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Atx Shifting (not nec the bang theory)

T

tophe7d

CEG'er
Joined
Aug 20, 2007
Messages
180
Location
Chicagoland Burbs
So I've officially driven my wife crazy with reading all of the "Bang Shift" threads and bouncing ideas off her (she's not car savvy so I'm really bouncing them off myself :D ). Anyways, the point is after reading all of this I've started to put together a method of diagnosis and repair, but have a few questions that I have not seen referenced on the CEG.

Here goes:
I was watching the tach and listening to the engine and trans during shifting the last few days. What I noticed is that the car shifts through 1st and 2nd and 3rd nicely, but when going into O.D. there is a momentary plateau in RPM, yet the car is still accelerating and gaining speed? The RPM's then start to climb again and the car finally drops into O.D.. What I'm thinking is that the TC is locking during 3rd gear because the drop in RPM from 3rd to 4th is more significant than I would expect from O.D.. The other thing I noticed is that when it does get into 4th by ~45-50mph and I'm still accelerating to 55 or so the car will come out of lock-up and the RPM's will rise about 500 rpm until I reached the desired speed and then decrease by ~500rpm. It almost feels like it's a half-hearted downshif? The acceleration is constant. Why would the car reach lock up and why would it feel the need to downshift? This happens on flat stretches of road and not just hills. If it were only hills, I could see the possible need for a downshift, but not on a flat long stretch of road. As far as driving habits go, I do not mash the gas to the floor. In this day and age with the cost of gas, I cannot afford to race light to light anymore. The acceleration is constant and gradual.

The second issue is that the car has a shudder when going from steady state cruising to minor acceleration. It seems as though the converter won't come out of lock up? This is why I'm pretty sure the TCC is still somewhat working, but then again, I do have the 1-2 bang shift from time to time or after 70mph+ highway driving. I will add a little gas to either speed up to the new posted limit or get around someone (not floor it, but merely squeeze it). The car will shudder momentarily and them the RPM's will come up and off I go, no more shudder. It will then take it's time going back into lockup (drop ~500rpms). Is this an electrical/solenoid problem?

Car History:
The bang shift had been occurring for some time before I took delivery of the car from my parents and read about the TSS replacement. After replacing the TSS the bang shift was drastically reduced, but not remedied. The trans is the 2nd one in the car. It has ~80k+ on it the car has 117k+. I will be installing the trans-go kit within the coming weeks and will likely replace the TC come this spring (It has a nasty rear main seal leak, so the engine/trans will be coming out regardless). I'm hoping that the trans-go kit will remedy some of my problems.

I'm just looking for some other ideas on areas that I should look into. Should the TC be locking up in 3rd? That's what it really feels like especially since the car wants to gain only 500rpms after the car shifts into 4th and it's still accelerating???
Again, just looking for some insight. I'm very mechanically inclined, but Axt's still confuse me. :D

Thanks,

Chris
CEG Noob
 
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Just did the Trans-go kit and fluid change today. I'll report back with an update later in the week.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Chris :)
 
Ok, day one with the trans-go kit installed went like this...

Started up good, shifted smoothly and off I go to work. Car threw a CEL within 1 mile of the house. Not sure what it is yet as I didn't have time to get it read, but I do know that it has had some previous codes from the engine as well as trans that were erased during the install. Also want to note that it made the trip home from my friends house last night with no CEL (approx. 10miles including stop and go as well as constant cruising at 55mph). Anyways, back on task. The drive to work went well with only the CEL annoying me and not the shifting of the trans. On the way home from work, same thing. Every thing's fine and hunky-dory. No sooner do I finish telling my mother [on the phone] that I've got her old car running well and the trans working pretty good...

The car stalls right after I put it into reverse to back into my parking spot!!! :mad:

So, I shift it into park and restart the car. The engine zooms up to ~2100rpm and then calms back down. I let it settle for a moment and then put it back into reverse and the car stalls again. Again I put it back into park and restart the car. Same thing... Vrooooom and back down to normal idle. I then put into reverse after letting it settle and she tries to stall again, only this time I give it a little throttle to keep her alive. The engine does stay running and I back her in. I keep the car in reverse and the car stays running without the aid of the throttle. The idle still seems quite low (less than 500rpms) I and start to play with different gear positions (Park, Drive, Neutral and Reverse). The car only wants to stall when I put it in Reverse. Every time I shifted out of reverse, the rpm's wanted to race and then settle. Again, it only happened in Reverse, but it didn't stall every time??? I did have consistently low RPM's in reverse only.

I'm hoping that it's purely coincidental and the problem is the IAC, but I'm probably not that lucky. Reverse worked just fine when I backed out of my spot at work before heading home???

Any ideas of what I should be looking at? I have not changed the MLPS yet as suggested above. I wanted to see what the kit would do first and at this time I really don't have any additional funds to sink into this thing. Anything else I should be looking at??? I will try an idiot check tomorrow in the daylight, but I won't be able to get the codes read until late in the week/weekend.
:shrug:

Thanks again,

Chris
 
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Well after further archive searching I will see what my cost is on a MLPS tomorrow and try that out. It looks like ol' Tony is definitely on to something, but I do not believe it's related to the stalling.

Any suggestions welcome. :)
 
Day two of good driving, but weird idling. It was a little funny right when I started it up this morning as well as putting it in drive. I'm off to Autozone to get the codes read tonight and do some more homework for the weekend.

MLPS on order. Should be here by the end of the week. :D

Chris
 
Well after getting the codes read at the Zone, I found that I had the code of death P1744 as well as a 401 and a 420. I also noticed that I was a quart low on my trans fluid (my fault for not double checking it). Anyways, I cleared them out Wednesday, filled the trans up properly and didn't have a problems with a CEL until late this afternoon. On my way home from work she popped on once again. I don't believe it's another 1744, but it's still annoying. I'm going to get them read again tomorrow and see what gives. I've also got the MLPS in hand and will hopefully be installing it this weekend (weather and time permitting). I'm thinking that this is the last part I'll toss at the car until Spring time when I can formally pull the engine and trans. I plan to replace the converter and fix the rear main seal leak at the same time. Hopefully after that she should last me a few more years until I can afford a new car :)

I'll keep you all posted on how the MLPS works out.

Chris
 
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Ok one week and a few upgrades later, the car seems to be running well. I have not taken her on a long Hwy trip yet, so the official verdict is still out on the bang shift. I did run it around town and up to 70mph on the freeway for ~10 miles on a road test, but I don't think that's long enough. I'm fairly confident that the problem has been resolved. The TC still locks up in 3rd, but it no longer wants to come in and out of lock up as if it's hunting. It does come out when I accelerate and then locks back up. Again it seems to be resolved, but we'll see. :)

Parts installed:

New TSS
New MLPS
Trans-Go CD4E Jr. Shift Kit
Fluid Change

Thanks,

Chris
 
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