Transmission problem

Hi I havent been on here in a while, been extremely busy. Ive recently started having a problem with my rivi. I dont know if these transmissions are run off of vacuum at all or anything like that so any help is appreciated. What its doing is when im just normally driving the car (not even getting above 5 inches of vacuum) the trans will not shift out of first gear but if I let off the gas slowly it will shift into 2nd. Also if im driving the car in a neighborhood or something and say im around 1500 RPM's, and I let off the gas, the engine immediately kicks down to like 400-500 RPM's. Its actually stalled the car out twice now. If anybody has any idea it would be greatly appreciated, Thanks.

Forgot to mention, if im getting on the car though, the trans will shift completely fine like normal.

Your question about vacuum depends on what year and engine you have in your car. Your username would indicate your car is a 1995, but you posted this in Supercharged Series II tech. Please let us know what model & engine you have, as some years were different.

The car is a 95 but it has a 97 engine and transmission swap in it.[/b]

Okay, good to know. The low RPMs and stalling problem might indicate a stuck TCC (torque converter clutch). Any SES lamp illumination?

See thats the problem the car has all custom autometer gauges (they were like then when I got it) so none of the original stuff is there to tell me if something is wrong... =( Here is a picture of the gauge setup. https://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=538436&id=1496370272

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30723358@N05/4712892882/

Does it have the plug in OBD port under the driver side dash? If so, you may still be able to plug in and read some codes. Most AutoZone or like parts stores will do this service at no charge.

I just looked about twenty minutes ago and I didnt see one. What other options do I have to try to figure it out short of pulling the trans out and opening it up?

Good news: there's almost no way the previous owner modded your car to run a 13 sec 1/4 mile with no tuning. In order to do a custom tune, there needs to be a way to communicate with the PCM - whatever that way is, it's key to understanding what's going on with your transmission.

Look again under the driver dash, just right of the parking brake, there should be a plug that looks something like this:



If you can't find it, I'd contact the previous owner and ask them where the plug is at. They must know about this from all the work they did to the car. This OBD plug is key to solving your problem. You can plug in a scan tool to read the codes and also observe the state of the transmission, which is electronically controlled.

There are some other troubleshooting techniques you can try, such as testing RPM in different gears at different speeds to figure out what's going on. Otherwise, best action is to remove trans and tear down.

Is his car this one?:
https://rivperformance.editboard.com/for-sale-f22/12-second-rivi-for-sale-or-trade-t6515.htm

It looks for the world like rivmans old car.... the engine bay pics.. the gauges... the side exhaust before the rear wheels.......

if so, it has the 4t65-e in it, built with a Thrasher Shift Kit and ProTorque 3250 Converter...

Fastbuick95 wrote:

I just looked about twenty minutes ago and I didnt see one. What other options do I have to try to figure it out short of pulling the trans out and opening it up?

The OBD port holder in the RIv is weak.

Odds are your OBD port was pushed above the kick panel at some point. You might want to remove the panel (you'll need a nutdriver or screwdriver, you'll have to look and see) and look again for the trapezoidal female OBD-II connector. With me, that connector is a running joke between me and the mechanics at the local dealership. When they have serviced the car and had to sue that port they *always* shove it up above the kick panel and when I work on the car I usually take a moment to find it and put it back so it does not rattle.

...anyway, 95s had OBD-1 running thru the OBD-II connector. 96 and later had OBD-II. If your engine/trans swap was done right, then the PCM should have been replaced as well with a '97 and you'd be running OBD-II... which the AutoZone folks *can* read. Consider getting your own scanner, though.

Albertj

Yes it is rivmans old car. I got it from him about 3-4 months ago. And the computer is actually out of a 98 GTP. So i will go take a look at the kick panel and see if I cant track it down. I know the car is running on OBD II I just gotta find the connector. And I have a handheld scanner, just not one that goes in depth like my dads friend. He has a solice tech II so I just usually have him come over and plug it in in, its much more in depth in explaining whats going on.

Fastbuick95 wrote:

Yes it is rivmans old car. I got it from him about 3-4 months ago. And the computer is actually out of a 98 GTP. So i will go take a look at the kick panel and see if I cant track it down. I know the car is running on OBD II I just gotta find the connector. And I have a handheld scanner, just not one that goes in depth like my dads friend. He has a solice tech II so I just usually have him come over and plug it in in, its much more in depth in explaining whats going on.

You seem savvy, just not familiar that much with the RIv. It is *common* for that OBD connector not to be in its place. Reason to pull the kick panel is simple - to keep it from rattling it's best to hang it up in the wiring under the dash. So a peek at the panel may not be enough. It's simple to pull though, it'll be apparent when you look at the leading (near your feet) and trailing (near your knees) edges of the panel. Leading edge hooks into a plastic fixture on the firewall and the trailing edge screws into place.

