trans question

chevystudz7105 · October 19, 2008, 01:37:14 AM

i just had a th350 trans built for my 82 chevy truck. nothing real special about the build other then it has a reverse manual valve body in it. after i got it in the truck ive made probably 5 or 6 different 3/4mile runs down the road from my house and back and it shifted into each gear perfect, and in and out of reverse fine. well last night (friday) me and my buddy took it out for a longer drive sense i put insurance and plates on it. anyways i probably 5 miles away from my house and i pulled into a driveway to turn around. now when i shifted the truck into reverse you could feel it shift into reverse but it would not move. (like you could feel it hit soon as you put it in reverse but nothing after that) only way it would back up is if you really give it some gas adn even with doing that it barely backed up. and when u give it that much gas you can smell something like either burnin trans fluid or a burning clutch like a clutch is slipping. but all forward gears still worked fine. only other difference i noticed in forward gears is half hte time it would not shift hard at all from 1st to 2nd or 2nd to 3rd like it did before.

anyways i took it out to my buddies house and made probably 5 passes down his drag strip. truck is runnin awesome shifting awesome, but still not going into reverse. well on my 6th pass i went ot shift to 2nd and it would not shift into second until i let off the gas. so after that happened twice i said im done beating on it so i pulled up to the house. after i went to leave i had to coast backwards down the driveay cuz reverse still wasnt working the best. well i went ot shift into drive and nothing. no forward or reverse gears. so i put it in drive and gave it some gas and it was like there was a stuck valve in the valve body that opened up and the truck slammed into the gear. its done that twice to me and i have parked it since then.

my trans guy was suppose to come look at it today but i never heard from him or seen him so i duno whats going on. hopefully i will beable to get ahold of him tomorrow

i hope this all makes sense but does anyone have any idea what this could be? and isnt reverse and 1st the same gear? if so why would it run fine in 1st but not work in reverse unless i really get in the gas and still it barely backs up.

thanks for any help. just looking for something else i may beable to bring up to him when he comes to check it out

TBigLug · October 19, 2008, 01:40:40 AM

I've had a couple do this. One was leaking trans. fluid and as it got low the shifting got worse. Other the front pump was going out so it couldn't provide enough pressure to hold the clutches. Hope it helps. Look up Mudbuster, he'll probably be able to tell you more.

chevystudz7105 · October 19, 2008, 01:41:37 AM

im not leaking any fluid i know that but i didnt think about the pump going bad

Mudbuster · October 19, 2008, 02:18:55 AM

I know this may seem like a stupid

but did you check the tranny fluid when this first started

with low fluid you usually lose reverse 1'st and it won't shift as hard.

chevystudz7105 · October 19, 2008, 02:45:05 AM

yes i did that was the very first thing i checked when this started. fluid is right up where it should be. still nice and pink to doesnt smell burnt or anytyhing

Mudbuster · October 19, 2008, 02:30:39 PM

If the fluid isn't burnt than I would have to guess there's something wrong in the valvebody.

If the pump was bad or there was a torn seal I'd expect the fluid to smell burnt.

chevystudz7105 · October 19, 2008, 02:38:07 PM

alright well im going ot call the trans guy here as soon as i get done painting the drivers door on my othertruck and hopefully he will come check it out today for me

Kodiak450r · October 21, 2008, 01:42:59 AM

i'd vote for faulty install of the valve body. probably had a very small amount of dirt present and it's lodged itself inside a valve where it shouldn't be you'd be surprised how much difference it can make. had a trans go because i had a pressure valve hanging up on WOT shifts so it would slip.

chevystudz7105 · October 21, 2008, 01:58:45 AM

this didnt dawn on me until a lil while after i made the first post, but im kinda leaning towards something hanging up a valve. a while back i swamped the old motor in the truck in my buddies pond and at the time i had the manual trans in the truck. well the radiator that was in teh truck there was nothing blocking the holes for trans lines so all that real fine silt and water and all that other

had to of gotten into the trans cooler part of the radiator. i did run a can of stuff thru it that is suppose eto flush the lines out but its no garuntee that it got everything out. and maybe when i started running the truck more that trans fluid flowing thru there freed something up and is now caught in the valve body. so this weekend im dropping the pan and my trans guy is coming out tot he house and we are going to go into it as far as we can without pulling the trans out and see if we cant figure out what the deal is.

cuz the first few times i drove the truck it ran awesome. never had any issues shifting so maybe a lil bit of sand or something got in there and is causing me all these problems now.