Pat's Tranny Blues

[apowell@ezlink.com]

> Pat Dooley wrote:
> > 
> > Subject says it.
> > My 86 5kt(2WD) will not shift when cold.  I can let the car idle for
> > 5-10 minutes in the morning and it shifts ok.  Otherwise, its drive
> > around at 20-30 mph until things heat up enough to make the thing shift.
> >  To make things worse, it seems to be taking longer for it to start
> > shifting every day.
> > Somebody please tell me this not major trouble.  I have plans of
> > installling a 5spd, but not just yet.

Mike added some good comments.  Pat, this is probably not good news, but a 
total transmission fluid change - to synthetic ATF - is likely to be your best bet. 
 In the process, the mechanic can see if odd bits are in the pan.

The common problem which Mike alluded to is the valve body.  These are 
prone to sticking either in use or after rebuilds.  It took three months after a 
rebuild this summer for the valve body in our 200 to start shifting immediately 
in the AM when the car was cold.  Prior to that time, it would not shift up from 
first until it had been driven close to a mile.

During the rebuild, the gent doing the work kept the car perhaps two extra 
weeks - repeatedly removing and cleaning the valve body, finally installing a 
known good used one (for one-third the new price), and it still would NOT shift 
correctly.  He said the last one which gave him this problem was in a domestic 
car - and it took six months to settle down and shift.  Fortunately, ours decided 
to cooperate in three months.

Provided there's no evident mechanical problem, a fluid change might help 
things out.  It also would not hurt to try Militec-1 in the tranny (I know, I'm 
usually the first one to blow the whistle on oil additives, but I and at least one 
other lister have used this stuff and gotten some help from it.  You can find a 
website for Militec-1 at: http://www.apdinc.com/Milstart.htm.  No endorsement 
of this website, but it helped me find the stuff.

Good luck.


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Al Powell
In Fort Collins, lovely northern Colorado
Home: 970/407-9609
Web: http://www.ezlink.com/~powells/
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