I have a 1984 camaro 2.8L v6 carb with a 700r4 behind it. Recently I swapped out my carb for a reman carb. before this I didn’t experience these issues. Car seems to run well with the new carb. it seems i might have a slight vacuum leak it idles a bit high right now at 950ish drops to 500 in gear. But the car doesn’t bog or want to stall at lights. i believe the carb is set well it’s the transmission making me stall.

On my way to work i noticed at 50 kilometres per hour when the car was trying to shift from 3rd to 4th it began to jerk, i was able to let off the gas and it shifted and i was able to accelerate to 70. on my way back from work it got a little worse. this time it refused to shift into fourth when i let off the gas i had to drive slower on that road. got on neighborhood roads were speed limit was lower and i was able to drive home okay.

Took it on a test drive after speaking with my dad, he told me to tap the brake pedal lightly to see if torque converter would unlock from the brake switch and i didn’t notice anything. It was going about 60 down an 80 road at this point still jerking. I then tried unhooking the Tv cable to see if it was related to that and it shifted from first and second very firm and when it got into third gear started jerking very hard, i had to pull over and put the cable back on because it was driving horribly. after that i was going 50 and it began jerking so badly it slowed me right down and stalled the engine. i had to limp the car back manually in first gear the whole way going 20. it was smooth for the most part but would still jerk occasionally

With all that information, does anybody have any ideas on what might be happening. i’m going to adjust my TV cable to based on what GM manual says and see if that does anything. Transmission fluid was also at proper level during all of this. Not the cleanest as the car has sat for a while and i dont have the money for a filter and tranny fluid at the moment.

 

UPDATE: adjusted TV cable based on instructions found on here. pressed in release tab, pulled back housing as far as it would go and the slowly went to WOT. heard cable ratchet and click so i know it adjusted. 1-2 shift feels better and more firm. used to be very late and sloppy but the jerking still happens. i’m going to take it for another drive and count the shifts. i’m now thinking it is my 2-3 shift that is jerking but i could be wrong. have to pay attention to the shifts

 

I'm not sure about you're jerking. Has the trans been in there awhile and working fine? You upgraded carb now having jerking issues? Never drive that without the TV cable connected. You can burn up the trans in just 10 miles or less.

 

The jerking happens when the car is trying to shift, say i’m cruising at 2300 and the car goes to shift, it begins to jerk hard, rpm’s drop down to above 700 and raise back up to about 2 grand. To my knowledge this is the original trans to the car, but the car isn’t super high mileage either. 139KM or 86370 miles. Trans does leak bad but i stay on top of the fluid. checking level before leaving everyday. I didn’t upgrade the carb but swapped it out for a reman. Same varajet2 rochester on there just rebuilt. prior to getting a new carb the trans didn’t do this. I was able to drive to work and it shifted nicely. (only for two days before i had to swap my carb out, but in those 2 days it shifted smooth) I tried with the TV cable off to try and see if it was a bad TV cable or plunger. i’ve heard that you can carefully slowly try and go through the gears with the cable off and the transmission should default to its earliest shift points possible. next i’m going to try unplugging my TCC and see if that changes anything. any feedback is much appreciated.

 

Try unplugging that cable. The one 4 pin that goes to trans. Take it for a ride and see what happens. Some of these heavy trans guys will prob chime in. But try that soon as you can and let's see what's happening.
the question is what could've happened when replaced carb that you didn't have this issue before then? Does seem like it could be a Torque convertor issue.
do you know if it normally locks up in 3rd and 4th gear? I'm sure you checked fluid level?

 

I do stay on top of the fluid level. I check it before very drive because the trans leaks pretty bad from the tail shaft and the pan gasket. Haven’t got around to fixing those leaks yet. I believe before i had these issues it would lock up in 4th gear fine but i never paid too too much attention too it.

I tried unplugging the 4 pin connector today and went for a drive. Car responded much better, with TCC plugged in car would always jerk at 50 kilometres per hour no matter on throttle position, it was like a barrier. Now the car would go above 60. i felt it shift into third gear nicely. I took it onto a road with a higher speed limit. I slowly accelerated up to 100 kilometres per hour and the car did well. held its speed and did not jerk or bog. turned around to head home and it did begin to bog and jerk slightly. (this time i gave it more throttle on the on ramp). After i got back to my neighborhood roads I did a couple pulls up and down the roads manually shifting the car. it seems I am able to control the jerking better when I choose when the car shifts. It seems to be the 2-3 shift that jerks very badly under anything more than 10% throttle. I tried holding the car in D (drive without the O around it) and it was still jerking around 60. I confirmed the carb wasn’t bogging out under load because I performed a brake stand and launch the car in first twice. 1-2 is good most the time, but after more testing i wanted to see if it would shift from first to second in drive (me not manually shifting) under WOT. it launched good revved out to 4500 tried to shift and jerked for a second and stalled the engine. issues seem to become worse when tranny temp raises. when i pull out of my driveway it seems to shift healthier and is able to reach higher speeds. after i have driven for 20 minutes and made stops engine heat soaking ect, it tends to shift worse and doesn’t go as high of speeds.

 

You did set that TV cable back up rite? Did it have spring tension when you pulled it and spring back on its own good? it's possible that the cable could've came off transmission side during carb swap. Or TV could be stuck. It's intresting that with the TCC unplugged it was doing OK for the ride.

