Paul Deasy

I'm finally coming to the end of my project (I think). I bought a Convertible 66 last year in need of TLC and have just installed the soft top today. It's a 6 Cylinder.

It was lying up for over 6 years. I was told when I bought it the transmission worked fine except for Reverse.

I fired it up, sounds great, put it in Drive - no movement, Low - nothing.

After selecting through the gears slowly nothing happened except for reverse which kicked in after a couple of minutes.

I've changed the filter and the fluid. The levels are correct (dipstick reads over full when engine off but at the full mark when idling in Park).

I disconnected one of the lines going to the radiator just to check the pump was working - fluid shot out. Re-attached and refilled.

All the vacuum lines are connected correctly.

I don't really know a lot about auto transmissions. I thought maybe the belts might need adjusting, might that be it ?

Anybody have any ideas ? Help !!!

I live in Ireland so parts aren't available over here so need to try and get a good idea what it could be before I start ordering parts..

Thanks in advance.

norcal_ryan1966

Sounds like the bands may have hardened.

Paul Deasy

Thanks for the advice norcal_ryan1966

Do you think the band will soften with the heat of the fluid ?

Today i raised the back of the car on axle stands..

Put it in Reverse and the wheels turned. I put it in Low and nothing. I adjusted the Low/Reverse band and tried again. Reverse was fine and Low started to move ever so slightly but not enough to move the car when it was off the axle stands.

So do I have to adjust the Rev/Low band until there's power to drive the wheels in Low ?

Will Drive not engage until the Low gear is working ?

I really haven't a clue about automatics so sorry about my ignorance.

Thanks again.

jwog666

its not the low/rev band, or you wouldnt have reverse either, it is most likely a forward clutch problem. if the forward clutch doesnt apply, then you will have no forward gears. time to pull it out, and apart for leak checks. it will 99.99% need a rebuild

norcal_ryan1966

I agree with jwog666. It probably needs a rebuild. My buddy is a tranny mechanical, and I asked him the same question. (My car was exhibiting similar symptoms. But my car would have a false neutral feel then finally slam into gear. Topping off the tranny fluid helped some, but I'm having it rebuilt.). My buddy said I should just have it rebuilt to be safe.

Paul Deasy

Thanks guys.
Guess I'll pull it to be sure and order a rebuild kit. Can you recommend a good make and online shop to buy it. I'm in Ireland so I won't be able to get it over here. It's a Green dot Cruise-o-matic.

jwog666

http://www.cjponyparts.com/master-re...-1969/p/ATRK5/

Camster

I'd plan on a rebuilt torque converter too.You don't want a freshly done trans picking up yuck for an old converter.

I agree with doing a rebuild on an old stagnant automatic.That said,given your location,you might dissect the valve body first to look for something hanging up.Probably better that someone with some auto trans experience tackle the project.

fastbackford351

I don't know why but this thread reminded me of the first time the C6 in my Fastback was rebuilt.

It had no reverse and damned little forward motion. It was my brothers car at the time and we had a buddy who was just learning how to rebuild transmissions and he agreed to do it for cheap. We caught up with him as he was working in one of his fathers orange groves and he rebuilt it on the tailgate of his truck right there in the middle of the grove.

He had that stand with the foot pump so what he didn't do on the tailgate, we laid a pallet on the ground and he did the rest of his voodoo on that setup.

Being young and dumb we saw nothing wrong with what was his methods so my brother paid him his $150 asking price and we beat the pi$s out of that transmission for the next 8 or 10 years before we had to go through it again. As a matter of fact, that same transmission is still in the car.

Paul Deasy

Thanks again guys for all the advice,

Rebuild kit is ordered and will be here in a week or so.

Today I took out the Valve Body, didn't really know what I was looking for, cleaned it down and checked for anything strange. 2 things drew my attention - when I pushed in on the Intermediate Servo Accumaltor Valve it didn't pop back out even though it has a spring - Is it meant to ? Also the Main Oil Pressure Regulator Valve seemed a bit sticky. I didn't want to mess with it too much and mess it up. Could that cause part of my problem ?

Also I noticed another thing, one of the levers, I think it's called a Manual Detent Lever (it's slightly hooked shaped), is that meant to connect to something ? When cycling through the gears it moves but doesn't come into contact with anything, is it meant to ?

I'm going to try everything before giving in and going to a shop, automatics are rare over here and I'd have to take it to a specialist and pay a small fortune !

Thanks again !!!