Can it cause slipping in between gears, or slow shifts?

 

I always associated hard/late shifts with a torque converter going bad. I am not sure if it can go both ways though
Andrew

 

The torque converter is a fluid coupling. It transfers torque from the engine to the transmission. If the transmission has problems shifting then it's not a torque converter problem. You either have low fluid pressure from any number of reasons or bad bands/clutches.

I hurt my torque converter a few years ago. The car wasn't quite running right. 1/4 mile times were off so I yanked out the converter and had it inspected. One of the torrington bearings inside had been crushed. Since the tollerances were close, the decreased thickness of the bearing caused some of the fins to be bent. It didn't cost much to get it repaired but if you have a cheaper street converter, it can be cheaper to just buy another converter. My race converter is about $1000 so it's worth it to rebuild.

To inspect a converter, they put it on a special lathe and cut it open. When it's rebuilt, they weld it back up. The downside of my converter is that there isn't much metal left around the center to weld it up again. If my converter fails again, it's garbage. I can get a custom one built locally which would be better than the one I bought for about $800. It would ba able to take a lot more abuse and I'd know exactly what parts went into it. Not all internal parts are the same.

 

well what I want to know is why the car shifts just fine under normal driving conditions. Normal being very smooth acceleration from a dead stop.

Tranny shifts fine, its only when I gun it that it starts acting up and slipping like hell

 

sounds like the clutches are going and it'll be rebuild time soon. also the 700R4 cable could be mis-adjusted as well.

 

Pull the pan off and see what's in the bottom.

 

Just curious...what would be in the bottom of the pan?

 

Metal or pieces of friction material. If the oil is very metallic then you know there's a major failure somewhere.

You can only guess so much. Without pulling it apart for inspection, you'll never know what's wrong. It's not going to fix itself and there's no such thing as a "transmission repair in a can".

 

statement of the year. i couldn't agree more.

 

What if you put a Transmission rebuild kit in a really big can?

 

I would start w/ the TV cable myself...maybe buy a new GM replacement and go from there if you're has a lot of miles on it.

Adjusting my TV stopped the "flare up"...though I'd feel better if I had a brand new one to use...

 

if u do replace the TV cable DEFINATELY go through GM....i got a replacement from pep boys and it was too short and wouldnt bend nearly as much as the GM replacement parts one.....and the cost difference was only a couple bucks.....

 

well that's still half of what you need. that's actually the cheap part. labor is what will get ya...


i should know, i've done a "few".

 

Ok, fine, how about a REALLY big can with a Tranny Rebuild Kit and a Transmission Tech in it?

 

now that would work!!!

 

Not sure if this will help but read this about having a sprag fail in a converter.

http://img490.imageshack.us/my.php?i...sssheet7ii.jpg

 

Since its kinda on the topic I'll throw this out there.
I've had my car for 3 years and never had the converter out until today. It always allowed me to foot brake it to around 2200 RPM and "seemed" to flash a bit higher. Car lives at 2K and higher no matter what you do with the TV. even reset to pressure specs.
I was suprised to see the sticker on the back of it with DGCF 8653423 on it.
this I believe is a stock LU converter with aprox 1300 stall. I know the lockup has been beat to death on it by my experimenting with it and am wondering if the elevated stall speed is a sign of internal damage. Already bought a new actual 2K unit so I don't care if it is broke.
Any comments?