The trans is fresh and has only a couple hundred miles on it. I've had an issue with it flaring between 2nd and 3rd but it would always shift smoothly into third. This past week I loaded a bunch of stuff into the car while I was moving and it would not go into third. I was going about 35 MPH and had a set of heads and 2 T-5's in the trunk. I took the parts out of the trunk and adjusted the band on the passenger side of the transmission, but it still will not go into third. When I shift into third, it's almost like it goes into neutral, if I give it enough gas it will move but it revs higher than it did in second to move at all. The kick down is not hooked up so I manually shift the gears.

 

What about reverse

 

There two different reverse/high drums. The inside diameter where the sealing rings ride is different. I believe it changed around 70 to the larger one. the pump supports are different to match the drums.

Used work for Ford in the 70's and did 100,s of C4's under the 5/50,000 warranty.

Happen to do the mismatch to my 69 Mustang, that how I found out. I guess all those parts I collected didn't pay off. I saved a nice new drum that was wrong for my car.

Pulled it apart and put my old drum back and 2-3 ship back to a nice crisp shift. That what experience is all about.

 

reverse is working, but it shifts hard into gear.

 

You have a problem with that reverse/high pack. Could be seals, too much pack clearance, wrong drum etc. Must come apart to inspect, sorry for the bad news.

How about going back to who built it?

 

My girlfriends after built it for me, he owned a transmission shop in the late 80's and early 90's. I keep asking him to take a look at it with me but he's to busy with his own projects. This may be the push I need to finally start my T-5 swap.

I did some more checking today and it seems once the car warms up it will go into third. At first I thought I had to be going over 35 MPH but at the end of my journey I checked it in my neighborhood(I was going 25 MPH) and it was shifting into third.