Hi all i have a bit of a problem. I bought a 89 pontiac firebird trans am a couple of months ago. It originally had the 305 tpi engine in it with the 700r4 tranny. The guy i bought the car from had the gm goodwrench 350 installed. He had the tranny rebuilt last may by ammco trammission.The tranny is still under warranty. The problem i had was when i first got the car under full throttle going from 1-2nd gear it waould shift at only about 4000rpms.Going from 2-3rd gear it would shift at about 4800rpms. The rpm gauge on my car redlines at 5000rpms, I was told by other tranny shops that my car should be going to the redline before shifting. So that means my car should be shifting at about 5000rpms at full throttle right? Being that i have the gm 350 engine which i assume is similiar to the l98 350 that i would safely be able to shift at about 5500rpms, right? Ammco has been giving me the runaround and telling me thats the way it was from the factory.I took it to 2nd ammco and they replaced a part called the valve body i think. It shifts a little better now. Instead of shifting at 4000rpms now it shifts at 4500rpms from 1st to 2nd. Im still not happy though i feel it should perform like it did from the factory shifting at the redline. what do you folks think i should do? Should i pester ammco to fix this or just let it go? also could you guys let me know what engines you have and what you shift at full throttle? I would be very greatful for any answers to this problem. PS one other question didnt the 350 redline at 5500rpms?

 

the red line on my formula 350 is 5500, but i never really run it that high...

when i stomp the gas i usually see 5,000 rpm in drive/overdrive, which is close to the beginning of the orange on the tach..

i like to manually shift the car and shift at 4,500 because the car really doesnt pull after that...

 

Two things to consider:

First off, I'm not going to say its carved in stone, but all the stock 305 cars I drove in shifted below 5,000 RPMs at WOT. The tranny is calibrated to the engine, so it doesn't matter what engine you put in afterwards, it would still shift below the 5K mark.

Second, factory tachs are usually not very accurate, so there is a chance that its shifting closer to 5K then you think.

 

My stock 305 shifts at about 5,200 rpm in all the gears at WOT. When I first bought it (6 months ago) sometimes it would shift lower at about 4,500. So I adjusted the TV cable and it helped a bunch.

 

My tranny (305 4 speed auto - check sig) shifts at WOT from first to 2nd (I haven't checked it the next shift, right at the redline which on my tac is 5K rpm... I'm pretty damn sure no work has been done on it.

 

Hey guys thanks for your responses you have pretty much answered my questions

 

mine shifts at about 4900 1-2 shift... and about 5k in the 2-3 shift... i have thought about playin with the shift points... but never got around to it!!

 

Usually does like 4500 in 1st and 4300 in 2nd gear. I hold it to 5400 when racing, as the motor makes a butt load more power over 4500, but the stock 305 ran out of breath at like 4000 rpm. Ocassionally my tranny will try to shift it at like 3300 if my foot isnt fully on the floor.