maksik7

HELP me,

I was driving to school today when I stop at a light. I start going again and my tranny won't shift out of 1st!!! It revved up to 5500rpm but wouldn't switch. I just got it home today going 15mph and wondering what could cause this?

Could this be a lcak of tranny fluid? Mine has been leaking badly, and was planning to take a look at it come next weekend?

PLEASE Somebody help, is this problem fixable, is it fixable by ME?

-Max

-'86 Trans Am WS6
-305 TPI with a dead 700R4
-All stock until I fix all the problems

JoelOl75

If you're just stuck in second gear there's a chance you sheared the plastic gear off the governor. Pry the cover off and pull it from the case. It's in the back opposite the speedo gear... There's a blue/green like plastic gear on the end thats prone to getting torn up... Taking the tailshaft off to clean out all the pieces of plastic (if thats the cause) is a good idea. You could get a new gear from a GM dealer, but it needs to be drilled (1/8") and roll pinned to the shaft.

An easier way is to get the whole assembly out of the junkyard but remember, v6 governors will have a higher shift point and caprices and non performance will have a lower shift point.

Hope this is your prob, it's easily fixable anywayz.



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'88 Camaro RS 2.8L
'88 Formula 350 (Too many mods to list...)

maksik7

Joel thanks for the help, but I don't really understand what happend. Sorry for sounding like an idiot, but I never worked with transmissions.

Can you please esplain to me exactly where the governor is and how to get ot it (from inside, from under the car?)

Thanks feel free to E-mail me with the explanation.

-Max

JoelOl75

The governor is pictured in the top pic. It's located under the dome shaped housing on the drivers side toward the rear, but in front of the speedo drive. Get your car up on jackstands and slide under there with a flathead screwdriver or similar and a hammer and tap the housing off. Then you could just pull the governor out and check the end of it (you can barely see it in the pic, but there should be a plastic gear on the end)

If it's chewed off you will need to get a new gear put on or pull one out of the junkyard. You should take the tail housing off to clean the pieces of the broken gear out of there (if thats what it is) This will require removing the torque arm mount which requires you to drop the rear axle down and remove the springs to relieve the pressure on the torque arm. Then remove the driveshaft. Then unbolt the split mount and just move the arm out of the way. Then remove the 3 long bolts that run through the mount to the other side that holds the exhaust up. Disconnect the speedo cable/wire, then take the 4 bolts out of the tailhousing and tap it around to get it to break free. All the chunks should be inside of there...

It's more work to clean the pieces out, and you probably could get away with leaving them in there, but if one of them clogs the drainback hole (possible, but not likely) and the tail housing fills up with fluid, you could expect a leaky rear seal or maybe even blow fluid up through the speedo cable (I'm not sure if this is even possible, but thoughts of ATF dripping out of the dash sounds scary in theory anyway)

It might not even be the governor, but it's the most likely and easiest to check out...

Good luck.



[This message has been edited by JoelOl75 (edited May 22, 2001).]

maksik7

Thanks Joel,

That seems like a fair amount of bolting and unbolting to do, and I will be sure to do it this weekend.

BTW Is it safe to work under a car that's on 2 tire-change jacks? (My friend tells me those could slip out and that would hurt)

Where can I pick up a set of things to hold up the car better?

Agian thanks for the help

-Max

FastBroker

Sweet pix, Joel, and nice job of explaining...

TomP

Any pep boys should have a decent set of jackstands for $40.. actually, Kmart even sells some now, and they're probably cheaper. A jackstand's a jackstand ya know... but if you can, buy the strongest... don't get a pair of 1-ton ones, try for 2-ton or up. We have a set of the "Rally" brand (Pep Boys) 3-ton jackstands at my house.

The tire-change jack definately isn't the safest/sturdiest idea... if ya think about it, the tire-change jacks are just meant to raise one tire off the ground. The other three tires stay on the ground, which means they're holding the rest of the car's weight. I don't think those jacks are meant to take the full brunt of 1/2 a car.

[edit] Damn Joel, that's a sharp looking trans! It looks good on the coffee table

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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
---Think your car could be pic of the week? Visit http://www.f-body.net for details!

[This message has been edited by TomP (edited May 22, 2001).]

JoelOl75

Thanx! Thats the tranny I had laying in the backyard and I figured, why not... Lets dissasemble every piece and see if I could completely remanufacture a 700R4 since I never ever got into an auto (except for a quick 3/4 clutch pack and band change).

I wasn't in a hurry so I threw the strongest parts and every mod I could find on it. I tell you what, it was the best learning experience (auto wise) I ever had.

Since I have the tranny it got ***** rolling on a complete 350 swap into my camaro now. Well not exactly, more like a complete restoration (body, paint, torsen.. whetherstripping)

That tranny really got me motivated anyways. I got a 350 4bolt .30 over, a complete tpi coming in the mail soon I got off ebay........

I'm only at the stage of honing the block so far... I'm hoping to have it done by the fall (The whole car.) So far I budgeted everything (Most of the stuff I have laying around and I didn't include it) and it's going to be a very expensive 'labor of love' project, but I already bit the bullet and got some good deals ($500 for a complete MAF TPI, $350 into the tranny I had laying around, and a guy down the street sold me 2 350 blocks (4 bolt) one was just bored and the other is worn but never bored (he made me take both, and all the stuff since he's moving), 2 freshly cut cranks, 2 sets of heads that I'm not going to use because they're 76cc chambers, 4 starters, a set of sb a-body hooker super comps I don't know what to do with, and 4 iroc 16" rims with two brand new tires, 2 350 trannys I don't know what to do with and an engine stand for $200!!!! Thats the best deal of the century I ever did see (and I don't even really know my neighbor!)

All the little odds-n-ends are going to kill me though. I got my work cut out for me this summer.