th400... problem from 1st to 2nd

Sometimes it does it and sometimes it doesn't, but from first to second gear it sound like it's kinda shaking or rattling from 1st to 2nd gear. I pulled the pan off tonight (never done any work on a tranny before) and everything looks okay but not sure what I'm looking for. I was told to look for brass shavings and don't see anything there. There was a little gray slime in the bottom of the pan but read that that was normal.

I bought a new filter and gasket (old gasket seemed to be leaking), but was wondering if there is anything else I can look for while the pan is down before I put the new filter and gasket on. Took some pics but again don't know what I'm looking for.

 

Pull your yoke out and check for any slop in the output shaft. It's a start.

 

Cool, thanks that's what I figured I need to check next.

 

May sound stupid but look at your trans mount .

 

All's I can tell you is those metal shavings the guy had you look for is the sprag gear ,They are known for breaking ,Their brass,Thats all I know ,I send transmission's out .

 

That doesn't sound stupid to me... if it's slipping it could very well be there. Maybe it's not tightened down enough or loosened up somehow.

 

double post

 

Did you check your U-joints? I've had sloppy U-joints make all kinds of funny noises, esp. on a transmission that shifts hard.

 

If all else fails to fix it... try putting some lucas in it...

 

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I will go through the checklist and see what I come up with. Thanks again.

 

the sprag is not brass....it is hardened steel rollers on a hardened steel race. the ONLY brass is under the babbit thrust washers. Pull the governer out and see if it is sticking. It's under the four bolt cover ,hold it upside down by the gear and press in on the fly weights. The valve should move up and down without sticking. If thats ok , the problem is in the stack, it will have to come out for a R.D.I. Lucas is good for our business.....it doesn't "fix" anything. Bryan

 

I'm with replacing the governor, they do go bad. Any box shop should have them for exchange or be able to get you one. Try a junkyard governor if a yard will part it out of a whole unit.

Bob

 

lucas is great stuff. it can't hurt in any auto trans.this is not a commercial.i put it in all of mine jim

 

I may have found the problem or at least A problem. The nut on the tranny mount had slipped down some how and a few of the threads are stripped. It wasn't completely loose but definitely not tight enough. Should I run a die over the same size or go down a little smaller... maybe a metric size?... or will this mess up all the threads?

 

So the tranny mount didn't fix the problem... although I'm glad I fixed it.

The real problem was a lack of research done by this newbie. When I was hooking up the vacuum line my father-in-law just said to take a piece of steel line and put a piece of rubber hose on each end. What he didn't tell me was how long the steel piece needed to be. I did some more research and found that you should run no more than about 3" of rubber hose on each end. I had way longer pieces and had just used what I had in the garage at the time. One end was too thin wall hose and was collapsing when I punched it a little. I got a nice long piece of steel line now and shorter rubber hoses and this seemed to fix the problem (only did one test run so far).

I'm going to drive it around a bit and see if it starts acting up again.

Thanks to everyone for your help. I knew nothing about transmissions before this and now feel like I can do most routine maintenance now (on at least my transmission).

 

check the govenor as its probably sticking!

 

What about the modulor valve? I see you have a hose clamp on it. Do you have vacuume to it?

 

Yeah, it seems to be working correctly now. I still need to take it out tomorrow and drive it a bit to see for sure, but as for now it's fixed.

I checked the governor while I had everything out and it looked good. I think it was just the vacuum line.