I have a 700R4 in a 88' Firebird Formula, and I just did a transmission fluid flush and filter change. Driving home the car accelerated slow, and shifting seemed off. After just a couple blocks of driving, my car wouldnt upshift, hardly accelerated at all, staying at around 20 mph. However, I didnt take the car any higher than 2400 rpms at this point, I dont feel like its a good idea if there is clearly a problem and decided to just let it idle the rest of the way home which wasnt far. Parked the car and did some visual checks, and nothing appears to be wrong as far as any leaks and such. Got back in the car and started shifting it through all the gears, reverse felt good, but shifting it to overdrive gave me a hard jerk, but only when coming from PRN, but coming from D, 2, 1 it felt ok. It does feel like it accelerates normally when pushing on the gas from reverse, and briefly while in overdrive, once the car gets going it just does not accelerate and rpms continue to go up. Any idea's what the problem most likely is? I'm thinking about making sure my TV cable is properly adjusted in the morning and seeing if it will shift in maybe just drive.

 

How "completely" did you flush the transmission? Meaning, how much fluid did you get out of there?
I'd recommend re-checking the fluid level. Just keep in mind to have it warmed up, going through all gears and check while the engine is running.

 

Service information told me 10.9L (11.5 QTS) and the flush machine i hooked up to it said it flushed out 12 QTS and put in 12 QTS of fresh transmission fluid. My instructor (I am taking automotive classes) said it was supposed to do it that way, that it wouldnt put any more fluid in than what it would take out. Since I had to do the filter after the flush, I didnt bother with level and just raised the vehicle up and went to it. But ran into some difficulties with the cross member, since apparently its not the original one, making me take too long on the assignment and pretty much long story short I was being rushed out the door and didnt get to look at the dipstick when I left. I put back in what came out when doing the filter, so I guess the question could be if I am 1/2 QT too full. I have one other concern, and that is if maybe the filter slipped down into the pan. When I put the new filter in, I pressed up on it about as good as I could without damaging anything (I don't like the thought of no retaining bolts for the filter). I don't have any good means of lifting the car up and supporting the transmission to drop the pan and check, until Tuesday, unfortunately.

 

I had my T.V. cable maladjusted once and the result was that it took higher than usual RPM until it would shift up, regardless of the gear it would shift into. Whenn it finally shifted, it was very rough and RPM were very low... the point being it did shift through all gears eventually and skipped none.

If that filter came down in the oilpan, I assume the fluid wouldn't be able to travel through the transmission in sufficient quantities. It shouldn't be able to fall out of the shaft completely, due to the limited space inside there, so there's no way to be certain unless you remove the pan again.
This is like Schroedinger's cat. The filter is in its place and out of place at the same time, until someone takes a look

Thinking about the way you drained the system and the amount of fluid you got out and put back in...
I tried filling up the torque converter manually once and it took ages for the fluid to sink in there. Perhaps that's the cause of your issue. That it simply wasn't "full" at the time you drove off, which would explain the no-gain on speed. No fluid, no torque conversion.

Check the level as described in my previous post.
Do an initial cold check, then run it up, let it get hot and check again.
You should see lots of bubbles on the dipstick if you put in to much fluid.

 

Well, looks like it is low on transmission fluid. Started it up cold, shifted it through its ranges and put it in park to check the dipstick, after wiping off the dipstick and reinserting it, fluid doesnt show anywhere but the very bottom of the dipstick (no where near add or full). Took it for a quick drive, and it would shift if I took it to 3000 rpms and acceleration still felt slow. So now I have to try and get to the only place I found that sells the oil I was putting in, which apparently is called Wolffs Head... Once I get that and make sure the level is correct, I will post the outcome.

 

Filled transmission fluid to proper level, at a stop feels smooth but car still wont shift until 3000 rpm, and each shift feels a little hard probably due to the higher than normal rpms during the shift. So it looks like I'm just going to take this one to the professionals, a transmission specialty shop.

 

Have you checked the T.V. cable? just for completness' sake?
Press the latch on the side of the T.V. cable bracket and shove die little black plastic piece in until it hits the bracket. Then rotate the throttle lever until it hits the stop notch. This pulls the cable back out a bit and if that doesnt' help...
Why the difficulty getting the fluid? What have you put in there? Shouldn't be difficult to get Dexron-II.

 

As far as the difficulty with the fluid, I just do not like the thought of mixing brands or anything. So I had to track down the same fluid my instructors had me use in class, which was full synthetic Wolf's Head transmission oil. And as for the T.V. Cable, I tried checking it, but it didnt seem to do anything. I'm told its a self adjusting type anyways, that all I need to do is bring it to WOT and it adjusts itself. I read up on a little trick last night though, that I will attempt today. Take and put the car in reverse and have someone hold the brake while I pull on the T.V. Cable back and forth quickly. Supposed to help break free anything that might be making the valve stick.

