First off, my car is an 88 Trans Am GTA w/350 and 700r4 automatic trans. The trans has been acting weird for a while now, and it's bugging me. The symptoms:

When I put the car in reverse, the reverse lights won't come on unless the shift lever is bumped as close to the dash as possible without going into another gear...does this make sense? I don't know how to describe it really. There's a little play in each gear position, and it's got to be moved as close to the dash as possible (while still being set in Reverse) in order for the lights to come on.

The car won't start in Neutral for any reason - it must be moved back into Park before the engine will crank. Really annoying.

Sometimes when I first start it up and put it into Drive, the engine sounds like it loses spark....just cuts out completely for a sec, then comes roaring right back to life.

And finally, I don't know if this is trans related or not, but my car stalls sometimes at stoplights. Quite often it will stall right as I'm pulling into parking spots . Almost as if it knows I'm parking. This is very annoying as well - especially in conjunction with the lever having to be moved into Park to restart.

Everything else seems to operate more or less normally. Does anyone know what's wrong with it? I think there's some sort of shift linkage cable that has to be adjusted, but I have no idea how to do it, or where to find the cable, or if that's even the problem at all . Any help is very much appreciated!

 

Pull the console cover and take a look at the neutral safety/backup light switch. It may be loose or maladjusted.

The other problems are most likely unrelated. Done a tuneup lately?

 

The reverse lights is very likely the switch that needs to be adjusted. ive never done this before but i think its described in the haynes manual or someone here can give u the details on how to adjust it.

The car will only start in park, thats just they way it was made to prevent any accidents if u left the car and gear and went to start it.

When you shift into drive, your rpm's will drop a few hundred revolutions, this is normal. it shouldnt be bogging to much down, just drop down to about 700-800rpm. if its dropping too much and sounds like its stalling then roars past 1-2k rpm then your iac might need to be replaced/cleaned.

stalling when stopping could be a lot of things. might be related to the drop/surge when your throwing it into drive, which could mean the IAC. could also be things like the fuel pump or clogged fuel filter. do a general tuneup and have the iac checked or replaced, then if u still have problems you can try other things.

 

It should start in neutral, that's why it's called a NEUTRAL safety switch. A car must be able to start while it's in motion. The reverse switch and neutral safetly switch may be worn out, broken, or misadjusted.

 

Thanks for all the advice guys...I ordered a new neutral safety/back up switch today. It was only about $16 for the AC Delco part. Hopefully that solves those problems. I think the stalling may be caused by a vacuum leak...I know for sure I have a small leak at my EGR valve, and some of my vac. hoses look pretty rotten. I'm going to try replacing all the rotten looking hoses, and one of these days I'll pull the plenum and somehow tighten down that damn EGR valve. Is it OK to use hi temp silicone sealant on an EGR gasket? I have no idea how to tighten the bolts holding down the EGR valve, I can't get a wrench around them! Anyone know how to apply a decent amount of torque to these bolts?

I'm going to try cleaning out my IAC valve sometime soon, it seems that may be my problem with a surging idle on startup. I changed the plugs, cap, and rotor less than 5k miles ago, so those should all be OK. I have MSD 8.5mm wires on it (in looms now, safely away from hot stuff) but a couple of them have crunchy spots from the headers before I put the looms on. They seem to be OK though.

Thanks for all the help! I'll try some of these things and see what happens!