Tranny Help....
 

The 83 swb I just bought has some tranny problems....It has a 700r4 behind a stock 305.... You put the selector in "D"rive and accellerate as normal...takes off fine, shifts to second (kinda hard but otherwise normal) but when it shifts to 3rd it starts slipping usually....If your going slow it will hold for a little before it starts slipping bad....You can manually put it back into 2nd and it will do ok..... I did notice that if you put it in 3rd, and it held, if you slow down to a stop and take off again, it jeks badly and make some very bad noises, clink, clank, clunk.....I noticed the level was a little low and added Trans-X, but it didn't seem to help after driving it around, slowly for about 10-15 miles.... Do any of you transmission smart fella's have any ideas.... I don't know crap about trannies so I'm sure I will end up at a shop, but if it sound catostraphic, I might start looking for a good used tranny from the wrecking yards and save paying the mechanics a bunch of money.....

Thanks in advance....

It doesn't do this.....:burnout:

Yep, sounds as though it is going to the tranny graveyard. Find a 700R4 out of a 88 thru 92 truck.

sounds like a tranny problem that i had once soon the whole tranny is gonna go bang and you wont have any forward gears. i am not sure what went in there but for sure yiou need a total rebuild keep carrying those tow truck numbers with ya lol

Me and my dad just rebuilt his 700r4 outa his 91 Chevy. They are a pain but it can be done!!

Have you checked the TV cable settings? It's amazing how many 700R4s have the TV cable out of adjustment.

Does your converter lock up in third? My 83 does. I like it. Makes the 4th gear upshift firm and positive.

Mike, why 88-92 700r4's.....I've heard this before but not heard what exactly the difference is.....

Another question, if I opt to go with a th350 in the short term, assuming a used 700 may be too much right now, what else will I have to change?? This will also give me the chance to try my hand at rebuilding the 700 myself... I just need to get the 83 road worthy asap..... Also, any idea what a used 700r4 will run??

88-92 700r4's had the best inner parts and all the things that killed the earlier model had been fixed at this point. I think it was planetary gears, and other items that contributed to the bad run.

On the swap you may be able to get away with only needing to redrill the frame for your tranny crossmember but yor frame may already have it. You may need to re route your cooler lines and connect the kickdown cable. If you get a long tail TH350 (9") you can use it with the same drive shaft. Look here to see what I mean. http://www.tciauto.com/tech_info/trans_dims.htm

FYI.... TV cable adjustment didn't help a bit.... Worth a shot though....