recently purchased 1991 legacy. If i leave the car in drive, it shifts from 1st to third. There is no second or drive. Self diagnostic shows duty b solenoid.tightend brake band, now i can get second if i take rpms to 4500 and let off. When i drained fluid I got a hint of gear lube. Changed solenoid b, still showing code 12-selinoid b. It's like the shift servo is not working. Maybe toast brake band? Can solenoid b effect the shift servo opperation?  Also awd is not working.  Clipped white and black wire at t.c.u.- duty c, bam 4wd. Assuming worn clotches in rear, don't know about 2nd and 4th. Any ideas?

It sounds like your trans is in limp mode for some reason, I'm not much on autos so I'm not sure what duty cylinoid b does. Clipping that wire will cause your car to be locked in 4wd, don't drive it ddown dry roads like that it will screw something up.

 

More that likely it was preventing the AWD from grabbing because it was in limp mode and it is probably caused by a bad cylinoid

Hi,

Does the Speedo work fine 100% of the time? If not it could be the connector is broken on the tranny housing (near the Diff dipstick).

 

If speedo is OK, then yours is acting like my trans did when it finally died. I did a complete drain/refill 3x to replace the ATF and it worked for about......10 minutes.

 

GL,

Td

If the trans fluid smells like gear oil check the front diff oil for ATF. Possible someone put gear oil in the wrong fill tube. If there is ATF in the front diff oil the seals between the diff and trans are bad and mixing gear oil with the ATF and toast the high clutch.

 thank you for the ideas guys. limp mode may be the problem. yes i know the forced 4wd is not good, but its got summer tires and i couldn't find dry pavment if i tried(november in Ak). Speedo works fine. No atf in the diff, I think the previous owner topped off tranny with gear lube. Going to replace duty b solenoid with a new one. While I got it open I think I will pull the shift servo and see if maybe the lube damaged the O rings. B.T.W. I drove this thing 120 miles round trip to work today 65 mph at 3800 rpm, third gear 4wd locked via duty c switch, God these things are tough!