 

I bet your transmission has some internal leaks. A quick line pressure test would help but you need a 300psi gauge to do it.

 

What type of fluid is in there? It needs Dexron-II and nothing else.
There have been some problems reported with other ATFs.

 

Its called Wolf's Head ATF, a synthetic fluid that covers Dexron II and Dexron VI (that according to Mitchell, what we use for service information, is what should be used for my vehicle). But it covers a lot more than just those two types. I really somehow doubt its the type/brand of fluid. Something really tells me theres an issue somewhere in the valve body or like I said above, the filter slipped out.

 

Hope you find out what the cause is and are able to get it fixed. Let us know what it was

 

Well after taking it back to school and pulling the pan off and taking the filter out, I found two O-rings that stayed behind where the neck of the filter goes up into. I removed one and put it all together, it shifts a little sooner, but still not soon enough. Hopefully someone knows this off the top of their head: The direct-fit filter with an orange type of O-ring (about an inch tall), does it require the use of the regular small black O-ring? Just my thoughts are, after taking one out of it and I get shifts sooner, maybe the other one is still extra and allowing fluid to leak giving me less pressure. But I dont feel like taking it all apart just to take that O-ring out if it really is supposed to be there.

 

The o-ring that is still in there is probably the old one. It sounds like when you removed the old filter you didn't remove the o-ring, then installed the new filter and o-ring. I would suggest installing a new o-ring. Also, the weird shifting/operation could be from the synthetic fluid.

 

That is exactly what happened, is I never bothered to look up in there to see any old o-rings in there, and slapped in the new filter. But what I'm trying to find out, is am I supposed to be getting rid of both of those small black O-rings, and use just what comes already on the new filter.

http://static.summitracing.com/globa...-ft1074a_w.jpg

That link is to the filter I ordered, and does not appear to have the small black o-ring, just the orange piece that I was talking about in my previous post. Just need to know if anyone else has changed their filters in a 700R4 and what all was used on the neck of the filter.

 

all you need is the orange piece on the filter, that is your filter seal. anything else isn't needed and may hinder the filter seal from doing it's job.

 

the high rpm shifting is fixed finally. It was the T.V. Cable, which I tried to adjust a couple times on my own (no idea why it was out of adjustment when just doing a flush and filter change). After discussing it over with my instructor, we came to find that the cable wasnt adjusting easily because I have aftermarket runners that forces it to run out further and is kinked a little bit at the adjuster. So we finally got it to adjust, now it shifts to 2nd and 3rd at 2,000 rpms with very light throttle and the acceleration feels better. There seems to be a couple hiccups here and there, so it may still need adjusted a little bit more, but seems like thats where the problem lies.

 

Glad to hear you made progress
So there's only some fine-tuning left to do.
Perhaps you need a new T.V. cable or bracket or whatever to keep the cable from maladjusting itself in the future. Better keep an eye on it.

 

The tv cable is like your transmission's blood pressure medication.

 

Haha, well said

 

Yea, I was wondering if there was some bracket or alternative I could use... because I looked at the possibility of rerouting it in behind the runners, but its a really tight space and it may still do the same thing if it even does mount back on.

 

Have a helper hold the go pedal down. Confirm the throttle is open fully. While keeping the throttle @ WOT, take a pair of pliers (I like vise grips for this) and grab onto the cable stop. It should not pull out (towards the front of the car) at all, at the most a 1/16th of an inch. If it pulls out, adjust the plunger on the tv adjuster towards the firewall. REALLY easy to confirm the TV cable is set properly with the pan off, but sounds like you have already had that off enough.

Here is a good read on this subject: http://www.jakesperformance.com/TV_C...etup_Info.html

 

Or you can just press the release button on the side of the cable bracket, push the plastic part completely towards the firewall and then turn the throttle to WOT, as far as it goes, and the plastic part will ratchet out as far as is has to.
Just make sure to turn the throttle until it hits the stop.

 

My brand new AC Delco TV cable did not self-ratchet. I first tried setting the tv cable as you described, but found depending on the pressure you push on the button will depend on how far it "ratchets". This is NO good. The way I have mention above insures the TV cable is set correctly. New, used, self-ratcheting or not. A 0-300 PSI pressure gauge is a good idea. I left mine on for 50 miles while I seated in the transmission and to confirm the TV cable was set correctly.

 

Yea, sorry I havent responded back.. but the issue with the T.V. Cable is just simply that its routed incorrectly. I'll have to take a picture of it tomorrow hopefully and post it to better explain it. I figure the only way to correct it is to take off my runners and run the cable where it should go, then put the runners back on. Wasn't going to make a deal out of it if the car ran fine for now, but the shift points are slowly going back up it seems. Thanks for the advice though, I will get it pressure tested and hopefully get it to stay where it should be.