I've got a 61 Caddy with the original 390 and hydramatic transmission. The transmission will shift great into reverse after I first start it up but when I drive it around a little bit it won't reverse at all. All it does is chatter like a metal on metal noise. It shifts fine into all other gears. It's not the linkage because I have already adjusted that. It does leak fluid out of the torus cover so I have made sure that the level is good. With that in mind, does anybody have any idea what it could be. Any help would be appreciated.
hit it with a hammer first if that don't work i'd say its time for a rebuild! sound like a flow problem but a guess like that is like a fart in the wind
you have to do what i did,find an old trans guy that knows these transmissions.ive had mine out and gone through twice only to get a different problem at two different shops.if the torus is leaking your losing pump pressure and these transmissions are very sensitive to pressure changes,when the car is cold the fluid is thick making it shift.when it gets hot it gets thin and cant fill in the part its leaking past such as an o ring or seal.i know you have to have special tools to work on these and finding a shop with the tools and knowledge to fix the trans is hard.if you google jetaway trans there is a guy that sells parts and can recommend someone in your area to go to.i finally got a guy in his sixties that rebuilds dragster transmissions to do mine and he even put it on a trans dyno so he could test it before i installed it for the third time,lucky for me hes a friend of a friend of mine or it would have been very expensive.
Ok, thanks. I was afraid that I would have to take it to a trans shop, but I guess thats what I have to do. Thanks for the info.
I will second Pitts64 and also check the governor. Dave is also the man for parts for these babies. I have a front pump seal leak currently but runs fine as long as I keep it topped off. Hope to fix the blood trail soon though.