Thanks Derek! Finally on the downward slope so we're sprinting to the finish. I just looked at the flight schedule before i left work and I already see new names on it from my replacement unit so that's pretty exciting. I'm a scout helicopter pilot in the army, so that should make my previous statement make more sense. Anyway, thanks for the advice on my car and I'll be sure to update once I get it all buttoned up! But back to topic, I hope your new tranny rocks dauntless! Let us know which converter you go with. I'm leaning towards one from JW or the 9.5" that Lonnie makes. They are both similarly priced so I don't know which one yet. Like you said, tranny and converter from the same source has its bennies, yet the th350 converter I got from JW has been flawless as well.
I am definitely going with a lockup converter and I have 3.73 gears, motor is completely stock except for headers and an 800cfm Qjet from Ken. When I went from 2.73 gears to 3.73 gears my 1/4mile time went from 14.9 to 14.4. (this was at 600ft, my best at sea level is 14.1) I am definitely torn between a converter from Lonnie and one from JW. Applied for a card today to smooth over the $700 hit I will take but now the card will take 10 days to show up. Guess Im not racing August 10th This transmission headache couldn't have come at a worse time, I am going to miss the entire season:ball: Hey at least I have a transmission to put back in my car this Wednesday, then Ill just have to wait for the converter
So what converter did you go with? Is everything back up and running good? Whats the expected result when you unhook the TV cable and drive it for a short period? Wouldn't it shift on the governor only or should it up-shift through the gears very quickly?
I ended up going with a 9.5 converter from extreme automatics. The idea was that with no TV cable it should shift as fast as possible. I had the Trans back in the car and drove it for a bit. The WOT shift point was still higher than what I needed. It seemed first gear would sometimes blow past 5500rpm. I had other engine related issues I chased for about a year on and off. Car would break up at high rpm, misfire. I replaced the fuel system, replace everything with the ignition and still couldn't figure out what was wrong. I pulled my engine to rebuild it since I am doing a turbo build and found a wiped cam lobe. So now it's a long wait before I can find out if this transmission really is set up properly. The new motor should have no issue shifting at 6000rpm
Interesting. I have a newly installed 2004r and my light throtel shift seems a little delayed to me. under very light throttle it wont shift 1-2 until 20 mph. With the TV unhooked it delays even further to say 30 mph. I was currious what that may mean if anything.
Are you trying to burn up your trans? If so keep driving your car without the TV cable hooked up!! GL Derek
Driving with the TV unhooked is really not recommended. My transmission builder told me to do that simply because it was the last step before pulling the transmission and sending it back. Even very light throttle can cause damage
I'm not driving it all over town it was simply a one time test in a parking lot. So the question remains... If it delays shift with in unhooked does that mean the valve is stuck and not returning to neutral position?
A gauge is the easiest way to tell if the tv valve is being actuated short of dropping the pan. With the cable unhooked, if the builder left the check ball in the trans pressure should go into "limp mode" and the pressure should be high enough to get it home. Many builders don't put the ball in so line pressure is very low resulting in toasty clutches n steels.
Lonnie at Extreme Automatics actually wants you to set a minimum and maximum length on the TV plunger to get things set. Little more complicated than just setting the cable all the way out (TV fully depressed) and assuming the minimum throttle position gets the TV valve where it actually should at idle be but I couldnt be happier with the way my trans shifts after following his directions. I did have to do some work on the geometry of the TV connection at the throttle arm to get things moving the right amounts. Not sure about the limp home mode but as I remember my pressures only went up about 10psi with the TV cable disconnected (from about 95PSI up to 105psi at idle).
How about a thread resurrection? So I'm finally about to start my new engine for the first time. The efi is all setup, the fuel system is worked out and I have a new Lokar TV cable cut to fit and adjusted. The TV plunger is completely depressed at WOT, and at idle my plunger length is .8615, just slightly over the perfect window but I don't think there will be an easy way to adjust geometry to account for .0015". I'll verify my line pressures with a gauge and make a determination from there if its safe at this adjustment. Its been so long since I have messed with this transmission I feel I must be losing my mind. Suddenly my shift linkage does not work. No matter what I try the backdrive linkage will not stay seated in the pivot point. It seems as through the linkage from the frame to the transmission is suddenly too short. Now I haven't changed the trans, haven't changed the linkage and before I took my motor apart I used to manually shift this car on the column without any issue. The only conclusion that I can arrive at is that I must have been lucky that the linkage remained in place. Its clearly too short for my application. To get to my point here, is the 200-4r shift lever (located on the transmission) a different style from the TH350? I am using a th350 lever and factory 72 Skylark backdrive linkage. I can physically shift through every gear on the column but in certain situations the linkage will fall out of its pocket completely. I cannot find the 2004r shift lever anywhere and its looking like I'll be dropping another $70 on a Lokar product. I have a throttle cable, tv cable, bracket and dipstick from them so what's one more part? =/ I am really anxious to get this car back on the road. With all the transmission drama I have yet to determine if this second trans is shifting correctly since my motor had a wiped cam lobe and wouldn't rev to 5200rpm.
I used the th350 frame-to-trans shift linkage that came stock on my 72. I "may" have bent the frame bracket out a little towards the trans to get a better fit. Its been a long time, but I do remember something like that.
My experience was that TH350 linkage worked on a TH400, but a TH200 definitely did not. It had to do with the length and angle of the arm to the steering column linkage; I experimented and welded a new arm on in one case. I haven't done a TH200R4, but the problems could be similar. My starting point was, the column linkage put the arm at about a 90 degree angle in Drive, experiment from there. Some pictures on my PHOTOBUCKET. good luck, Bruce Roe
Thanks for the advice Bruce! We ended up welding an extension to the transmission linkage so that it passes through the frame bracket. I can shift all gears just fine now. I just can't understand why I had no problems until now. I used to manually shift this thing every single time.
