Hey guys, just picked up an 89 first gen with a utility body on it. First of all what tranny does this thing have? Looks like a torqueflight???????? Anyways the truck was revving pretty high in 1st then slamming into 2nd pretty hard and late ( rpm wise). The VE pump was missing the breakaway spring so I took the throttle linkage apart and installed the spring. While I was in there I noticed that the kickdown cable was rusty and sticky so I cleaned it up and lubricated it. Now the trans shifts very smooth and soft when you drive with a light pedal. If you stomp the pedal at all it seems to slip and rev up. ( never did this before)
I'm lost. Is this just the typical torque convertor problem that everyone talks about?????? Any info will be useful.

 

Its the A727 torqflight. Try to adjust the TV cable. That controls internal pressures and has to do with shift performance.

 

If you've cranked up the fuel at all, the stock converter will slip at nearly 2000rpm if you hammer it low in a gear. By the top of the gear they don't slip all that much. Paying $75 to go on a chassis dyno is helpful if you think it is slipping too much.

 

Adjust the TV cable, and make sure you aren't missing the spring that keeps it pulled forward. The spring should go from the TV cable to the throttle lever on the pump, if it's missing any hardware store spring of sufficient length and tension to keep the TV cable pulled out will do fine.

 

Dave,
The earlier trucks had TV cables with an internal spring, unless it was replaced it should still have the old style on it.

spunbearing,
crawl underneath the truck and find where the TV cable hooks to and make sure its still hooked, it may have popped off. I had to make a little retainer to keep mine on.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I adjusted the TV cable all the way forward as far as it would go. Still seems mushy to me. I'm used to driving the 93 with the getrag so maybe that's just how these drive. It just seems like when you give it some fuel it doesn't launch like it should. It seems to have a lag where the rpms go up but it takes a second or two for the power to get to the wheels.

 

That is normal for our trucks with an auto. Dodge gave us a real loose torque converter. The converters didn't improve with age eather.

 

Hmm, mine doesn't lag at all that I've noticed, seems to get the power to the wheels pretty good. I don't know if it has an aftermarket converter or tranny the guy I bought it from never said anything about it and everything else was stock so assumed the tranny was as well but seems pretty tight maybe it was rebuilt.

 

In a basic stock fueled engine you might not notice the converter. Start throwing fuel at it and you will see it. If I am setting stoped and floor it. The tach hits 2400 RPM the boost gage hits 24 PSI. Then the truck decides it might start to move. In a normal driving mode it works better.

 

That's exactly what it's like. Of course I also went from a 5 speed with a 12cm turbo housing to an automatic with an 18.5 cm housing. I guess it wouldn't be as snappy as I'm used to. Probably a combination of turbo lag and a sloppy TC.