No up shift/ govorner?

[Bob Avellar]

Well, I noticed that my 1-2 shift seemed to be getting soft all of a sudden. It didn't seem to be flairing or anything but it was no longer chirping the tires. I checked the fluid-looked good and did not smell burnt or anything. I pulled the cable back a click and road tested it but it did not seeme to improve. I then got on it a few times to see if 2nd gear was holding. I could burn rubber but it also felt like the revs were higher than what they used to be so I assumed that the 2nd gear bands or clutches (or whatever it is) was beginning to slip. I was having difficulty determining how much was wheelspin and how much was slippage. I tried it out several times and the last time I started out from 1st gear it decided to no longer shift. So, I have first and reverse only. I'm guessing that I need to replace the govorner (at the very least)? Does that sound right? I'm also guessing that maybe the tranny slipped enough to allow the governer to fail? So 1. Where is the governer? 2. Where can I get one (do local tranny shops have the correct one?) 3. Can a novice like myself replace one? 4. Will a new one likely fail if 2nd gear is slipping? I don't know if I can afford alot of tranny work. This tranny was rebuilt locally about 8-9 years ago and I think it went about 800-850 bucks. My buddy is a pretty good mechanic but no tranny expert but he would probably try to help me if I wanted him to. I'd appreciate any advice and I'm open for all ideas.

 

[WE4]

Any luck after our conversation? BT

 

[Bob Avellar]

Well, I did take it for another drive to see if it would upshift around 5000rpm and yes it did. Went from first to third gear just like you said. Does that mean that the tv valve is not stuck? Does this point to the gov as being the likely cause? I still do not have a pressure gauge yet but I'm working on that. Where / how do you connect one ? Should I just drop the pan first or should I try to get a pressure reading before I open her up? If i find that the spring is missing from the gov (and I find it in the tranny) can it be put back on the gov? I 've read some posts about set screws to hold things but I don't have a clear picture of what to do exactly. Sorry for so many questions. This is my daily driver so I'm trying to plan my attack so I can get to work, etc. If it requires a new gov then I need to order that asap. Thanks again for your help, Bruce. Your a heck af an asset to the TR community!

 

[Bob Avellar]

I dropped the pan and took out the governor. I spent quite a while trying to find a missing spring from it until I checked turbo buick .org and and realized there is only one spring on the dam thing anyway! So the gov seems to be just fine as far as I can tell. The car does upshift around 5000rpm from 1 to 3rd and will also go into 4th gear after that. Just no normal upshift into 2nd gear. Now I'm going to fill in some blanks as to what I did before the shift went away. As I said the 1-2 shift seemed to be a bit softer than normal for a few days. Some mechanics were talking about how great this Lucas Oil products stuff was. I heard it from a few guys in recent months. I bought a 24 oz bottle for trannies and I drained out that amount and put this Lucas stuff in. It is same color as tranny fluid but very thick. OK, so I drove a few miles with this stuff in the tranny but there was no difference that I could tell. So I pulled the TV cable back toward the firewall 1 or 2 clicks and tried it out again. This time the 1-2 shift seemed about the same but the 2-3 was at a little higher RPM. So that is where I really tried stomping on it. 1-2 shifts still were not real hard but 2-3 was normal. After stomping on it 3 or 4 different times I was getting nowhere. The last time I think the revs were pretty high in 2nd gear and I was either burning rubber or slipping in 2nd (maybe both) and I let of quickly to try to regain traction and got back on it again and as I did it may have upshifted a gear (as I let off) and then quickly downshifted once I got back o n it. After that it wouldn't shift into 2nd anymore. When I checked the TV cable at the motor late today the cable seemed to be about 1/4" further foward (away from the firewall) than where I remember it being earlier. I wonder if it ratcheted too far forword for some reason? I think this would lower line pressure. BUT, would /could it cause it not to upshift??? When I 've had it forword in the past it made the shifts softer and earlier- but could it stop it from upshifting?? It'd be nice if it was just that simple but is that even possible? Anyway, the fluid looked good and the pan was pretty clean. There was a little black mudlike stuff on the magnet (very fine) and it was cleaner than when I last changed the fluid. My buddy doesn't have a pressure gauge for testing it. I could prbably get one if I knew how to hook it up. What else can I look for in the meantime? Help! Sorry for such a long post- just trying to give info.

