I purchased a level 3 700R4 from Shane of Carolina Performance Transmission. I had the shop install this trans along with a new mount, 12" ACC Performance 2800 - 3200 lockup converter, and Nitto drag radials.

I got the car out of the shop today, and had it for not even one hour before I felt the trans slip a tad. I went to put gas in the tank and drive it back to the shop, when I detected a funny smell. I was sitting at a stoplight waiting to make the turn and my heart fell out of my chest in horror as I looked out the passengers side window and saw billows of smoke pouring out from under my car. I had to coast it into a parking lot and call for a tow. The car had dumped all It's trans fluid, and when we got it back to the shop saw that it had blow the pump seal out.

I contacted Shane and he is telling me to ship the transmission back to him so he can see what went wrong with it. He seems to think either the retainer was mistakenly taken off the pump or possible the snout of the converter was not properly welded and managed to wobble the front seal out of the trans. He also said he was doubtful about this converter because he seems to believe that a 12" becomes difficult to maintain reliability past about 2400 - 2600 stall.



I did notice that upon initially driving the car, the trans shifted extremely early off the line when in drive. It almost instantly seemed to go into overdrive just after you left from a stop and would bog the engine down. Also another issue we ran into was my B&M megashifter. With the previous 700R4 i was able to ratchet through all 4 gears. For some reason, I lost first when we put this trans in. You can ratchet the shifter down as far as it will go and it will give that bump if you try to downshift further meaning it has no other shifts past that, but really it has the trans in second. If you upshift from that, it is in third. Up from that, It's in OD. so instead of going 1 2 3 4 now it just goes 2 3 4.


My question is, from the opinion of the folks at TGO WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!?!?

 

His explanation of what happened to the pump seal seems reasonable. I will also agree that most converters in the 3,000 stall range are 10" units.

The shift situation could be caused by a governor that needs to be recalibrated. There's no magic weight/spring combo to get shifts at a desired RPM. Since you changed the stall speed you affected how the governor acts. I would plan to recalibrate the governor to get the shifts where you want them.

Sounds like the shifter cable needs to be adjusted. There's no good reason not to have all 4 forward gears, and you don't want to keep taking off in 2nd. I would have the shop that did the install work fix this at no cost to you. I would also have the trans shop pay for the R&R of the trans and the tow.

 

I did have the shop readjust the shifter. When I first got eh car, you only had 3rd and 4th and that was it.

I stood there and watched them adjust it it works smooth now but when you go into second, that cable literally has no slack left at the trans linkage. I saw this with my own two eyes. I'm not too concerned about this at the moment, as this will only affect how fast the car goes in a race, not how well it runs and drives. And also this will remove any temptation to do a full throttle launch and potentially grenade the 25 year old 10 bolt rear in the car. I'll worry about this issue when I have a moser 12 bolt installed.

I just can't figure out why it came out of a 700R4 working fine, then went into a different 700R4 working halfassed.

I really would like a solid opinion as to what happened before I know who to set my sights on. Was it Shane, or was it ACC? The trans did look great up and under the car and Shane seems to have a good reputation around here and Dana from Pro-Built automatics was the one who referred me to him.

 

Who recommended the converter you are running?

 

I got a flyer for them on some parts I had ordered.

I did some research and they seemed to make good products.

five7kid on this forum had one of their converters and he said it did well for the time he had it in his car so it sounded promising.

 

Well, here's my take on it. If the converter caused the problem you really have no one to blame for it but yourself. If something went wrong in the trans then Shane and CPT are to blame, and should fix it at no cost to you, including removing and installing the trans. I doubt if the install shop did anythign that could have caused this, unless they removed the metal retainer that supports the front pump seal (as Shane suggested).

I would be sure to be there when the trans is removed and inspect it yourself.

 

This makes no sense. How do you come to that conclusion? You might as well blame five7kid for recommending it

Seriously though, if it was the hub of the converter there would have been a terrible vibration when we started the car. It made it around the block several times without any odd indication.

