Ok, if some of you don't know I've pulled out the engine and transmission together to replace or refresh. I replaced my 305 TBI with a 350 TBI that I converted to carburetor. I got a 700R4 with that engine but decided to keep the transmission that I had, but just put in a B&M shift improver kit.
I ran engine on stand before install, tore apart trans while outside of car and easy to work on. Got both back into car mechanically set good and initial settings made.
Yesterday while I was filling and checking transmission operation I discovered a fuel problem and proceeded to continue to fix that instead of taking the car for a short drive(open headers). I did use 1st and reverse with no apparent problems last night.
Tonight, I finished the fuel issue and decided to take the car for the short drive home...put it in gear...and it didn't go anywhere!! I checked the fluid level and despite the engine running for about 10mins and being good and warm the trans fluid was cool to touch and just barely touching the low side of COLD hash area. It was lower than that last night and drive fine. I have been working on the ECM as well, trying to delete it and cleaning up wires, but I don't think I touched anything that would affect it like this.
When I was doing the shift kit I was meticulous and very careful with re-assembly since most problems are attributed to that. I did try to set the TV cable tonight, not sure if that will keep it from going into any of the gears though.

Anyone have any questions or suggestions for me to try? I appreciate any quick help, thankss!

 

When I did mine, I noticed that I had to put what seemed like tons of fluid into the tranny. I'd start the car, let it warm up, change into R, then N, then OD, then D, etc. etc. all through the gears, with my foot on the brake, and just slightly attempting to accellerate in each gear. Then I'd return to P, and check fluid level to find it was low, so I'd refill and do it again. Seemed like this process went on forever, as I had replaced my torque converter with a new one that was empty, so it took alot of times before the TC got filled with fluid, and running through the gears seemed to get the fluid distributed back into my empty tranny as well, since it won't flow through some valves unless it's in the proper gear for such.

Not to dishearten you, but after I got the fluid finally filled to proper level, and adjusted my TV cable, on the first drive down the road I noticed my tranny slipped bad, and there was no correcting it. I figure 2 things:

1) Me emptying the old fluid with the dirt and grime that was literally holding it together (since the dirt in the fluid was acting as a conditioning media of sorts and giving the clutches something to grab {dirt}), made it slip, as there was no more friction additive (the dirt).

2) The 305 that was replaced never had the power to make the tranny slip enough to notice, whereas the power from the new 350 allowed me to notice it easily.

Needless to say, I ended up yanking the tranny back out for a beefed up rebuild.

Good Luck - hope you don't need a rebuild - but being 19 yeaqrs old, it's possible that you might.

 

I'm hoping that I don't need a rebuild...but if I do I won't waste the money on that and instead work on getting a T-5 or T-56 instead. The reason I don't think that it needs a rebiuld is because it ran just fine the night before and now it won't budge at all. I would think I would have had problems with that for a lot longer before that. I will be keeping my eye out for a new trans though I have always hated automatics anyways.

 

Does anyone think that the solenoid in the trans will keep it from working if the wires came out? I know the connector for the trans is broken and I need to replace it. I got it plugged back in...although I can't remember if I did that before or after I had already drove it. I'm going to try to check the wires on it through the ECM connector and see if I'm getting good readings from the multimeter. If not then I'll check the connector and go from there. I cannot think of anything mechanical that would keep if from running.

Can anyone tell me which fluid I'm supposed to use? and how many quarts to replace everything...even in the torque converter?

thanks

 

takes 10 qrts to fill the tranny with an empty TQ.

 

I wouldn't think the connector would matter - as I understand it the only thing that does is switch the 4th gear solenoid to lock up the TC. But I'm no expert.

 

That is my understanding of it too, but I'm trying to get clarification as to why I have this problem but nothing the day before. Once I get the fuel issue fixed and get off night shift I'll be able to continue to work on the car.

 

OK, I finally got the fuel issue fixed or at least rigged for the time being. I can finally get back to this trans issue which now has me further stumped.

Right before leaving and locking up the car, I checked the fluid again and discovered something VERY wrong. Not only is the fluid WAY too high, it is also a VERY different color. The fluid level is at the word 'check' above the s-bend in the dipstick, definitely WAY too high. But besides that, it is also a different color than the translucent red color that came out of the quart containers. It is a pinkish color now, and before you ask I didn't notice a burnt smell but forgot to check. It didn't seem that 'oily' either but I wasn't really paying attention to that since I was distracted with the pinkish color. I'm definitely going to change fluid, but can I get enough of it out to fix the color and viscosity problem?