 

[WE4]

I got your message earlier on the cell. I actually left it in car on rack as I now, hold on to your britches, Worked on "My own car all day today". I, I , I just dont know what to say as well as my car still doesnt realize it is now missing some parts and acquired a few others. We put in the PTE Front Mount, ported TB, doghouse, and relocted trans cooler, all with meticulous perfection. Ok so after 8 hrs of cleaning and fitting, all actually went very well. We set tps and iac and time to drive. Off we go to beat this thing up. Well 21 lbs of boost and car is trucking. Stop run it up again.... " hey you hear a tick?" Shawn asks... ahhh 2nd gear seems soft too hummm ok no big deal. as trannys are expendable right? ( Well to me, and this trans has 122,000 miles of pure unadultrated torture with no good parts to speak of. Hell, when this trans was built there was nothing avaiable so it owes me nothing.) well we turn corner , I mat it, and it runs like a raped ape and "BOOM"! Holy sheet Batman.... Shawn and I look at each other... intercooler hose... we guess, so back to shop it limps. Sure enough intercooler hose but to our surprise, no clamps blew off, just a 1.5 inch hole thru the side of the turbo to IC side. Laughing soon turned to , where in the hell are we gonna get one of those stepped pieces tonight? Well we are not and maybe not till Tuesday. So, after working all day on my car, on my time, at the same ole shop, I cant drive mine either and now who knows what we hurt in trans. Know anybody that can fix that for me? So all in all a very good but non productive day as when I went to work we drove it in and came home from work in the S-10!!!!! .ROFLMAO
Gotta laugh cause if you cry they will think you are a sissy...

Moral of story.... Don't screw with it, drive it.

We all have those days..........Car did haul arse tho!!!

 

[WE4]

Bob, if I had to guess at this point I would say one of three things happened . the 1-3 thing is the key.
band anchor, servo pin thru apply anchor. Band itself, band related. While you have pan off look up and with a screwdriver wiggle band. How loose is it? If you can pull it away from drum more than 1/8th inch , your problem lies there. Also look at surface under band to see if it is glazed or burned.

 

[Bob Avellar]

No chance it was just the tv cable too far forward? OK, tell me what the band looks like. I have seen what look like 6-7 clutch discs towards the rear of the tranny and there is some play in them but I don't think it was more than 1/8" space between them. Oh yeah, I did find a tiny piece of metal in the pan that I drained the fluid into. It looked just like the letter "o". Might have been almost 1/8" in length the long direction (it was more oval shaped than circular). As far as I know it came from the tranny (don't know if the drain pan was real clean- I do this stuff outside in my stone driveway). I guess this is beginning to look like a bigger (more $$$) job than I was hoping that it would be. Just wish you weren't on the left coast. I'd like to replace what is bad and put some good parts in it without totally rebuilding the whole thing again. I'm starting to think about actually getting rid of it (wife has been after me to do that for years). Hope I don't screw up in a moment of weakness. I could use a good truck. I was planning on doing all the body work and fixing the body bushings this summer and repainting it myself. I drove home from Fla with 2 nice doors on my wife's 86 325E (one in the trunk and one on the roof). Been stripping them in the cellar and preparing them for paint. I was just telling someone yesterday how I have never blown a head gasket in 16 years-that will prbably be next now that I opened my mouth. Oh well, I guess things could be worse.

 

[Bob Avellar]

Bruce, I'm taking out the tranny tomorrow with a friend's help. I'm probably going to have someone fix it locally (don't think I can do it). I guess I'd like to know what parts to purchase from you in order to fix it and maybe beef it up a little. I really can't afford to make the whole thing bullit proof but want to do what I can. I don't know what the labor might be yet either but I'm hoping that a friend of mine can help me get a little break with a couple of guys that do tranny work. Actually one of the guys is a guy that rebuilt my tranny about 8-10 yrs ago.I had plans for a semi restoration on the car this summer (by me) but that looks like it will be going nowhere now. Sorry to hear about the problems with your car ,too. I'm at the point where I'm having second thoughts about even continuing with this car. I've owned it for 16 years and I'm getting tired of my wife and my dad criticizing me for being in love with it. Can you give me some options, suggestions, $$? I checked your web site but I don't have a clue what I might need to do a decent job. Thanks for your help!!