904 is driving me to insanity....

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66durgederp

66durgederp

"pull hard, itll come easy"
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just installed and road tested my kick-*** shift "correction" kit in my 87 vintage police car lockup 904, adjusted the bands, built an accumulator blocker rod, and removed the accumulator spring. the kit did everything i wanted it to, raised the shift points, helped the kickdown, increased lockup engagement speed, however it didnt help the one thing i was really hoping it would. second gear shift under heavy load, only from a stop, and when in 2 or D. its a gliding shift, not a neck snapping tire chirping shift like I was hoping for. I've had this annoyance since day one with this thing. ITS MAKING ME LOSE MY MIND!!!! :banghead: now with that being said, starting from a dig, and manually hooking second, boom, shifts like I feel it should. same with regular cruising, up to half throttle, boom, nice awesome shift. this kit makes the trans actually shift down to second at about 20mph when coming to a stop, to the point where sometimes it will chirp the tires, so I highly doubt the band is the issue. I checked the 1-2 shift plug when I had the valve body out, everything looked kosher, no sticking in the bore or any gouging that would make me think there's a problem. so, any ideas? 1-2 shift valve spring/valve caddywhompus? governor on the fritz? all apologies for the novel, I had to vent. :banghead:
 
uh, did you write something - got caught up in the video...
 
Did you leave out the red circled chk ball?
Did you drill the spot where the little red dot is?
Did you drill the separator plate? (How much)
 

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nope.....the kit I got left the balls in, but only removed the two small balls in the bottom part of the valve body, and I drilled 3 holes just a scoche bigger in the separator plate, and one vent hole in the valve body right near the biggest valve, to create a vent. my body has 6 passages in the top left part of your pic trailbeast, anyway the 3 passages right next the slot where the red dot is, upper left, I drilled a .070 hole through the "wall" between the upper 2 passages. right above the valve.
 
superior trans inc. made the kit. they were big about 20 years ago from what i hear. this kit was from the late 80's sold through NAPA. My coworker bought it for his 69 fish slant/904 that he used to have but never used it, and when he moved he gave it to me. kind of sad when this brand new kit that was never opened is older than i am....sheesh lol whats neat-o about it is instead of removing balls, or replacing them with nylon p.o.s.'s that blow through the plate, it retained the OE steel balls, but opened up the pressure relief holes for more bleed-off control. Im very happy with it. I did add lubeguard friction modifier to the fluid, and after talking with my trans guy and explaining whats going on and what I did he mentioned that the modifier wil soak in the clutches and they need a few heat cycles and driving miles to disperse efficiently throughout the trans. (I added the modifier to help the lockup clutch in the converter, figured it could use all the help it could get, preventative maintenance type of deal) it is slowly getting better on the 1-2 shift, i shift it manually a lot of the time anyway, its just really annoying the hell out of me, set the rev-limiter to 5500 and GO!!!! HAHA!!!
 
tekslk said:
Sounds like kickdown might be out of adjustment.
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throttle wide open, upper rod slot fully seated on the carb stud with spring in place, arm on the trans as far back as it will go. correct right? I have a 3 piece linkage, adjuster is on the trans arm.
 
I haven't hooked a gauge up yet. after digging through books that I have what's the chances of the rear clutch pack getting tired? that's the last thing that would really make sense...
 
I don't know anything about automatics, but aren't you describing the "part-throttle kickdown" that can be added from later trans?
 
Wouldn't a 87 model have a 998 or 999 trans instead of a 904 which is what the kit was designed for ?
 
jos51700 said:
I don't know anything about automatics, but aren't you describing the "part-throttle kickdown" that can be added from later trans?
Click to expand...

Nothing of the sort. He's talking shift firmness, not the point at which it kicks down to passing gear, which is what the part throttle module affects.

RedFish said:
Wouldn't a 87 model have a 998 or 999 trans instead of a 904 which is what the kit was designed for ?
Click to expand...

As long as he's not using a lockup kit in a non-lockup trans. or vise versa the valve bodies are the same. The only thing different about 998's or 999's were they were made heavier duty (more clutch plates and 4 pinion planetary sets) and possibly had a lower gear set.
 
66durgderp you need to do the mod that trailbeast showed where you drill a partition and leave out a check ball. That'll improve the 1-2 shift no matter what gear the shifter is in.
 
I agree with TrailBeast & fishy68 regarding the check balls & partition. You could also have a leaking drum piston seal or servo that's bleeding pressure under load but not bad enough yet to cause slippage or problems at lower speeds. Also gotta be careful how much of that Lubeguard you put in. I've seen many transmission problems from guys putting too much in. If it were me, I'd drain all of it back out & refill it with Type F fluid. A friction modifier(Lubeguard) is counter active to what you want from your shift kit. While you have the pan off go back in & modify the partition & check balls.
 
thanks guys. this is why i love this place. ive heard about type f, B&M quickshift fluid is type F. I dug into my old repair manuals from the late 70s again, whats the chances the rear clutch is worn out? only used in all forward gears, i neglected to mention that from a dig, if I hammer down the trans will shudder. i thought originally it was the rear leafs wrapping up and my itty bitty 13's wheel-hopping. went to a parking lot and did a bunch of launches with 2 of my friends on either side watching and they said neither one of em saw wheel hop. the engine doesnt have enough nuts to slip it into third but worn clutches and piston seals would make sense to me. thats the ONLY thing i havent messed with.
 
That shudder from a launch in first isnt good at all. That sounds like a slipping rear clutch pack to me...
 
TheCraigMachine said:
That shudder from a launch in first isnt good at all. That sounds like a slipping rear clutch pack to me...
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I have a hunch you're right. I'm leaning towards piston seal though only because I JUST had the pan off and there was absolutely no schrapnel. I know it will eventually kill the ol girl though, but that's ok. I have an engine to build, I'll add a trans overhaul to the list. now whether it dies before the time comes, I don't know, but I'm still going to drive it like I stole it!
 
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