 

When i disconnect the TV cable from the carb it the cable does pull itself back in towards the fire wall. and then i pull it back out to attach it to the carb. so i believe it has the spring tension if it is pulling itself back in towards the fire wall. I also did the TV cable adjustment 2 days ago, pressed in release tab, pushed the shroud of the cable all the way in and then went to WOT slowly and heard a series of clicks. so that tells me it has hopefully been adjusted correctly (if the cable is good that is). It would not hurt to jack up the car though and check the cable is still securely in the transmission like you stated. i have reason to believe it is because after the adjustment the 1-2 shift felt stronger and more “on time” but there is a possibility something could have happened on the tranny side, I will investigate that theory.

Took the car for another drive to work today. (I haven’t changed anything since yesterday. TCC unplugged and tv adjusted) I chose to only drive it in D (Drive without the overdrive circle around it). I babied the car the entire way. 1-2-3 shifts were all there, no jerking or bogging, I was able to reach 70 kilometres per hour and it held it at 2300 rpm no bogging. This was all no more than 10% throttle. I suspect when i put heavy load on the tranny is when it begins to jerk because yesterday the transmission would shift well under very light throttle load but any time you would actually step on it and it would have to shift under load the transmission would jerk and sometimes stall the engine. It’s interesting to me how having the TCC unplugged improved my shifting but it still jerks hard under load.

 

You are destroying your transmission by continuing to drive it like this. In fact, it might already be toast. Not even convinced this actually started as a transmission problem since it involved a change of fuel system, but it is time to find a good mechanic and stop guessing. Someone with experience needs to physically see this car and figure what was boogered up in the most recent "mods". Counting on you to keep us updated. We may never know....

 

Its just difficult because this is my only commuting car right now, my truck is down right now so this is what i rely on to get to work. My father is a tech of 20 years but he sadly lives in the province over, I have been getting opinions and ideas from him as well, but like you said it’s hard when it’s not physically in your hands. I do work in a shop as a tire tech I’ll ask the journeyman if he can do an inspection for me possibly at a cheaper cost, funds are tight at the moment.

I have tripled checked all my work after the carb swap and it all seems okay. The car came with certain vacuum lines plugged off and after the swap i kept the same lines plugged over. i took pictures and videos to ensure all vacuum lines went back to their respective ports and that all the ones that were plugged to begin with remained plugged. The only thing that could be considered janky about the swap to me is that i had to re use the gasket that seats the carb to the intake manifold. i’m going to test that for air leak but that shouldn’t cause the tranny to jerk. I’ve had cars with horrible air leaks at the carb and it never did that to me. The other thing was when i got the carb it would not run with the factory inline fuel filter. I took it out to test if it would run and it fired off. I had no factory fuel filter laying around but I had a wix see through filter that just connects into a fuel line. I am running that instead of my inline filter. I don’t see how this could cause jerking under load as there is still a fuel filter in it (and it can still do a WOT pull in first gear)so i don’t see how the fuel filter change would cause the transmission to refuse to shift. I even owned another car with a 2.8L carb and ran it without the inline filter because it was clogged and i didn’t care about the engine. it did many pulls under WOT no filter and shifted fine. If it is related to the carb swap something must have happened with the TV cable. I will talk to the journey man

 

Update on situation. 2 days ago i decided to give it a new filter and fluid to see if it would help anything. after i dropped the pan i was met with quite a surprise. The pan had been bottomed out before as well as the oil pan (i was aware of this but didn’t think too much if it). I dropped the pan and the filter had been broken in half. So just the tube part of it was remaining in the transmission but the flat filter portion was gone, not even in the pan. Previous owner had bottomed out the pan, i’m assuming broke the filter and cracked the pan (because there was a bead of weld in the pan) and didn’t care to replace the filter with a new one and put it all back together. I can’t believe someone would be so carless. I’m assuming clutch material and other crap got into my valve bodies and that is what is causing me issues. ( there was some material in the pan, nothing extremely crazy but i’d say moderate. it does drive better with a new filter and fluid but problem persists. time for a rebuild lol. can’t believe this could have been prevented. Appears that it was just coincidence that it started after the carb had been swapped. one of those things that throws you off big time when trying to diag haha.

 

Thanks for updating us. It is nice to see the diagnosis result.

One of the hardest parts about old vehicles is fixing all the shenanigans that occurred with a previous owner. I have found all my old cars and trucks to be fairly reliable once I get all that stupid stuff fixed. My wife drove her 1987 IROC daily for years and it was pretty dependable because I fixed everything and kept it well maintained. I still drive my 1985 regularly and do very little repairs and maintenance.

 

I totally agree with you, I put a decent amount of work into making the fuel system reliable, brakes and im going to check my timing soon, the engine has a slight hesitation when starting after a heat soak, but always starts. i heard it could be a symptom of off timing. But other than the the engine always starts, has never stalled on me driving doesn’t over heat it’s been very reliable even with the dying tranny. It’s got a lot of life left in it. It makes me wonder why it was parked for so long when i got it. Was it bottomed out and didn’t have the money to fix the damage, paint was also stripped for some reason. bit of body damage looks like it was pelted with rocks. Nothing i can’t fix i just wish i had the story on this old girl.