Thread: Transmission question

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Hi guys, me again, I got a 70' Nova with a TH350 (not original) mated to a 305 V8 from an 83 caprice.

My problem here is the trans started shifting weird after i swapped the motor in, but the trans and motor were originally together in another car.
My other engine blew 3 days after the trans swap lol.

It would get to 6000rpm before shifting to 2nd, then get to maybe 3000 rpm IF that and shift RIGHT into 3rd..only in 2nd for maybe 4-5 seconds, tops.

Well i got around that by manually shifting, which has been working GREAT except for the fact that my shifter linkage is a little rigged until i can get the right manualshaft bracketry.

So today i'm in 1st stopped at a light, i start accelerating, and get to 30...shift into 2nd..it doesn't take the gear..shift into 1st, back up to 2nd, nothing...down to first, nothing..wtf?!?!?!

Pull over, check the linkage, fluid and for leaks..all good.
I put the shifter into park..it doesn't engage park, R, N , 3rd or 2nd...only 1st

My two thoughts are
Manual Shift selector/linkage
Need a new valve body

So I'm wondering 1 thing...is the valve body all gaskets or is it metal?

I know it sounds REALLY stupid but i have always sworn it was a metal piece that had alot of passageways in it, but my friend is swearing it's just a set of gaskets. I see his point if the gaskets sit in a valvebody casing or something, but I was just curious so i know what to work on! lol.

On my neon, everyone has told me to swap a manual valvebody in on the auto tranny for better shifting, so i was thinking it was the metal passageway piece like i've seen on my 4T04E (or whatever sequence it is lol)

I'm kinda new with tranny work, it all seems pretty easy, cept for the fact that i gotta pull my headers again, and drop my whole exhaust and the trans crossmember haha.

I figure if ima take the time to chage the shift selector, then ima gonna change the manual shift input arm too with the powerglide so it'll have the right arm and i don't have to rig it up anymore.

All suggestions, comments and ridicule for my silly questions are welcome.

Dallas

this is a valve body DallasHannah3, if i was you id drop the pan and check the linkage going into the valvebody and fix that if its broke, but wouldnt pull it down. there are little balls thats gonna fall on the ground and you ant gonna have no idea where they came from. id also check the gov. to see if it was stuck, that could be shift problem. kick down cable could be to tight also. make sure you have vac. at the modul.

Wow, that looks alot more complicated than what i was hoping for. Doesn't look like it'd be too easy to change it out.

Which sucks because this down-every-other-day nova is my daily driver for the time being. I'll check the linkage, where is the govenor switch?

This car isn't running a kickdown cable, the vacuum modulator is brand new, but i dunno if i have it hooked to a good place on the carb, noone can seem to tell me where to hook it to on the 4bbl qjet i have. Can't find any vacuum diagrams either.

Dallas

Would it be safe to run the modulator valve off the brake vacuum line? I have manual brakes on this car so it's just plugged off

any where on the manifold, for the vac. ant the brake hose to big. if you dont have a kick down cable then you dont have a th350. did i read that wrong. sounds like you have a th400

if you have no park it has got to be in the linkage

No No, i got a turbo350, but the kickdown was taken out by me cuz the bolt that holds the cable in is stripped out and it was rigged up when i got it outta the caprice, so i never fixed it. it's there, just no operational. hehe. The vacuum modulator isn't hooked up either because it seems to shift better when it's capped off than when i have vacuum going to it! But ima try to find a good place for it, cuz the powerglide was hhooked to the carb for the right vacuum, so i tried the port ABOVE the brake booster vacuum hose..and it just ins't working, but it might just be the trans itself, so i'm gonna try to just get a whole new tranny.

It won't shift into park, the shifter goes through all the gears, but the trans interprets them all as 1ST...so it's esentially just stuck in first, even when i put it in P and turn the car off, pull the keys out..it's in 1st gear still. So i have to park nose first on hills and slants lol.

Dallas

DallasHannah3, if you put it in park and you dont have no park then your linkage is broke. your linkage is broke, the kick down cable ant hooked up, amd the modul ant hooked up and you're driving the car. you said it shifted at 6000 rpm, well they are made to do that, if you put a 350 or 400 in low gear and take off it will shift around 6000 rpm's on its own, so thats what you are doing. drop the pan and fix the linkage, find a vac. fitting (vac all the time) and hook the modul. up. if you get the linkage working and the modul fixed then you are gonna need to fix the passing gear cable so you dont burn it up, if you ant already.

i belive you said that the shifter linkage was rigged, that, and that it wont go into park or any other gear leads me to belive its just a shifter error, crawl under the car and see if you can turn the bracket the linkage hooks to, it looks like a tuning fork sticking out of the side

Originally posted by DallasHannah3
No No, i got a turbo350, but the kickdown was taken out by me cuz the bolt that holds the cable in is stripped out and it was rigged up when i got it outta the caprice, so i never fixed it. it's there, just no operational. hehe. The vacuum modulator isn't hooked up either because it seems to shift better when it's capped off than when i have vacuum going to it! But ima try to find a good place for it, cuz the powerglide was hhooked to the carb for the right vacuum, so i tried the port ABOVE the brake booster vacuum hose..and it just ins't working, but it might just be the trans itself, so i'm gonna try to just get a whole new tranny.

