I haven't posted in awhile... I've been slowly working on my 1972 plymouth satellite 318 with my dad. After replacing a lot of the original parts to make it safe and to pass inspection, I was finally able to drive it a little more than just up and down the driveway. Leaving the driveway and going up the street, I could tell there was a problem. It seems like my transmission won't shift into 2nd (it's an auto). It'll rev up there, and then won't shift, and when I let off the gas, it'll rev up and down over and over. It might have shifted into 2nd once when I had a little speed, but let off the gas completely, but I was too scared to drive it very far to tell for sure.

Now, the guy who had it before me wasn't very smart. He bought a kickdown system for the car, but when I bought it from him, we realized the kickdown system wasn't even hooked up. I'm guessing he put it on incorrectly and it fell off when he was driving it and didn't fix it. I don't know how long he drove it like this and I know that it damages the transmission.

I should also mention that we put a shift improver kit on it as well. Fairly confident my dad knows how to put that in correctly, but just in case, could that be a problem?

So, does my problem sound like a transmission problem? Or is it something else, my dad said it might be sticking pistons? I'm still learning about all this stuff, but any thoughts would help me!

 

There are several possibilities

1--There might actually be something internally wrong

2--The linkage might be out of adjustment and you might not be getting the actual lever on the transmission selected into 2 or drive

3--Someone may have installed what is known as a "manual shift" valve body. These come in at least two different configurations --standard shift pattern and "reversed," which means that 1 and 3 are reversed in position

 

Kevin -

What you're describing sounds like a blown band adjustment brace. (Not sure it's real name, but it's a 1" x 3" rectangular piece of metal that holds tension on the bands.) If that's broken, you will also find a wedge shaped piece of metal floating around the pan or on top of the valve body.

Either way, you're going to have to drop the pan and valve body to see.

Also, assuming you have a standard valve body (no one puts a "shift kit" on a manual VB), running without a kickdown linkage can build up pressure in the fluid circuits and mess things up. Manual VBs don't use the kick down.

Archer

 

That might something we could check pretty easily, I will have to ask my dad about this tonight.

 

all those parts can wear
http://www.transmissioncenter.net/dodge.htm
has all the replacment and repair kits if you want to do it yourself

 

I don't think my dad has all the special tools needed to do a kit and I also don't want to spend a few thousand on a new transmission if I don't have to. I'm hoping that there is something else to blame.

 

We checked pretty much everything and its all like it's supposed to be according to the book, so I'm pretty sure it's just the transmission going bad. Acts like it's not getting enough pressure or something. I'm going to try to find a place around here that can do a rebuild on my transmission, probably the best option.

 

Before you rebuild it MAKE sure the throttle pressure is working Too much and it won't shift