 

You made the decision to buy the converter. If Dana from Pro-Built or Shane from CPT had recommended it then you could point the finger at them. Obviously if the converter is defective then you should try and get the converter company (ACC) to replace it and pay for the associated damage. I didn't mean that you shouldn't go that route; just that you can't blame any of the other parties for recommending the converter. As for five7kid, I think there's a "hold harmless" clause in the stuff you agree to when you join TGO, so he gets a pass. That clause also covers any bad advice I give you.

Dana usually recommends Continental converters. I've had two in two different vehicles with no problems. I also had a B&M years ago with no problems.

 

I would think if the converter caused the problem, wouldn't you blame the converter?

 

Yes, then you can pull it out and beat it to death for its insolence. You will feel better, but sadly inanimate objects do not feel pain...

 

Something just occured to me. What role would a faulty brake pedal tcc switch play in this?

 

The brake pedal switch unlocks the converter when you press the brake pedal. I believe that it breakers ground, not power. Essentially the switch supplies ground all the time, and when you step on the brake pedal it disconnects circuit from ground. If the switch was faulty by not allowing a ground connection then the circuit would never work, so no ground equals no lockup under any condition. If the switch was bad in that it never disconnected the ground when the brake was pressed then you could have an issue since the converter wouldn't know to unlock as you were slowing down. This may have played a role in your problem. Replace the switch to be safe.

 

Well heres the thing:

When I first bought the car the TCC switch on the brake pedal was gone. I drove the car like this for about 6 months before figuring out it was ever missing. It took me an additional 2 months to locate a replacement. The replacement was a used part, but appeared to function correctly. The original transmission in the car drove almost 8 months before dying of old age (I attribute this primarily to a severely mis-calibrated TV cable by the PO owner and it driven like this for about 4 months before I found out it was screwed).

So I have a stock transmission that held up for about 8 months with no switch, and a performance transmission that held up for 1 hour with a possibly faulty switch. Something isn't adding up.

 

Not having the switch could be better than having a bad one. If there was no switch the converter would just never lock. Big deal. If the switch is stuck on all the time, even with the pedal pressed the converter will never unlock. The converter is supposed to slip at low RPM and while decelerating partly to keep from damaging the trans. If this isn't allowed to happen you could have a serious problem. The shuddering this would lead to could definately cause the front pump seal to fail. It could be that the switch was working and failed around the same time you did the trans swap. Granted that isn't very likely, but it is possible. You have to eliminate the possible until only one possibility reamins and that will be your problem.

It's easy to test the switch. Just do a continuity test through it while at rest and when activated as it would be when the pedal was pressed. If you have continuity and then lose it the switch is functioning correctly.

 

its been a month since your first posting - so i am wondering what you have actually done so far.
did they pull the trans and send it in and what was the result?
did you have a converter problem and what was it?
what was the leaking problem?
would like to know about it - and are you running a dd?

 

We're putting everything back in today. Just to cover all my bases, I had longer dowel pins installed, bought a new SFI flexplate and RGA'd the converter. The converter company verified it was not a faulty unit and was properly installed, which I expected. Just wanted to be sure.

Yes this car is a DD.

 

The switch was actually installed 2 days before the old trans finally let go. But I knew this trans was on It's death bed before I installed it since it took 5000RPM to get it out of first gear and refused to manually downshift.

So you say a bad switch could have caused the seal to fail within only 10 miles?

What would be a good way to test it? I was thinking of using a continuity meter. It should read closed when the button on the switch is depressed (brake on) and open when the button is released (brake off), correct?

 

I can't say for sure that it would have caused it, and in fact it sounds a bit far fetched. I'm just saying that anything is possible and it's better to be safe than sorry.

Yes, use a continuity tester or continuity function on a multi-meter. You should get continuity with the switch as it sits, and no continuity with the plunger depressed.