Went over Don's place and we put in a shift kit + tranny cooler in my T-Bird today. Everything works fine, with just one weirdness: in OD at, say 65mph, if you manually shift down to 3rd *and are giving it gas*, the tranny will shift out of OD but won't engage 3rd for several seconds (up to 5 seconds or so, more quickly the less gas you're giving it). If you're not giving it gas, it shifts just fine (instantly). If you drive it every other way all gears work, including 3rd. If you mash the pedal to downshift form OD to 3rd, it works just fine. The *only* weirdness is in manually shifting from OD to 3rd while giving it gas.
Any ideas on what could be up? Before anyone asks, we didn't do anything to the TV cable.
Good question I’m stumped don’t mess with trannys I had a tranny shop put mine in
Anyway here’s a free bump.
You might want to check the valve body and make sure everything is the way it is supposed to be. Not to insult anyone but mistakes do happen. Otherwise, I would have to say, ask a trans shop, see what they say it could be.
brian
Yes atariman...everything is correct...I ran it in my car for over 2 years...except it was much more exaggerated in my car...I think it was because I had the TV pressure jacked up too...made the tranny think I was on the gas even when i wasn't. This was something I had always wondered about but could never get a straight answer from anybody.
The ONLY thing I can think is that it's a feature that's engineered into the shift kit...if you've ever seen how tiny and frail the lock-up shaft(3/4 input shaft) then you'd know what I mean...otherwise, I don't know.
As far as a tranny shop...they'll tell you to rebuild it...lol...there could be a $5 part that failed, but they'll still tell you it needs an overhaul...I hate trans shops!
Yeah, I believe that, most trans shops will tell you that they'd have to take it out and check or whatever. That is besides the point though.What you said about the delay being part of the kit could very possibly be true. Its just the kits that I have put in various transmissions never made any part of the shifting process delay or softer. Did the shift kit come with a different 3-4 accumulator spring? I have never put a shift kit in an aod before so I have no idea what comes with it. So I am just guessing here.
All too true. I've posted on this before.....
Actually no, there was no modification of the 3-4 accumulator, no springs, spacers or shims...unless they control that by fluid flow through the different sized holes in the seperator plate that the kit uses. The fact that everything else works properly and all the downshifts(when the shifter is left in OD) occur properly are kind of what makes me think it's an engineered safety feature...
Off topic...atariman...sweet car, wish I had 7k good luck on the sale!
If i had to manually downshift from OD, when that kit was in my car, I just had to antite it and get it out of the way ahead of time...lol. I think that most other people with shift kits may not be dealing with the same issue are also most likely running the trans-go kit or similar others. B&M is all I've ever used, so it's hard for me to say one way or the other.
It makes me wonder if my TV cable is too tight. I won't mess with it for the time being, but I'll try to remember to at least tap it with my finger to see if it's taut. I can definitely see that tightening the TV cable further would make the issue more pr0nounced. Maybe you have a point that since the system operates at higher pressure, perhaps B&M wanted to make sure that you didn't frag the shaft during a downshift. As it is, a 3-2 downshift is particularly hard so I could expect a 4-3 downshift to be the same.
I heard that the B&M stuff is not worth the money.
BAH! I'm pretty sure B&M is just fine. I have been using their products for a long time and NEVER had a problem. No one I know that uses them has had a problem either. There are the select few that get something bad and spread the rumor. Like my performance automatic valve body issue(that still hasn't been resolved). Just the lucky 1% right here. I wouldn't worry too much about bad products from them. But that is just me. I will say this until my trans brakes anyways.:flame:
brian
I heard the gains are not worth it form there products? Guy called silverfox on FvC part of ClickClick racing, they have the worlds fastest aod stang. He told me not to bother with there stuff.
What can I say? Some people like fords, some like chevy's, some like B&M, some don't. Oh well. I wish I could let you ride in my Tbird, you would think differently....
Brian
I was told I have a shift kit in my car, from the guy I got the trans from. never proven. The point I wana make is mine didn't do this problem when I drove it a few times.
SilverFox is VERY knowledgable. I did get burned BAAAAAD with a B&M shift kit on a C4 one time....turned the shift pattern into 1-2-1 instead of 1-2-3....I put the valvebody back together with all the original parts(including original valvebody gasket from 1972) and it worked great(better than originally!)...with the exception of not wanting to shift into 3rd until like 4500rpm even under light throttle...i guess that's what happens when you put the 2-3 shift springs back in the valvebody of a C4 backwards...lol.
It's probably a good thing we didn't get that car road worthy...it probably wouldn't have made the 1600mile trip back...lol. Well, I'm done ranting.