PAUL, I hope you can help me too. I posted a few days ago and you can see the bulk of my concerns but here is an update. I had Reverse and 1st drop on my rebuilt C4. I adjusted the linkages, topped fluids etc, no help. I readjusted the low band, two turns out and now I have Reverse adn 1st!!. BUT..... Reverse seems to sometimes not go into reverse unless I shift to drive first. maybe 20% of the time. AND, more importantly I cannot shirt to 1st manually? I works fine in D though? THOUGHTS??
Junior, It works fine in drive... What year C4 are we talking about? When you shift to manual low what happens? When you put it in reverse what happens? Did you check the oil with the engine idling in Park? Are you using type F fluid? Did you torque the band adjuster to 10 foot pounds and back it out? if so it should have been backed out three turns - if you didn't torque it tp 10 foot pounds then it isn't adjusted. yet. When are you trying to shift to manual low? (when it doesn't go in)
Thank u Paul Thank u fo lr writing back Paul. I'm cannot remember the exact year of the trans but I think it is an early one. As a note I do not have the vac mod or kickdown hooked up. I adjusted the band two days ago and got reverse back. It was not 10ft ibs. My torque wrench will not fit in the trans tunnel of my stang. I did not get manual low back though. When I first put the trans in reverse and man low were fine. When I put it in drive it will shift perfectly up and down. If I'm slowing down and pull it to 1st it does not go down. It stays in 2nd. From a dead stop if I pull it to 1st it goes to 2nd. I am running a synthetic trans fluid. It is full at idle in park warm. Not burnt, very clean.
I forgot to finish my thought. The band adjustment. I did readjust the band manually by feel. Tightened down an backed off two turns gave me reverse back.
OK, first; synthetic fluid will not work well in your C4. second; manual low will not engage until you get below 20 - 25 mph in a stock C4. If it is a "Green Dot C4" (1964 - 1966) it has D1, D2, and Low gears. In D2 it starts in 2nd and shifts to 3rd. In D1 it starts in low shifts to 2nd and then to 3rd. In low it should start in low gear and then around 25-30 it will shift to second - it will not hold first gear. In Drive the low/reverse band is not used - the one-way clutch is all that holds it in low gear. You should feel no difference when you use manual low and low in drive. If this is an early C4 and it has had the valve body changed to a later version the ports do not line up with the ports in the case and you may not have proper control over the gears with the shift lever. You can find out what your the C4 is by looking right above the shift lever on the driver's side of the C4. There are two circles (you will have to use a wire brush to get the grease out of the way) in one of those circles there will be two numbers. On is the month and the other is the year. The other circle has one number and it is the day of the month.
Paul, You certainly have a huge depth of knowledge on these old tranny's! 1. I am more than happy to drain/fill to TYPE F. Easy easy. 2. - I believe it to be an early C4. I've had it behind this Cleveland for about 6 years. It always shifted perfect but under heavy Nitrous use snapped a circlip internally and forced a rebuild last year. It does have a shift kit in it, same one it always had. So I can pull it to manual low at anytime and it engine breaks and holds 1st geat just fine. After the rebuild it worked like it did for many years. All was fine including manual low till about a week ago. Nothing changed but Reverse quit and I noticed at the same time driving home than manual low quit but "D" shifted fine. I took your advice and others and adjusted the Band and Voila I got reverse back but still no manual low. Could it be still a band adjustment? And/or the SYN fluid slipping etc etc? Could we talk via telephone? You can send your tele to my email. Jarrads@me.com THANKS!
PaulS I hope you can help. I just finished rebuilding my C4,(it wouldn't go into drive before) I finished it, drove it for about 2 miles and it went BAM! and then it lost all forward gears, and won't lock in park. It still wasn't shifting into drive. I am more concerned with the not moving at all problem though. The shifting is because I think that TCI sold me a bum valve body which has been a problem for a long time!
It sounds like the lock-ring failed on the rear planet. The entire output shaft slips back when that happens. I don't think the valvebody caused this problem - did it shift properly while it was running?
Paul, thanks for responding so quickly. I feeling pretty disheartened about this, so thanks. I will bet that is the problem, but I am going to pull it out and pull it aprt and see. After having it apart I am not afraid to tear into it, and I will know more then. Y'know it shifted exactly as it did before I rebuilt it, which is why I rebuilt it, it would not shift into drive, had to be manually shifted through first and second, but wouldn't down shift from 1 to 2 in drive, but would upshift in drive. (I'm a bit hazy on this last part, I hadn't driven the car in almost a year). I tried replacing the rod, vacuum mod, adjustments, etc. but nothing worked. Sorry for addressing two issues! Thanks again for your help.
Well, if it had low and second and reverse then the packs are all ok. If you can move the output shaft rearward after removing the driveline then the lock ring is at least one of the problems. Not shifting into high could be a stuck governor, bad vacuum modulator or sticking valves in the valve body - 2-3 shift valve, modulator valve or a warped valve body. If it had no reverse and no high and no engine braking in manual low then it could be the high clutch as dicussed and/or the reverse band. It sounds like you had multiple problems but that you corrected all but one when you "fixed" it. Let me know if I can be of any help. NOTE: you can replace the "circlip" with an externam snapring of the correct thickness or machine (or have it machined) the groove to take a thicker snap ring. What kind of shift kit did you install?
Thanks Paul, I'm gonna pull it apart in a few days, it's just such a bitch gettin it in and out of there. I did not put a shift kit into it, it has a TCI streetfighter valve body. I will be looking for the problems you mentioned, if nothing is horribly damaged hopefully it will be an "easy" fix. Thanks again for your help, you've been great!
ok, i've read through the posts and was not able to find the answer i'm looking for so here go's. i just finnished rebuliding my 74' C4 replaced everything minus hard parts and didnt touch the valve body. got it all hooked up, got about 10 miles out of it and it stopped shifting into my forward gears, reverse works fine. is it a possabilty that my valve or valves are sticking? or does it sound more like a pump issue? or am i completly off ?
If reverse is working but you don't have any forward gears the the problem is not getting pressure to the forward clutches. It could be broken sealing rings on the stator support (the netal rings on the part of the pump that goes into the transmission) or a bad apply piston seal on the forward clutch. If you didn't have the pistons out and replace those rubber seals then that would be my best guess. Make sure you fill the transmission with the engine idling in Park - check it again. If the level is right then you should get ready to pull it out to make it right.
i replaced the metal rings in which your infering, i replaced them with matching rings from the rebuild kit (size and diamiter). this pistion your talking about, is it located in the valve, or within the clutch drum, cause if its the on in the clutch drum i did replace the "o" rings that go in it.
Jerry, I enjoyed talking with you on the phone. I think you may have to take it at least down to the point you can air check everything to find where the problem is. Keep us posted, OK?
