Got a hold of a 55 olds about a year ago and had it as a daily driver for a few months. Did the usual work after it had sat for 11 years or so in my grandpa's barn but nothing to the trans. Anyway, in the mornings, or if the car sat for more than a couple hours, I started noticing that the tranny wasnt shifting at all until I had made it say 20 yds out of the driveway, I started having to go further and further before getting a shift but from that point it was always smooth sailing. I got to the point where I would let it idle in gear for a few minutes before leaving and this seemed to solve the problem. But it continued to take more and more "warming up" to reach the point of being able to shift. I changed the fluid and checked the filter screen etc... didnt seem to help at all. I started getting desperate and would set the parking brake and block the wheels in the morning with the car in reverse and leave it idling (I had gotten sick of sitting out in the car for 10 or more minutes) well eventually the inevitable happened and i forgot to block it. took out a good row of sprinklers and a horse fence. only damage was to the rear bumper thank god. Anyway, I cant keep this stuff up and driving a mile or more before a shift in the morning is no way to live. Im 19 and dont have the greatest knowledge of all this stuff but I love working with it. My dad is a guru with just about anything mechanical and he is stumped, same thing with my grandpa. Nobody around here seems to know much about this tranny and judging by some other threads it seems its gonna cost me a good chunk of change for a rebuild. It seems knowledge on the hydramatics is pretty tough to come by. I have the original shop manual, about half of which is taken up by the hydramatic section(its just about all gibberish to me of course). So basically... what do you think my problem is, and can i fix it without a total rebuild?
I would suspect your problems come the long time it sat. I take it you did change the trans filter & fluid..??? If the old 55 is like my 60's Hydro you can get a problem of the vavle body and or the governor sticking....especially when cold and fluid is thick..You can still get filters for these trans....Try a NAPA or such...if not Google "Transgo". or "TransCo"..One or the other.. Also make sure the TP linkage from carb to trans os hooked up and adjusted right..You probably ought try to buy a shop manuall Good luck...
Another thing it could be is that the lip seals are old/hard and don't seal well until warm and more pliable. Throw a can of stop leak/seal softener in it and see if that helps. Never helped with anything I owned but it always seemed to work for friends/family. BUTCH.
This sounds like dried out seal bypass problems.I'd re-change the fluid, the filter and dump in a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil instead of the last quart of tranny fluid. It's helped a couple of Ford FMX's for me with similar problems. Jan
Oh yeah.....If you change the fluid I would go with the Ford type "F" fluid. I always used it as it had "more" body to it..didn't thin out with heat...as bad as Dexron... I still run type F in my TH-400's to this day...even race car.
you need to do searches for "hydra-matic" or "hydramatic" or "hydro-matic" or "hydromatic" or "hydro-stick" or "B&M hydro" you'll notice my user name in a lot of them. read all of those and then send me a private message,and we'll see if we can get that thing working. please don't drive it anymore until it's fixed properly,if you burn up the clutch plates or bands you are SOL
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