Albertj
.

Albertj

Alright, and yeah I know alot about cars I just dont know much about this one yet. Ill have to pull it tomorrow and see what I can find, but thanks alot. Ill let you know what the scanner comes up as far as codes and problems.

Fastbuick95 wrote:

Hi I havent been on here in a while, been extremely busy. Ive recently started having a problem with my rivi. I dont know if these transmissions are run off of vacuum at all or anything like that so any help is appreciated. What its doing is when im just normally driving the car (not even getting above 5 inches of vacuum) the trans will not shift out of first gear but if I let off the gas slowly it will shift into 2nd. Also if im driving the car in a neighborhood or something and say im around 1500 RPM's, and I let off the gas, the engine immediately kicks down to like 400-500 RPM's. Its actually stalled the car out twice now. If anybody has any idea it would be greatly appreciated, Thanks.

Forgot to mention, if im getting on the car though, the trans will shift completely fine like normal.

Quote :

Alright, and yeah I know alot about cars I just dont know much about
this one yet. Ill have to pull it tomorrow and see what I can find, but
thanks alot. Ill let you know what the scanner comes up as far as codes
and problems.

So Chris,
After this whole page of nonsense and the time you took to waste everybody else's time, It comes out you know exactly,
#1 Where the car came from
#2 Who owned it (and you can try contacting him)
#3 How Highly Modified it is
#4 And you know how to fix cars and have access to a Tech 2.

Why are you wasting peoples time here when you know they could not possibly answer your troubleshooting questions with out guessing at best due to the nature of this specific car.

I'm sure a lot of people looked up information for a stock 95 before anything was let on that it had been swapped, and even then, you did not mention it had been swapped and extremely modified which makes it impossible to troubleshoot over the internet.

If you get no more help from anybody, you deserve it.

Just my opinion, and based on recent response, not always a popular one.

But I still think your a complete fraud for not disclosing what you knew in your first post.

Rick

Wow I can see some people on here are real friendly. Just because someone doesnt go about doing something the way you would does not justify you talking like that to me. First of all, the stuff I know about cars, is NOTHING computerized, ive only ever worked on carb'd V8's and that kind of stuff. Second, ive never even owned a front wheel drive car so I dont know if they are operated by vacuum, or electronic or anything like that. So is it really that big of a deal for someone who is trying to learn something about their car to go to the people that do know about them? Apparently so.

And actually in my first welcome post, I disclosed that I thought this is Rivmans old car. Alot of people asked me about it before I even knew he had been apart of this website. So the car is obviously well known with an entire build post on it. People on here know what the car has done to it, granted I should have said it from the beginning in this post and I apologize for that. But all of that was still unnecessary

(rick just gets grumpy now and then. Don't take it to heart.)

Considering Albertj, Karma and myself are the ones troubleshooting in this thread, I assume Rick means Fastbuick95 is wasting 'our' time when he says 'everybody'.

From my perspective, Fastbuick95 hasn't wasted any of my time. Considering he is a Newbie level member, and has only owned his Riviera a short time, I wouldn't expect him to know a lot. Albert and Karma can speak for themselves on the issue...

Fastbuick95 wrote:

Alright, and yeah I know alot about cars I just dont know much about this one yet. Ill have to pull it tomorrow and see what I can find, but thanks alot. Ill let you know what the scanner comes up as far as codes and problems.

ok

Albertj

AA wrote:

Considering Albertj, Karma and myself are the ones troubleshooting in this thread, I assume Rick means Fastbuick95 is wasting 'our' time when he says 'everybody'.

Exactly, Almost, Maybe and "I said everybody Else's time", not mine, as I personally refused to waste my time on trying to answer a questions that could not be answered, given the information presented.
I notice, you nor anybody else could definitively answer the transmission problem question given the info provided by the op at the time, especially with Statements like this.

Fastbuick95 wrote:

I just looked about twenty minutes ago and I didnt
see one. What other options do I have to try to figure it out short of pulling the trans out and opening it up?

As he refers to where the OBD 2 or ALDL connector is. Talk about playing naive at your expense.!!!!!

My point was, as I have posted above, and garnered so much negative attention for my position, that you were being had by a so called newbie, who continues to play the oh poor me, I don't know anything game.

Karma wrote:

(rick just gets grumpy now and then. Don't take it to heart.)

Now, Now!!!

Oddly the car just stopped having the problem. I went through everything, found the OBD port. There were a couple codes but nothing serious at all. Id like to know what the problem was though but it never threw a code or anything. Thanks for the help though guys.

Auto transmissions can be like that. Sometimes problems can be caused by debris in the valvebody, then it passes and things fix themselves. Just curious, what codes did you see?

There was an O2 sensor code, a MAP sensor, and a couple other ones that dont really matter. The O2 sensor is from having a catless exhaust as far as I know.