I've got a tough one here, wondering if anyone is interested in helping me troubleshoot. It seems a bit involved, although there's a good chance I'm overlooking something fundamental. If I thought I could find one honest autoshop I'd hand this over to them, but this has gotten pretty deep and I don't trust the son's a b____s. So I'm laying my situation out here where decency is the rule rather than the exception. I truly appreciate any input whatsoever. Here goes...

'93 Eldorado, caught on fire due to fuel rail leak. Ran ok for the most part prior to that. Numerous parts on top side of engine damaged, as you might imagine. Replaced intake manifold, fuel rail, beauty cover (9th cylinder head), along with vacuum lines, etc. Seems to run ok now, but like Sammy Hagar says, "I can't get my car outta 2nd gear". There are no codes being set.

After trying some override shift commands (PS11) with limited success (did shift into 1st, at least) codes appeared indicating Shift B solenoid was broken. Indeed it was. Perhaps my fault, may have overstressed something. I dunno. Anyway, I replaced both A&B solenoids. Still no joy. Transaxle now fails to respond to ANY override shift commands, despite indications that solenoids are operating correctly (ran PCM output test PO02, PO10, PO11, PO21, listening for solenoids turning on/off). Also ran simple P/N switch diagnostics, appears ok.

I'm thinking I should be able to at least issue those shift commands successfully and work backwards from there, determining which sensor is causing the PCM to think I enjoy 2nd gear all the time. However, due to the general chaos caused by the fire and replacing of the solenoids, I'm no longer sure where I stand. I'm thinking I've got a vacuum issue as well, possibly causing the shifting issues(?)

Unfortunately, no codes are being set. Some possibly related issues are as follows:

- Engine surges at steady throttle

According to what I've read, this could be due to a number of things. The 'Eldo exhibited some of this behavior before the fire as well, so I'm not sure how relevant this is.

- Parking brake release doesn't work when shifting out of park. This also was an issue before the fire though.

Any thoughts, insights, links, etc. would be greatly appreciated

I don't know if this is related to your problem or not but the surging and parking brake problem are almost surely a vacuum leak.
Did you report the leaky fuel rail and fire to the NHTSA? Did Cadillac pay for the damage? You do know that there is a recall of the fuel rails don't you? Letters are supposed to start going out this month (Aug.)

Agree on the vacuum leak issue. Am going to do a more thorough check tomorrow AM.

I'm (mostly) aware of the recall issue, altho a couple of recent posts I read indicated it doesn't apply to '93, '94 (BS, GM! - that 9th cylinder is a killer!). If that's the case, maybe I'll contact the NTSHA anyway with my story, see what they say - sure wouldn't want any other Caddy owners to go thru what I went thru.

You are correct. It does not include '93/'94 because the fuel rail in inside the intake. Sorry, I did not realize you had a '93. I'm even more sorry for your misfortune.

Hmmm...I'm wondering: who did the solenoid replacement? Are all the electricals intact? (obviously not...)...Have you tried commanding any other functions out of the command mode? Maybe it's the PCM (or whatever the main computer is called--it's right on the firewall, no pun intended). My 94 was throwing a P028 (shift solenoid code) just before and shortly after the headgaskets were done and I drove around for 2 days after dropping 3200 bucks into the old girl thinking I was next looking at a trans repair. I fiddled and diddled with the OBD system and somehow finally got the tranny right--no codes/perfect shifting. I kept clearing the code in every conceivable condition (selector in different gears) and then driving for a while that way...for some reason (knock wood) it went away. How about disconnecting the battery for a total reboot of the computer?

With a fire under the hood, I would worry about every wire and vacumn hose under the hood. And possibly wiring even further back.

A wire might have burned insulation and shorted - this short might have melted insulation inside the 'wrapped' wire bundles anywhere, tapping into a circuit with a larger fuse, which then led to more overloading of a wire and more melting of insulation before a fuse blew. The fire itself might have been so hot it melted insulation, even inside bundles.

I would consider cutting all tape wraps, etc off and looking the entire length of bundles for melting.

I also heard of people having shift problems and codes set because the plug wires are setting on wiring bundles. If you replaced plug wires, and with the fire you probably did, something as simple as this could be causing the shift problems. Check the routing of the plug wires.