Take the longest screwdriver you have, place it on the back side of the serco cover lip and tap the screwdriver with a hammer. The cap has a press fit. It is supposed to fight you. If someone gooped the snot out of it with rtv, you will have to bang the heck out of it to win the fight.

 

eh, its kinda hard to get good leverage down there. plus i dont wanna bust my hand or any of the car if i miss. does a wider head of the screw driver help? and longer screwdrivers help too? worth a try.

 

If you need to, get a sledge hammer and bang with the side of it so its in the middle and its really hard to miss the screw driver...Im guessing you need a really skinny flathead or really sharp...thinking like a chisel. Leverage is half the battle...just find a way cant be too hard.

 

yea i got it. definantly definantly not the governor gear or anything related to it. the springs were good and the only markings i could see on the gear were little ovals of a lighter greenish blue indicating that like one layer of paint or whatever had been roughed up but it looked flawless. my neighbor said while im at it i should take out the pan and change the fluid and filter. his turbo lebaron does that sometimes where it stops shifting and its usually fixed by changing the transmission filter.

 

i would owrry if my transmision ever started to not shift because of the fluid not being changed... mostly because it would probably mean a clogged filter.. which.. i would have to worry about why it was getting clogged

 

I wouldn't go as far as changing the filter. Drop the pan, just don't be surprised if it looks like a gold mine in there.

 

yea, i might just get this t5 swap i found locally. 400 bucks for every little piece you need. my other option is a brand new jackson racing th350 with torque converter, remanufactured still in crate for like 300 bucks or something less than 25 miles away. what do you guys think? if i can do this it doesn't seem worth it to even worry about mine. thanks for being so helpful along the way guys.

 

you could go with the th-350, but then you have to get the trans xmember for it, and also have to get the bracket for the torque arm welded onto it (some fabrication) and then a driveshaft since i know on mine the drive shaft for the th350 vs the 700r4/t5 was different length. If you want easy and ease of use.. do the t-5 or rebuild the 700r4 when you can... at least then you can save some gas lol.. not to mention less to deal with in fabrication (unless they make some rear tailshaft housings for the th350 with the torque arm mount already on it..... haven't seen any though.) Money wise.. you are going to end up spending more than 500 reguardless of which way you go.. because chances are you will want a new clutch for the t-5 and you will have to cut a hole in your floor so that takes a little time... not to mention the plate for the center console.... and boot for it... so reguardless.. you will be spending a bit of money and time on this no matter which way you go... but unless you are going to use the car for tooling around town, and racing.. I would stay back from the th350.... It is not the most interstate friendly thing (run 75 at 3500 to 3750 RPM.... and that was with 3.08 in my '80..... )

 

ok, well in case you didnt know i found out that it was the governor valve and not the gear. i got a new one and got it shipped. today i got it and i made sure it was in working order. i put it in and closed it up. took it for a ride and it still didnt shift. so the governor was broken, i got a new working one, and the car still has the same problem. should i redo the tv cable or w.e?
i was all ready for it to work once i compared the new and old part today. maybe i didnt close the cap good enough...could that make it not work? i did it kind of quickly, plus i ddnt see an o ring, unless it was still attached to the tranny. i put rtv all around and put it in by hand because i could not reach anywhere to hit it with the screwdriver. i mean i did, but when you only hit it on the one side the other side comes out. should i just light tap in the middle?

 

Scroll up the page. I list a 4 step process to properly install the cover. Hitting the center of the cap is described. DO NOT HIT THE MIDDLE.

 

i told you though...i tried hitting the outer edge, but it made the other edge pop out. plus i could only reach about 60 degrees of the full 360...the tranny is still in the car. so yea. i will try to seal it again tomorrow...but shouldnt it have at least shifted anyways...thats basically what i was going for and then i was gonna lock it up tomorrow.

 

I do not know what to say. I have offered every bit of advise that I know. I was the first to suggest that you take it to a pro because it is your daily driver. If you want to hit the middle of the cap, then do so. It wil minimize or eliminate the governor gear end play. This will likely cause it to bind, break, then put buckets of debris through your trans. This may not make your problem worse, but it probably will. I wish you well with your repair.

 

i was thinking of maybe using a wrench or something to go around the perimeter, and then hit the wrench so it applies pressure to the whole outer at once. i told you...i did not hit the middle. i dont know why you are making it seem like i did. but as I have said before, thank you very much for being so helpful, and I did not "disobey" any of your directions. ugh, i guess the prob is bigger than i though. but I am almost positive I did not mess anything up throughout this.

 

When I build them on the bench, I use a round piece of pvc plastic pipe to tap the entire cover on smoothly and straight. If I understood your last post correctly, you implied that because you could not tap it on around the edges to seat it and hitting the center will be needed because you had no other choice. This frustration will cause the damage I described. If I am incorrect regarding your implication, then I am wrong. If I am correct then heed my advise and do not, under any circumstance, hit the middle. There is a solution to your problem. Nothing is ever as easy as it sometimes seems. You may find the need to possibly drop the tail of the trans down for access to full perimeter of the cover.

 

well, im thinking about the open wrench idea still. what i think i will do first though is drain the fluid cahnge the filter etc, just to make sure. i did not replace the fluid lost in the change, but when i looked at the tranny dipstick with my dad there was way more than enough. maybe it was off or something...it was way into full hot. and it read even higher before i swapped the gear. hmm. well ill do all that this weekend and see whats happening. its kind of hard to do this because right now I have about $4.3x to my name, i havent counted the pennies, lol. but i had a job interview today and im pretty sure i got it. ill keep you updated.

 

By saying that do you mean it is way over the full hot mark? If that is the case.. the trans is shot.. you can replace all the little parts you want, but it wil need a full rebuild because, as i stated at first, it is probably the clutch packs.. if you have way more fluid in the trans than you should (over the full mark) than you probably soaked the clutch packs in fluid which caused them to slip and then to burn up. Especially if it was like that for a while. I have read tons about the 700r4 3-4 clutch going out anyhow and then the rest following.. it is a weakness of the stock build on the trans.

 

well i found a guy in my neighborhood with a gm rebuilt 700r4 with 12k on it for 200 bucks, so i guess i will do that.

 

That is a smart decision.

 

I had same problem once, it was hard shifting into reverse and other gears. The result is I broke the sprag, all the teeth were reversed!!! Point is, get a new trans.

I've also had to drive home 15 miles in 1st doing 10-15mph, it SUCKED!

 

so thats it? i replaced the governor assembly and the atf and it still doesnt shift but it still moves. so basically the plan is to get a new one?

 

Probably be easier if you can find a good cheap used one and use until you have the time and money to have someone take your curent one apart and see what is actually the problem.. Because no mater what anyone says on here it could be those things or any of 50 other things that could be wrong.