5kt slush box shifting

[Leif Pedersen <leif@mail.execpc.com>]

I was over at my mechanic yesterday, and he has a problem with a customer's
car transmission.  It is a 1985 5kt with a slush box.  His customer had
ordered a used replacement transmission himself, from one of the sources
that has been mentioned here without too many glowing terms, and John only
needed to install it.  Since this was only replacing the transmission, the
differential was never removed from the car.  Now when the car is cold, it
will not upshift.  Goes into first fine, and after a couple of blocks of
driving it will shift and work just fine.  Until warmed up, it refuses to
upshift.  Any good suggestions on causes?  There is one area that he is
concerned with, he neglected to measure (and adjust if needed) the shim
washer(s) for the transmission final drive end play adjustment.  Talking to
the dealer, they do not even have the parts on hand for this.  But anyway,
can this shim adjustment affect the upshifting of the transmission?  He is
very willing to take it apart again and adjust the shim thickness, since it
was an over-sight of his employee, but would hate to do it if it will not
fix the upshift problem.  Incidentially, how critical is this end play
adjustment.  Since the shim thickness variations are 0.4mm (approx. 0.016
inch) it would not seem to be a critical adjustment.
Of course, since his customer purchased the transmission, he is caught in
the middle.  The customer wants his car running, and since he is right
there instead of at the other end of a phone line, he gets the brunt of the
customers frustration and would definitely like to help him out.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and I will forward all replies
to him.

Thanks,

Leif