Transmission slipping into neutral at lights

Good call by deekster. Sorry to hear he was right!

Thanks. Right again. Unfortunately I missed the other 'worst case' where it leaves you stranded, which happened. Anyway, soon you'll be crankin along with no more transmission worries, right?!

thats the goal
hope to have it back by Tuesday
Kens performance comes very highly recommended around here. had some really sick cars at the shop including a 10 second 70's Z28 w/ 550 BBC and 5 speed

Finally got the car back today. 1 week in the shop and its all better.
Here is what i had done:
Full R&R of trans components (gaskets, seals, etc)
All new clutches, upgraded 2nd and 4th clutches.
transgo shift kit (awesome btw)
built torque converter by FTI
new chain and drive chain
fluid and filter

total cost was 2G's but it shifts like a dream now, even at WOT.

My only concern is i think i need an alignment because it seems like it wants to drift from side to side and it feels a little sloppy in the steering. maybe the sub frame wasnt aligned?

Check the steering rack bolts, make sure they tightened them up.

Ditto.....

alright will do.
here are the souvenirs i took home.
When i looked at my old clutches a lot of them were metal on metal too.

good call on the steering column. the bolt on the right side was pretty loose. feels much better in the corners now.

should i still get an alignment now?

When I had my cradle off, I took it in for an alignment (also did the struts & control arms). The guy said the alignment was off, but not by much, and he mentioned the cradle was perfect. I'm not sure the cradle can shift or not. We didn't do anything special when installing it.

Still having a problem with my transmission. It worked flawless for about 300 miles then i lost 4th gear while cruising on the highway one afternoon. Took it back to the shop and they fixed it. Said it was a piston that was slightly damaged and wouldnt engage 4th.
Drove it for 1 freakin day and today on the way home from work it does it again.

so i have no 4th gear. i have 3rd and 3rd with TC lockup.
What would be causing this?
The shop says everything was replaced. TC, clutches, solenoids, wires, etc.

The race shop i took it to came very highly recommended from several people but they dont normally work on 4T60e's or FWD cars.

The one thing that does stand out to me is the vacuum modulator they installed has 2 red stripes on it, where the stock one had one black stripe.
I thought this may have had something to do with it but when i swapped them i still had no 4th. It does shift crisper with the red striped one installed, but i wonder if that may be causing something internally to break.

Mr.Riviera wrote:

Still having a problem with my transmission. It worked flawless for about 300 miles then i lost 4th gear while cruising on the highway one afternoon. Took it back to the shop and they fixed it. Said it was a piston that was slightly damaged and wouldnt engage 4th.
Drove it for 1 freakin day and today on the way home from work it does it again.

so i have no 4th gear. i have 3rd and 3rd with TC lockup.
What would be causing this?
The shop says everything was replaced. TC, clutches, solenoids, wires, etc.

The race shop i took it to came very highly recommended from several people but they dont normally work on 4T60e's or FWD cars.

The one thing that does stand out to me is the vacuum modulator they installed has 2 red stripes on it, where the stock one had one black stripe.
I thought this may have had something to do with it but when i swapped them i still had no 4th. It does shift crisper with the red striped one installed, but i wonder if that may be causing something internally to break.

I think this could be one of 2 problems. Either the 1-2 solenoid is stuck or the splines on the 4th gear clutch hub are gone. If the 1-2 solenoid is gone, at hiway speeds you will still be in the right rpm range (around 1600 rpm at 65 mph I think) but you will go thru only 3 gears to get there (car will start off in 2nd gear from a dead stop in 2nd without much problem, you see).

Here is a link to a site with a picture of that 4th gear hub and a more detailed explanation:

http://www.tripleedgeperformance.com/No_4th_Gear.html

Happy hunting and maybe you want to talk to the shop (Q: when is a rebuild not a rebuild?!? A: when the erstwhile mechanic doing the rebuild keeps 1/2 your new parts for his own use because you don't appear to need them...) Basically this is a high mileage wear and tear problem.

Albertj

Thanks for the reply albert. Im leaning towards the 4th gear shaft. I dont believe it is starting in 2nd and im at 3000rpms at 70mph.
Hope they make a hardened 4th gear shaft for my 4t60e. It make keep failing because the shop installed aftermarket 2nd and 4thim clutches which may be adding extra stress on the other parts.

Mr.Riviera wrote:

Thanks for the reply albert. Im leaning towards the 4th gear shaft. I dont believe it is starting in 2nd and im at 3000rpms at 70mph.
Hope they make a hardened 4th gear shaft for my 4t60e. It make keep failing because the shop installed aftermarket 2nd and 4thim clutches which may be adding extra stress on the other parts.

Yeah... you'll have little problem getting the hardened shaft for the 4t60E - only took me a couple minutes to find this one. And a couple minutes more to find the one at this LINK. Yeah my guess is at 70 MPH indicated on the speedo you oughta be at ~1800-1900 RPM.

The original shafts were not hardened. Make sure the replacement **is**.

Albertj

Well odd thing is the trans shifted fine this morning. It was fine on the way home too except it seemed to hang onto 3rd for longer than usual.
I know im not crazy b/c when it happened yesterday it set the CEL for 1870 (generic trans slip detected)

Could it be an issue that i am only seeing when it is hot or do i have a servo/ solenoid sticking?

Mr.Riviera wrote:

Well odd thing is the trans shifted fine this morning. It was fine on the way home too except it seemed to hang onto 3rd for longer than usual.
I know im not crazy b/c when it happened yesterday it set the CEL for 1870 (generic trans slip detected)

Could it be an issue that i am only seeing when it is hot or do i have a servo/ solenoid sticking?

Hard to tell. With the splines, they wear down not break off. So it can work at times and not work other times -- just the not working happens more and more as you go.

If it was a stuck solenoid yeah it's plausible that whatever stuck it could have changed. Don't worry, it'll stick again just at the time that's right to really make you happy (not).