Weird.  Does the whine happen when the engine is off for the few
seconds before you restart it?  If so, I can only think that the TC
would do that if it had internal problems.  I believe there is a
clutch type device in it that can break.  I think that the "slips
completely" symptom also points to the TC, especially if it affects
all modes/gears.

Edward

At 02:03 PM 5/22/2010, BenT Syncro wrote:
>Good morning! And for some in the Mid-West, it's spelled differently
>nut sounds the same -- 'Ohio, Goh-zig-eh-muh-sue'. "I think I'm
>turning Japanese..."
>
>Anyway, back to misbehaving Vanagon. I recently took my 1984 Vanagon
>GL with a Subaru 2.2 EJT (T for turbo) out of semi retirement. The
>reason it went to storage was because a local shop installed a
>defective Auto trans and had not honored their warranty.
>
>Here's what happens. She drives fine for a few minutes then shortly
>starts to slip completely. Fluid level looks fine. If you shut the
>engine off for a few seconds, you will hear a loud whine for several
>seconds. While the whine is present, the trans keeps working. After
>about 10-20 seconds, whine disappears and so does the functionality of
>the auto trans. You can repeat this with the same results each time.
>
>Where do you think that noise is coming from? It sounds like a pump of
>some kind. Is there a chance that it's just the torque converter that
>is bad? Afterall, all the gears seem to work when the trans is cold or
>when the turn off/on operation is done.
>
>
>TIA,
>
>BenT
>Sent from my torque converter