It won't shift into park, the shifter goes through all the gears, but the trans interprets them all as 1ST...so it's esentially just stuck in first, even when i put it in P and turn the car off, pull the keys out..it's in 1st gear still. So i have to park nose first on hills and slants lol.

Dallas

Your 350 will interpret manual second and third as first because that is how they work. When you put it in manual second from a stop, all that means is that it will only shift up to second. Check your governor. Those times shifting at 6000 might have caused it to stick or break the gear.

Thgis place roxs,, try asking the local shade trees and they might say Huh ! thanks for all your help!

I know about the interpreting manual gears, but what i'm saying is, I can put it in REVERSE..it's still in 1st gear, i can put it in neutral, it's in 1st, i an put it in 3rd and get up to 7000rpm and it will NOT shift out of 1st gear..i can do down to 1st gear and try manually shifting from 1st to 2nd and it won't do it.

I can turn the car off, pull the key out..and it's still stuck in first gear..even with the shifter in park and the key out, i set the parking brake..put the key in..start it in say Reverse (with the backup lights on) and it lunges forward because it's in drive.

Appreciate the help guys, but i think i'm just gonna get a whole transmission. easier, quicker, and costs about the same if not cheaper. $75 at the junkyard..$69 for a shift kit..and then if it's the shift selector or govenor..well..heh..that's more money.

Dallas

DallasHannah3, we understand that. it happens a lot with auto. trans linkage. i and a few other people have told you your linkage is more than likely broke, making the trans. stay in low gear, told you to at least drop the pan and check it(could be a simple fix) and you still want to talk about it. why didnt you just put a used trans. in to start with, sense it looks like you never intended to try to fix this one. if you put a used one in with no kick down, no modul. its still not gonna shift untill you get to 40 mph. im trying to save you some money, i tell you to check the linkage, hook up the modul. and fix the kick down cable, and if its what i think it is, it wont cost you anything much. why ask a ? and then not even try to do what everybody said do? have you even took the time to get under the car and see if the linkage is hooked to the leaver on the outside of the trans? sounds like at least "chesapeake" got something out of this. the gov. has nothing to do with it going into the gears, just shifting up or down.

LT1 i wasn't doubting any of you guys, I was saying i'm gonna check the linkage first, but to get the kickdown in i'll have to get the mounting bolt hole rethreaded,etc, so if it's not just the linkage is broken or something simple then i'm gonna go with a whole new transmission instead of trying to replace the valve body and this and that. Someone was telling me that when i put it in 2 on the shift indicator that it'll only go to 2nd and now higher till i put it in 3 ..and i was just saying that i know that. I was explaining the problem over because he seemed to think that i wasn't aware that when i put it in 2nd that it'll start in 1st, then shift to 2nd..

I don't think he realized that even in P, R and N it was still in first.

I haven't checked any of this yet because i pulled 3 muscles in my back at work friday and ripped 4 pieces of cartiagle in between my ribs and my sternum as well, so crawling around on the ground isn't exactly easy right now.
So when i'm all better i'll get under and look and try to make it all better..and hopefully it'll be easy/cheap!

Originally posted by DallasHannah3
LT1 i wasn't doubting any of you guys, I was saying i'm gonna check the linkage first, but to get the kickdown in i'll have to get the mounting bolt hole rethreaded,etc, so if it's not just the linkage is broken or something simple then i'm gonna go with a whole new transmission instead of trying to replace the valve body and this and that. Someone was telling me that when i put it in 2 on the shift indicator that it'll only go to 2nd and now higher till i put it in 3 ..and i was just saying that i know that. I was explaining the problem over because he seemed to think that i wasn't aware that when i put it in 2nd that it'll start in 1st, then shift to 2nd..

I don't think he realized that even in P, R and N it was still in first.

I haven't checked any of this yet because i pulled 3 muscles in my back at work friday and ripped 4 pieces of cartiagle in between my ribs and my sternum as well, so crawling around on the ground isn't exactly easy right now.

So when i'm all better i'll get under and look and try to make it all better..and hopefully it'll be easy/cheap!

sorry to hear about you back, but its a few people here telling you like it is, i kinda see you leaning the other way. dont worry about the cable bolt, you can fix that without pulling the trans. the chance of the problem being in the valve body is slim to none. your problem is in the linkage, its just a matter finding out what it is. if you will get under the car, check the linkage there, then drop the pan and tell me what the linkage is doing in the trans. ill tell you how to fix it. it might be something nobody has ever heard of but i doubt it.

I checked the linkage outside the trans, where it hooks up to the manual shift input shaft, it's working properly, and isn't too tight or too loose, it's came off once before so that's the FIRST thing i went to. You can hear it clicking, and when i get someone else to do it, it is turning properly, so i'm going to drop the pan and check after i take a few vicodins. lol.

Dallas

If all else fails, i slap the powerglide back in..at least i got 2 gears then! haha

P.S. Why does the engine seem to be revving so high at only 3000rpm? It seems like 4k is just an absurd amount of rpms for this engine...seems strange. whats the powerband on a stock 305 w/ a 700+cfm carb?