Hydramatic shifting

I searched around and couldn't seem to find a thread to answer my questions so I figured I would just ask.

I'm working on a 49 Pontiac with a straight 8 and hydramatic. I have it running good and changed the tranny filter and was blown away by how clean the transmission was when I removed the pan. The car had sat for a long long time and its amazing to me that it even runs and it runs good!

The question I have is this, when I drive the car it wants to rapidly shift through the gears and gets itself up into high gear even though you arent going very fast or accelerating very quickly. Just like starting out in 1 then 2,3,4 fairly quickly.

Is there any adjustment for this or is this how they behave?
this is my first exposure to this engine/tranny combination and I'm learning, but loving it as well....such a cool machine.
Thanks!

 

If you watch the linkage connected from the carburetor down to the trans,
as you open up the carb you will see it pushing or pulling on a lever on the side of the trans. Which ever way it's moving as you open the carb, you want it to move MORE in that direction by adjusting your linkage. The more it moves in the direction of the throttle opening, the more TV pressure, and the later it will shift. This is true for all cable or linkage operated transmissions.

 

Never owned a Poncho, but no Hydramatic I ever owned would shift automatically through all four gears. Most started in second and went up from there. First had to be selected manually.

Tough old tranny and a lot of fun to play with.

jack vines

 

I don't think the rod adjusts the shift points. It controls the pressure.

Try reading some of the B&M Hydrostick info on hamb. Dualquad55 made some posts about that shift rod and shift points.

 

It may be a good question to ask over here as well:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/group.php?groupid=791

It is the hydro-tech social group.

 

What potshot wrote. And if the throttle pressure rod is not connected or is missing it will shift 1,2,3,4 very quickly because of lack of throttle pressure.

All of the hydro's that I have owned shifted 1-4 when starting in D. The older ones had park in R.

Dave.

P.S. Be careful not to get the throttle pressure too high as this will cause the kick-down point to be very high and could cause an old engine to toss a rod.

 

The few Hydramatics that I remember driving years ago all seemed to have a fairly early 1-2 upshift, especially at light throttle. I don't think this is really a flaw or much of anything to worry about. First gear is a fairly low ratio and really just used to get the car moving from a standing start. It seemed like you were in second gear before you got thru the intersection most of the time.

There may be some adjustments, as mentioned above, to delay the remaining upshifts. But by delaying the upshifts you may also experience a harsher shift feel. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, unless it knocks your fillings loose when it upshifts!

 

I own a 1948 OLDS with HYDRAMATIC,it is normal that it shift quickly 1-2-3-4 if your acceleration is slow
If you push harder on the gaz it will shift at hyher speed.

 

Not all hydramatics started in 1st. My 1950 Olds, if in drive, starts in 2nd. Starting in low it starts in first and shifts to 2nd. Throttle pressure on the old transmissions controls the shift points.

 

The rod controls throttle pressure. Throttle pressure controls light and part throttle shift points. For one of several possible reasons, old Hydra-Matics tend to have decreasing throttle pressure over time, which eventually requires a linkage adjustment to restore the original settings.

 

Awesome, thanks for all the great responses, I'm going to play with the rod adjustment a little at a time.

Thanks for the good input on a similar driver Motorguy, good stuff