Hey everyone,
I have an emergency here. I've put together a ground pounding small block,
700R4 and 3.73 posi and stuffed them in my '79 silverado. The scary part is
that I did it all on a 17 year olds budget at around $1800. A budget like
that lends itself to corner cutting. The tranny came from a friends 84 buick
station wagon he used to run over mailboxes, portapotties and varius
streetside shrubs before he cut the car up and parted it out. The tranny saw
several nuetral drops, but worked fine when the car was last run. I pulled
the valve body, and with the exception of a shattered accumulator spring and
browned fluid, the tranny was awesome. I installed a stage 2 shift kit and
put her back together.
I put her in the truck, filled her up with dexron, adjusted the linkage and
ran her through the gears , adding fluid, just before I pulled it up to 2
grand for the cam break in.
After I adjusted the lifters, I took the truck to my work to weld the flows
on and she will not upshift from first gear. I DID NOT have the TV cable
hooked up at that time which everyone told me was my problem. The cable was
not long enough so I rigged it with wire and tried it again. No shifty again.
And yes, I did have the TV cable adjusted correctly with proper throw, etc. I
even pulled the tranny pan to verify the throttle valve was working, through
it's entire range, with the throttle movement. The tranny will go in reverse
and into first with no problem. It even shifts reasonably hard as it's
supposed to into first and reverse.
I could not get a hold of my friend who owns a tranny shop today as he was
out and about today. I talked with one of his employees and called other
tranny shops all giving the same reply of "bring it in, we have to see it". I
have about $100 dollars I can afford to spend which will not cover bringing
the truck to a tranny shop. I can do the repairs myself if I knew what to buy
and what fix. My shop manual offers "misadjusted TV cable, misadjusted
intermediate band or internal fault" as causes for not upshifting from first.
I'm confident it is not the TV cable as it is working. However, I could
understand misadjusted intermediate band or internal fault because I noticed
that past where the shiftpoint should be, if I let off the throttle, as if to
force it to shift, the truck "freewheels" as if in nuetral. The truck had an
8.5:1 cr before and it slowed down quickly, with the current 10.2:1 I would
expect the engine to slow the truck down even faster, especially with the
lower first gear than the turbo 350. Does this sound like the intermediate
band could be misadjusted or even broken so that the transmission is shifting
into second, but the band is not catching?
I'm lost. All my transmission books are too old to cover 700R4's. Can anyone
suggest a good book or website or anything that would help me here. I've
heard the factory GM manuals are good and very detailed. I'm sure they make
one for the 700R4, can anyone suggest if it's a good investment?
Please help! I should be able to get a hold of my tranny shop owning friend
tomarrow, but I don't know what he will say. If you could offer any advice I
could really use it! Thanks,
Dustin
50 & 53 GMC 1/2 tons
48 GMC 3/4 ton
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