When I did have the transmission apart to do the shift improver kit I used brake cleaner to get everything clean. Does anyone think that this may have affected the fluid that I put in afterwards? Remember that I didn't put in the transmission fluid immediately after though, it was a couple days later that I finally put fluid in the transmission. I'm just wondering if there was a place that the fluid could have collected where it wouldn't drain when I rolled it over and maybe comprimised the fluid that I put later.

Any ideas anyone? besides changing fluid, I'm already planning that.

 

Brake cleaner shouldn't be a problem - it evaporates quite quickly, and leaves no residue - I always use it to clean gasket surfaces for this reason.

 

That is the very reason that I used it so that there wouldn't be anything behind. I'm just trying to think of any reason that this might have occured, even if far-fetched. The only reason that I was thinking of that with brake cleaner was because if you let it sit in an area that doesn't vent at all it won't evaporate. Since there are channels that go up to the internals of the transmission, like the pump and bands and planetary gears, there's plenty of area where there is no ventilation and it could just sit.

The other idea I had after posting last night was that it might be foaming so when I get home tomorrow morning(got 24hr CQ duty) I will check the trans level again before I start the engine since I checked it last night after all that high reving.

 

#1. You never install a converter with out tranny fluid in it

#2 It takes alot longer than 10 min for the trans to heat up.It needs to be at operating temp which means you should drive around then check. Not just idle the car it will take all day for the trans to heat up.

#3 if you converted from TBI to Carb your ecm is pretty much useless. Hope you have replaced your distributor with a non cc one. And figure out how to manually lock up your trnamission.

 

There was fluid in it, even though I had drained what I could there was still a lot left in it. More than enough to prime it when I reinstalled it.

Hmmm...let me think...if I could drive it I would, so that bit is usless.

As if I didn't already know that? I'm already in the process of removing the ECM, however there are more important gremlins to be worried about right now. Right now, the priorities are to get this car moving and operational are on the top. Since I know that we can drive and run these cars with the ECM still installed while using a carburetor I'm not going to worry about it. I'll do what is necessary for fuel and major guages, but other than that I am going to leave it alone until I have the luxury of time to remove the rest of the wiring and the ECM box.



On a side note, I just got the stuff to do a 'flush', just fluid and filter, so after I take a nap from being up for the last 24 hrs I'll go to work on that. I'll check the fluid before I do to see what it looks like. If this flush idea doesn't work I'll double check all my electrical connections even though they have little to do with this problem. If I can't find anything that gets it working again I'll chaulk it up and wait my time for a manual. It has to be something stupid simple and easy since it worked one night and not the next.

 

I'm going off of what you have stated so dont act like you know everything becuase in fact you dont and you screwed up your trans.

Quote:
Originally Posted by 84 z28
#1. You never install a converter with out tranny fluid in it.

You replied
There was fluid in it, even though I had drained what I could there was still a lot left in it. More than enough to prime it when I reinstalled it.

How do you know how much fluid is in it there's no way to check. And a converter takes a min. of 1 qt of fluid.

Originally Posted by 84 z28
#2 It takes alot longer than 10 min for the trans to heat up.It needs to be at operating temp which means you should drive around then check. Not just idle the car it will take all day for the trans to heat up.

you replied
Hmmm...let me think...if I could drive it I would, so that bit is usless.

Weird you stated this in your first post.

Tonight, I finished the fuel issue and decided to take the car for the short drive home...

Quote:
Originally Posted by 84 z28
#3 if you converted from TBI to Carb your ecm is pretty much useless. Hope you have replaced your distributor with a non cc one. And figure out how to manually lock up your trnamission.

You replied
As if I didn't already know that? I'm already in the process of removing the ECM, however there are more important gremlins to be worried about right now. Right now, the priorities are to get this car moving and operational are on the top. Since I know that we can drive and run these cars with the ECM still installed while using a carburetor I'm not going to worry about it. I'll do what is necessary for fuel and major guages, but other than that I am going to leave it alone until I have the luxury of time to remove the rest of the wiring and the ECM box.



And since you knew the ecm is useless when swapping to carb why did you ask this question in your first post ?


I have been working on the ECM as well, trying to delete it and cleaning up wires, but I don't think I touched anything that would affect it like this.

And in your Fourth post

Does anyone think that the solenoid in the trans will keep it from working if the wires came out? I know the connector for the trans is broken and I need to replace it. I got it plugged back in...although I can't remember if I did that before or after I had already drove it. I'm going to try to check the wires on it through the ECM connector and see if I'm getting good readings from the multimeter. If not then I'll check the connector and go from there.

 

First...it would really help to reply if you had used the normal qoute blocks so I could distinguish between yours and mine quicker.

I left it where it would puddle by itself and there wasn't that much that came out of the TC.

