I have an 88 TA 5.7 w/ 700r4 auto tranny. I can manually shift out of 2nd gear, but not at wide open throttle.

Going down the track I feel that second gear is holding itself in a little to long. No matter when I shift the selector out of 2nd, it decides for itself when to shift. And, no holding it in second is not going to help because it's accidently happened a few times and usually hurts me by .2-.4 because I cross the line at close to 6k if I stay in it.

Is this normal? Is there a way to adjust something to make it shift sooner out of second without messing with where it shifts out of 1st?

 

This is a common complaint of the 700R4 not making a 2-3 WOT shift. (1) It starts to happen with age (less holding power at the 3-4 clutch). (2) The 3rd gear feed hole is on the small side to start with. You acn fix this (if the 3-4 clutches are still in good shape)(1) By adding a Corvette servo you can get more oil to the 3rd gear clutches. (2) Add the larger boost valves (main & intermediate). (3) Add a Trans-Go Performance Shift kit (this will triple the oil to the 3-4 clutches). This should give you some ideas on what to do.

 

Pro Built is right. A couple years ago I had the same problem intermittantly. I put a Corvette servo in just because, not knowing it would help the problem. The problem went away for nearly a year. Then I bought a new trans

 

Hmm....guess I'll throw a bunch of that stuff into a new tranny and then install it after mine craps out. Guess there is nothing I can do in the mean time. Doesn't really matter too much right now because tomorrow is the last time I can go to the track this year.