I was driving to different junkyards all day yesterday. I had been driving on and off for 6 hours. It was maybe about 75 degrees outside. After leaving the last junkyard, I got gas. I did idle the car at the gas station for a little bit, and there was traffic getting out.

The tranny shifted fine to 3rd gear.. Then all of a sudden it was like it was in neutral. There was no sudden jerk, but it would rev and there was nothing going to the wheels. Slowed down, and then it was stuck in first. I have a B&M shifter, and I tried selecting the gears manually, and that didn't work. I pulled over, and shifted it to park, neutral, and reverse just fine. I started driving again, still stuck in first. Tried manually selecting the gears again too.

I made it to a gas station, checked the tranny fluid. It was slightly over the hot line, smelled a little hot, but not burnt. The color looked fine. I have checked the transmission fluid twice in the past month, before 2 long drives. It always looked fine. (Yes, I know to check it while the car is idling on flat ground.)

I have taken 2 long drives in the past month, and the tranny was fine. There was a lot more freeway driving on those trips though.

The temperature gauge was past middle, just before where the fan turns on. The shifter did feel hot, but not much hotter than it usually gets in heavy city driving.

Anyway, I waited about 5 or 10 minutes at the gas station while it cooled down. Then I left, and it drove fine. I drove an hour home, mostly on the freeway, and the transmission was shifting fine.

Is there anything I should check that may have gotten damaged?

I have been reading threads on transmission coolers, but I'm still not sure exactly how and where to mount one.

 

Here's a picture of my TV cable. It seems fairly tight when at full throttle. The car seems to shift fine, though I have never driven any other 700R4. But I'm wondering, where exactly is the D tab that you push in to adjust it?

 

I doubt that the TV cable is your problem.

However, it won't hurt to check the adjustment. The adjuster should be somewhere behind the TV cable bracket on your TBI engine.

This is from a TPI engine but the adjuster is the same. The "D" tab might be facing a different direction.