Car I'm interested in only has first, second and reverse working. Only 500 bucks for a pretty clean base '87 Firebird, along with the T/A ground FX option. Is this a simple transmission problem to fix, or would it require a rebuild/replacement? Car is pretty stock.

 

3/4 clutch packs are probably gone. Does 3 & 4 act like neutral?

RBob.

 

Not sure yet. I'm going to go over the car with a fine-tooth comb tonight to make sure there aren't any other glaring defects that woudl preclude my wanting to buy the car. I'll make sure to drive it and tun it through it's paces. Is there a diagram somewhere that shows each gear and what is supposed to initiate shifts - which circuit, which solenoid, which thing-a-ma-jig does what?

As I only live 2.5 miles from work, I rarely exceed thirty miles per hour (militry base rules) so I'm really going to need to shift into Drive very often, if I decide to get this car.

Thanks for the reply...

 

Drove it today, never got up above thirty, partly becasue of speed limitations and mostly because Drive acts just like neutral. I found that the Transmission was pretty low on fluid, but after putting a wuart in it, I never got to see if that would help or not - two things wrong with the car: It needs to be jumped to run (totally dead battery) and the lower radiator hose wasn't secured, so as soon as I turned the car off, it let loose and purged itself all over the parking lot. So, I'll have to find out later if ljust a simple ow fluid levels was the problem.

They had just did a fluid/filter change to it, and I'm guessing they didn't top off the transmission twice -firt time off, and second time after they started it. Dipstick was dry. Hope my five-minute drive didn't burn anything out. I'm going to pick up some Dexron tomorrow and maybe some Lucas Trans additive afor some extra piece of mind.

Then I will probably begin looking for a decent used V6-based 700R4 to replace the existing one with.

 

Get back on what you find out

 

Changed the battery, topped off the radiator, drove the car to get the stupid Hawaii safety check done, probably put eigh tmiles on the car Friday afternoon. Failed safety, they said my tires were funky. Funny, they got tread and the sidewalls are good - maybe they didn't like the color? Lights failed, my driver's side headlight motor is on the fritz. Typical third-gen Firebird problems, so I'm not worried about it.

Still no Drive or OD, and I verified that the fluid level is within normal hot ranges. As my tach is broken (idiot kids pulled every gague apart except the speedometer) I'm not sure how fast I'm turning the engine at forty miles an hour while in second. I'm not going to risk faster then that, so until I get this resolved one way or another, I'm stuck on using local streets. In hindsight, I didn't try sticking it in OD just to see if it would shift into that, once I was going over thirty-five or so. That would be nice, as then I'd be out only Drive.

A firend of mine has a 1987 Grand National with the 200R4, and he blew second gear out on it. Daily drove it that way for about a year - he would nail it to get the vehicle up to speed in first, and then it would make some evil noises trying to shift into second, then it would shift into third. About the only way my TTA could smoke him. He said something about a band being broken on it, so the solenoid would be trying to apply a band that was snapped in half, so naturally it didn't engage anything but thin air.

 

Same problem my 85 Z28 had and low and behold as I went to disconnect my tv cable it wasn't hooked up DOH!!!!!! After all that to remove the tranny and to see that ouch. Check your tv cable and if its hooked up then your in for a new tranny.

 

yea i lost 3 rd and 4 th, due to me being lazy and not fixin a leak that required 10 mins of my time, $1500 later it has all four gears, it was the band or clutch whatever you want to call it, it burned up, but on the plus side the trans is built up to be really bad azz now, but i had to spend $1500 try some lucas tranny treatment or something like that, it may get you going for a while till you can afford a rebuild.......and if it dont work than you wasted $10-$20.....big deal, i know lucas worked wonders in my sattys trans, but didnt help my camaro, but you can try .... aint got much to lose ... BTW im running a bottle of lucas tranny stuff in my new 700 for "insurance"