Hi guys, Anyone have a good link to 350 trans problems? My trans worked perfectly other then a delay into reverse issue, until today. Towed the car into the shop and swapped out the posi. Now the car doesn't shift properly and slips in gear. It goes into 2nd normally then starts to pull normal and suddenly slips away without warning, it will do this in 3rd alittle as well, but will NEVER fully engage 3rd now, starts to go then slips away. Things I've checked. fluid level, was 3/4 qt low. all linkage is hooked up as well as the kickdown cable. Vaccum modulator is hooked up and doesn't leak ....haven't hooked up a vaccum pump to it to verify that it holds. Prior to the posi failure at the track this trans worked good. It even went through all 3 gears slowly rolling back to the trailer, it won't do this now. Thanks in advance.
what is the condition of the fluid? does it look burnt? how does it feel in manual 1st and 2nd? do you have engine braking in man 1st or 2nd? does it slip?:beers2:
It doesn't feel like it has any engine brakiing in second gear at all. Not sure about first, I can't pull the selector down into low 1, due to exhaust interference issue.
WOT there is no vaccum at the modulator and it will slip under that condition, so I don't think its a modulator problem but I won't rule it out. It will go hard in 1st and 2nd but before hitting 3rd it will slip away like it went into neutral.
if is only slipping in 2nd and 3rd then it may be an intermediate clutch problem. does it slip at all when you have it in manual 2nd or does it work fine? does 1st work good? if it slips in 1st too then i would say it may be the forward clutch. but if it is delaying into reverse it may be a direct clutch issue and that can have an affect on 3rd as well because its applied in both reverse and 3rd. but that wouldnt affect 2nd which brings me to my next point, it isnt uncommon to have 2 or more clutch problems at one time wether its because they are fried or just be a gummed up valve body and not directing enough pressure to apply them. either way i would drop the pan and look for any sludge or other obvious stuff wrong with it.:beers2:
Did this all happen at the track? considering you have 125 shot of nos i would say if you had sprayed it on the track and then this all came about, you smoked some clutches like everyone says. Often times when transsmissions break from excessive horsepower the fluid wont always smell burnt. Things will happen so fast underpower which will not give fluid time to get burnt. I just pulled my th350 out of my car due to the same problem. i was slamming the gas on a stock trans and it smoked the forward clutches. Still moved when i backed off the gas but never held up to power after.
Based on the way it feels I agree with you Artie. Its just such strange circumstances. What are the odds of the posi failing in the rearend.....loading the car up....put it in the driveway at home....load it back up....bring in the shop repair the rearend....then the transmission dies....this car moved no more then 1000' total and the rearend fails and the transmission. The slow reverse engagment has pretty much always been there nothing new there. I'm still going to drop the pan and see whats going on. Thanks guys, I'll update this as I pull the pan.
Stock 350 buick motor, poston intake, 125-200shot nitrous Stock 350trans shift kit installed, unknown work prior to 2006. Stock torque converter
I done similar in my old 79 Duster, came around a corner hot and stripped a bunch of teeth off the spiders. The car was on its 4th rear end when I got it as they were weak stockers. [Knew the last two owners] So since it was now my turn to change it I went with one from a truck and change perches and stuff. Got it all done and it was still broke. Ended up I also cracked the giant steel bell/basket inside of the trans in half as well.
whn you put the shift kit in? was it around the same time? another possibility that i didnt even think of before could be the 2-3 accumulator in the valve body leaking. it would make since being that the valve body was taken appart. do you know if they changed the sealing ring on it when they took it out? some use a nylon or teflon or something like that, type of sealing ring instead of the metal ones others use. if the metal ring was bad and they put the teflon type one in without polishing the bore then it could severly tear the ring up and cause the problem you are having. :beers2:
The shift kit was installed prior to my buying the vehicle over 3 years ago. The leak repairs that were done have been almost as long ago as well. This trans has worked flawlessly since day one.
I'm going to be going with a rebuild on this unit, but just to see how bad things were I pulled the pan off today and found a grey mess inside the pan. The screen was also clogged up with debri and found what appeared to be part of a retainer ring/clip. I put in a new filter and fluid since it didn't cost me but 10$ in parts.....went for a short drive and at first it worked nicely. I parked the car and took it out again for a short drive and I sprayed it once and the clutches let go. So its fried, which I was already 95% sure but wanted to run the car at Etown one last time possibly, but now I'll just be picking up the converter for the car and I'll get the unit rebuilt with that installed as well as installing the headers.
i was wondering yesterday what ever happened with this. it sounds like some gears may be chewed up as well if there was a lot of grey stuff. it was probibly cloging the valve body and filter up so it was limiting fluid flow which would cause it to not shift right. when you cleaned it out and put it back together, once the fluid started flowing with higher pressure, it washed everything away. the reason it probibly worked at first is everything was mixed in the fluid and when you shut it off, it all settled in the pan and shot it all back into the filter and clutches. make tripple sure you flush the lines and the cooler out when you put the tranny back in. you dont want to put a fresh tranny and converter in and fill it with crap from the old tranny. if you are going to put in yourself then they sell flushing compound in a can that works similar to fix a flat, (screw it in and push the botton). if you are taking it to a shop and having them r&r it as well as overhaul it, then make sure they do it. if they are any kind of tranny shop then they should already know to do this but you never know. randy:beers2:
