My 86' Trans Am started to have problems shifting into 2nd gear. From any situation. If I was just mildly accelerating from a stop sign or if I hauled *** across the higway, once it got to the point in needed to shift... it would just hang out there at it's higher RPMs for a few seconds before shifting. Something it would take almost 5-6 seconds. Once it's into second gear, it's fine. All other shifting is flawless.

Well, I didn't drive it much after this started happening. Just enough to get across the highway to get the girlfriend to work (5 minutes or so). After about a week, on the way back home from dropping her off, it stopped shifting completly. I had to cross the highway and get home... stuck in first gear. I got home and checked the fluid. It's full, but looked a little dark and it dried brown. I could also see what looked like tiny air bubbles in the fluid on the dipstick. I got a gallon of ATF from work and a tranny filter and gasket as well all for free, but I'm concerned that the problem is much more dire than a dirty filter.

Anyone got any ideas?

(PS- I can't manually shift either)

Sorry but if the fluid is not a nice red almost like it's fresh from the bottle, you're more than likely going to need a rebuild because some clutches have let the genie out. I'd start looking for another trans.

pull the Govenor before you pull the transmission. When the car doesn't shift it can be a stripped Govenor gear. If your fluid is burned I do agree, you may be looking for a new one.

How would I go about pulling out the governor?

Its on the driverside of you transmission at the back. It pops out. Some fluid will come out when you do it so you will probably need to catch it with a drain pan. When you get it out it will be obvious to you whether you have a govenor problem or not.

Funny, I just got my car back from the Tranny shop for the same thing. 1300 dollars and a fresh rebuilt 700r4 later, It shifts just fine. All that actually sucks because I had the 700 rebuilt less than 10,000 miles ago and when I sold it to some guy on craigslist, he tore up the rear end(and I suppose the trans too) a week after he bought it from me. So it sat in a field for 9 months before he called me and wanted to sell it. I jumped on it! But there was no way for me to tell the trans was busted because of the rear end...so you can imagine how hurt I was after they rebuilt the rear end and the shop told me it wasn't shifting out of first gear. As for checking the governor, you wanna make sure that the plastic gear isnt stripped and also wanna make sure the valve is opening when the weights swing. I was gonna check mine out myself but decided I didnt wanna mess with it. The thing is, most of the time when the trans wont shift automatically and you can't shift it manually, it could be more of a valve body problem. From what I was told and I found on here is that if you can still shift it manually, a valve or something else is stuck or broken inside the unit. I had a rebuilt unit put in because it came with a warranty and that is something that I wouldn't mind having. Next time this tranny acts up, im going T56.

Sorry for telling you my life story. Just had to tell someone.

i dont know about everyone else but i dont do transmission but ive recently discovered draining the trans. fluid on an older car sometimes has a big setback, is the fluid is still good after a few years you have these "particles" in there that actualy kind of help the gears to not slip, i replaced the fluid on my 82 and now she slips like an vigrin ice-skater