, although my initial suspect was the alternator was shorting out
I think that the 2nd gear issue is that the tranny is in "Failsafe" mode ?

[LiftedAWDAstro]

The trans does have a fail safe mode (limp mode) and it is 2nd gear.