Hi all.

My 84 Trans Am, I bought the car December last year as a project and later found out all I had was reverse and first. Or so I thought. Changed the fluid and filter and made sure the cable was adjusted but still no change.

With the car being off the road I shouldn't be driving it but today I had to move it to a different garage only 5 minutes from mine. Got to the end of my street and accelerated but nothing happened apart from the revs going up. Oh crap..... so I put my foot down more and the car took off, it sounded like I got to about 3500 rpm and it abruptly shifted into 3rd I think, completely missed 2nd.

So would you all say the clutch packs are worn out here ?

Have you checked the plastic gear on the governor for missing teeth ? The governor having a bad gear can cause the trouble you describe . If you need to know what any of the parts look like I've got a sticky thread at the top of the page ; "pictures of every component of a 700R4" , that has good clear shots of all the bits & pieces .

I havnt no but I can certainly check. I've had a little read up on it and it looks like it literally pulls out the back of the transmission for inspection ? Nice and simple.

If it is just that then happy days!

Sounds to me more like something related to the band (the thing that creates the 1-2 shift) has broke.

Highly doubtful it's the governor... if it was broke, the trans would NEVER shift AT ALL, because it wouldn't ever know that the car was moving at all.

Does it ever shift into 4th?

I never tried overdrive on the road as I was too focused on just getting there and not breaking down.

However, a while ago I did Jack the rear end up off the ground and it went through all the gears. Including over drive. Sounded noisey too the more gas I gave it. I assume the whiney noise was coming from the transmission as that's what's not working properly

My question was one of the governor having some chipped/broken teeth on the gear , and not being outright broken and not spinning at all , having it only spinning sometimes instead of all the time like it should (when driving , of course) . The OP mentioned having only first & reverse , and only occasionally when the engine is revved would it shift into an upper gear .

I mentioned this because I have in the past seen a 700R4 with some missing teeth in the governor gear that did exactly what the OP described and a new governor gear got it back to shifting regularly again .

I guess the OP is gonna have to get in there and find out which part it is causing the problem .

PS , if something with the band has broken , how could it shift at all , as the OP said it sometimes will when revved ?

I can check the governor then if it's easy enough to do.

I thought if one of the band's was worn it would still shift but just not that well like what it's doing now ?

My money is on what OrangeBird posted, bad governor gear. The governor is located under the domed cover on the left rear of transmission. Pop cover off and the governor pulls out.

When replacing the cover hit it along the edges, never in the center.

RBob.

I will get it out and have a look then. Is it easy to replace if it is all chewed up. It's just a plastic cog/gear thing yeah ?

The job of the band is to shift from 1st to 2nd.

To get to 3rd, the band lets go, and the 3-4 clutch applies.

Therefore, if the band fails to operate, what will happen is, the car will take off in first, never hit 2nd, then when road speed as measured by the governor reaches the 3rd shift point, it will shift to 3rd normally. Note carefully that for the trans to decide to shift to 3rd, it must see road speed, for which the indicator is the governor. Which is why I'm pretty sure the problem is not the governor.

The band then has another job, which is, to shift from 3rd to 4th, which happens when the forward and the 3/4 clutches are already applied.

Shift logic is:

1st = forward clutch only
2nd = forward clutch + band
3rd = forward clutch + 3-4 clutch
4th = forward clutch + 3-4 clutch + band

I didn't say "the band is worn"; I said "something related to the band has broke." A small and subtle difference perhaps, but takes into account the apparent suddenness of the onset of symptoms. Maybe not the band itself, since although they can "break", they don't often. More likely, the servo, anchor pin, or something like that. Maybe something in the valve body is stuck.

The servo is also accessible from outside the case.

See my signature for a helpful troubleshooting mental technique.

But yeah, by all means check the governor gear, since it's eeeeeeeezy and free to do so... just don't expect a miracle.

Well when you put it like that...... ha ha ! Ah man I will set my sights really low but if this governor literally just pulls out I might as well take a look at it ?

The fact that the car didn't move at all until excessive amounts of throttle, coupled with the whining noises, would seem to indicate a line pressure problem due to a failing pump. The noise is from the pump and the low line pressure is not enough to lock up the clutches unless you have the rear end up In the air with no load.

That's my analysis.

The original trans in my 86 lasted about 5k miles after sitting for 11 years. Died in a similar fashion. Starting making some pretty ugly noises and whining and would barely move. Felt like the brakes were being applied, took excessive throttle, and had delayed shifting behavior. The governor gear was fine but the governor valve had some serious wear that the piston would catch on. I haven't opened it up but when I swapped the trans I found some grape nuts sized metal peices in the pan and quite a bit of metallic swirl in the oil.

GD

That actually caught me by surprise when it wouldn't move when accelerating as I've had it up and down my street a bit since getting it and it would always take right off, just not shift out of 1st. That's the first time it had done that. But then it's the first time I had moved the car more than about 400 yards lol

So the suspects are a failing pump, worn out clutches and it's not looking like the governor

When you said "just not shift out of first" that's what made me think "Governor !" . As more info is revealed I think Sofa is likely closer to the actual problem with the band suggestion . And General Disorder has a great point about the pump . Either way , since it sounds like it's gonna have to come out anyway , sure pop out the governor and have a look but be fully prepared for dropping it to get to both Sofa's band and General Disorder's pump . Which , BTW a "line pressure test" using a (hopefully rented) transmission pressure gauge screwed into the appropriate spot on the transmission's left side would likely reveal some more interesting clues if your really that determined to try to diagnose it without taking it apart .

Were this Me ? that sucker woulda already been on the floor by now , after the half hour or so it took to check all of the external possible causes first

This car is sort of a joint project and it's going down the country for all the bodywork and paint doing.

When the car arrives it's going up on the ramps and the trans is being pulled and sent to a specialist for a full rebuild. No messing around! Lol

That's not going to be for at least 3 months so I might still pop the governor out for a look in the mean time