I finished up my Kiwanis Unniversity training at a little after 4 PM and started up the Firebird to get home from West Covina. I heard a strange sound and quickly realized what it was. The automatic transmission won't engage any gears. I was time constrained (I had to get home quickly to ship an order out to a customer before leaving for my dinner appointment). I saw a fellow Kiwanian that I knew from the La Puente/Industry club and asked him for a ride home rather than waiting for a AAA tow truck. I'll retrieve the car Sunday when I have more time. Hopefully I'll see the problem is easily solveable when I jack it up. Worst case I may need a new shift cable.

Lon

 

Try Top Down Solutions for parts. I hear they are pretty good.

 

I've heard that. I checked their web site and don't find the part I need. Maybe I'll e-mail them.

An update: It turns out the shift cable is fine. It is shifting through the gears. I was able to put it into neutral. There was about a cup of trans fluid on the ground. The fluid level is still good (I checked in P with engine running). I called Don to see if I could have it towed straight to his shop. No room at the Inn (oh wait, wrong story). It's home now. The current diagnosis is bad torque converter.

Thanks, Lon

 

Glad to hear you were able to get it resolved. What is the current status of your "Bird" anyways, have you had a chance to get some things done to it? I have had just enough time in the past two years to put the DMV tags on my IROC just in time for another smog check! LOL Well I did have the 91Z as a daily for a while and now the trucks and customers trucks keep me busy.

 

Is the Firebird going to stay an automatic car, or are you going to go to a stick shift with it? It seems to me that you probably need to either go ahead and change it over to a stick shift, or do a complete tranny overhaul. Knowing the tendency of 700r4's to have failures in the 3-4 clutch pack, going to the trouble to change out a tc and not rebuild the tranny is probably just asking for tranny r & r practice.

 

It will remain an auto car. The spare 700R4 for it has been at Don's shop for nearly a year. As planned, now is the time to put it in along with the new engine. I just have trouble believing a tc would have a sudden catastrophic failure without any prior symptoms. When I have time I'll jack it up and take a look underneath. Finding the source of the leak may resolve the problem. The ONLY symptom I've had with it has been a few second delay for it to engage reverse. That symptom has been there unchanged since I got the car. I was just dissapointed I didn't make the roll over of three hundred thousand. I was just a few weeks away.

Lon

 

Lon the TC in my Blazer let go with no warning at 70 mph on the freeway.All there was for warning was a lot of noise and the truck started to slow down.No forward or reverse.When I pulled the trans out the guy I had do it took it apart and found nothing,then we looked at the TC and I guess unless you cut it open you cant see anything but It was the TC.I hope its nothing more.300,000 is a milestone. Thats what I hopped to get out of the TA.Oh Well