Yes I did, however that ENTIRE part was this;

"Yesterday while I was filling and checking transmission operation I discovered a fuel problem and proceeded to continue to fix that instead of taking the car for a short drive(open headers). I did use 1st and reverse with no apparent problems last night.
Tonight, I finished the fuel issue and decided to take the car for the short drive home...put it in gear...and it didn't go anywhere!!"

If you hadn't seen or read any of the other posts related to this debacle, that fuel related issue was only just fixed night before last and last night I was stuck doing 24hr CQ duty. I never took the car out of the parking lot and that was only on the first night, the only time the trans has worked.

At the time I wasn't so sure about it, besides I want to retain every bit of function that I have in the instrument panel...minus the oil pressure since I have that temporarily bypassed due to the stock pump coming on with the oil pressure switch. I have also noticed the lack of clarification on wires and such in the wiring diagrams that I have for the areas between the ECM and the guages. I have no idea why but for some reason my tach doesn't want to work correctly without the ECM connected, just using one for an example. I had a slew of problems with the dash when I had ECM disconnected, also to include lighting. It seems there is more interconnected with it than previously thought.

As for the the ECM being useless...it is for running a carbureted motor, but there are other things that are running through the ECM that still make the ECM usefull until I find which wires I need to splice. Right now, however, time to work on the ECM is not available. I have to get the car running and driving and then I'll worry about the ECM stuff in a month or two like I said earlier.

 

I forgot to mention that while I was talking to a friend earlier today I remembered doing some pressure washing near the transmission after I had it back together(minus the fill tube since I forgot it) and I think I may have inadvertently gotten some water in the pan since I never dropped the pan after putting the transmission back together after the shift kit. I will change and start working the on the car again, drop the pan, fluid, filter and let it sit for an hour or two. I'll be sure to take note of the condition of the fluid before doing so.

 

So from what your saying you took out the TBI and put in a computer controled quadrajet and ecm for it. May I ask why ? And I dont no much about 1990 camaro and how there setup but I have an 84 and nothing gauge wise is controled by the computer.And if you actually some how got water in your trans thats not good news. Usally the cluthes soak up the water and it aint good for them.

 

Yes, I took out the TBI but I put in an Edelbrock so I'm trying to get rid of the ECM completely.

After dropping the pan and changing the fluid and filter I'm getting slightly better results although nothing I'm at all happy with. I did jack up the rear end to let the trans work through the gears and move the fluid around. I finally got the tires to spin some, but not with enough force to move the car when I let it down off the jack. I also noticed that the rear wheels only want to move in reverse no matter what gear is selected. I did go by the book and set the gear select in 'N' and then place the trans in N and then tightened the nut. Not sure what the issue is, but I do know one thing for sure...this just reminds me how much I hate automatics. Never would have had this issue if I had a manual.

 

You did use a TV geometry corrector right?

Sounds kinda like my experience where I had to have mine rebuilt - after the fact was easy to know, my tranny builder said I had some broken parts inside, and that it was on it's last leg anyway, but that the 305 just didn't have the guns to be able to notice it easily.

If you opt for a rebuild - 3 suggestions:

1) get your builder to use same quality parts as Pro Built Automatics, or buy one from him - I've seen alot of complaints about trannies on here, but never a complaint about his.

2) install a drain plug in the pan

3) install a TC lockup kit while it's out

Best of luck to you - I know it's frustrating 'cause I was there!

 

For me to go with a rebuilt automatic I'll have to be desperate...then again I'm already gettin there, lol. Car's been down a month, can't even get it to move on it's own power and we have to move in a couple weeks. Very bad timing on everything, even on money. Moving on-post(Ft Campbell, KY) and they want prorated rent for the rest of the month, so can't really do anything to get the damn car fixed.

GRRRR!!!!!

 

Looks like I'll have to count this as desperate. I can get a loan, but to do a loan I will also have to get other stuff with the loan money so it looks like I'll have to stick with a 700R4 even though I really don't like that idea right now.

Anyone know which spline count I will have on this transmission? It is a 91 model transmission if that helps anyone. I'm looking for either a full rebuilt replacement with a torque converter, or a rebuild kit and a torque converter. Either way the torque converter will get replaced, so I'm trying to find a cost effective way to get this done.

If I get the loan I will have a total budget of $2000 to get the transmission, torque converter, windshield, tires, and exhuast replaced. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

 

i have installed a b&m shift improver in my turbo 350 and now i don't have reverse or drive but 1, and 2 work fine. would anyone know what would do this? sorry for jumping in here i don't know how to start a new post yet.

 

Just realized how old this post is.

no ford plees, start a new thread.