i have an 86 Z28 its been my daily driver for 3 years and its carbureted (88 has the tpi) i had the trans rebuilt a year and a half ago, and about 2 mos. ago the trans decided it couldnt go anymore, but im still able to fire it up and move the car, it sounds and feels like it wont shift out of first gear but the higher the rpm the slower the car gets. what is my problem and how can it be fixed? ive had 2 friends who are mechanics tell me 2 different things one told me that something let loose internally the other seems to think the filter fell off and its only trying to suck up the air if any in the trans case. can anyone help me???

 

It sounds like to me it is fried. Whats the fliud look and smell like? I would bet it smells like it fried itself. Pull it out and prepair to spend some money. My 91 Z28 has the dreaded 700R4, and have had it out and rebuilt 8 times before I found a guy that knows how to build one. 1991 Z28 1LE Blue, 5.7L 700R4. 1.5 rollers, heads milled, gasket matched 10.25:1, custom ground cam 292 du .515 lift, 58mm throttle b., edelbrock headers, 3" flowmaster kit. Tranny has fully manual valve body, custom clutch disk and band set up, 2500 stall.

 

if it's not shifiting out of first, look at the govenor gear first. a broken govenor gear will cause the transmission not to shift out of first.

 

yeh i had my 700r4 rebult 4 times before i got a used one for 50 bucks and since the other one was still under warranty they rebuilt the new on for free, the only problem now is it wont stay in first gear if i manually shift it.

 

the fluid is still very red, not heavily burnt but a very slight browning hue in it, it seems to lose a quart magically with no puddling under the car