A little history about my tranny first. I had a stock rebuild and a lower stall TC about 9 months ago and 10,000 miles. Two months ago I installed a Transgo kit. It worked great for 7 weeks, and then the 2nd to 3rd shift started getting slow and soft. I adjusted the front band to spec just like I did after I installed the kit. No change at all. Then a couple days later I got in and left for work and had no second gear. If you leave it in D and take off it just revs up in first and wont shift until you let off. Then it shifts to 3rd. If you put the selector in 2 the truck just acts like it is in 1 gear. All other gears work fine. Could someone please give me some ideas what could be wrong? I still have a warranty and a unmodafied valvebody that is going in soon.

 

The 47RH is the A618 with the mechanical governor, and properly rebuilt it is pretty reliable. I would take a hard look at the throttle valve cable and inspect both the internal cable ends and the outside housing connectors for looseness or a cracked end. Also check the adjustment to be certain that the throttle valve lever is where it should be so the truck upshifts to third at about 28 MPH under light throttle pressure. A real common issue with the throttle valve is that it does not get properly reset after an engine uprate, and will allow the transmission to upshift at lower throttle angles than it did with the stock engine, and that will tear out the paper facings on the frictions from too low of line pressures.

 

RCW,

The TV cable was one of the first things I looked at. It feels fine and is adjusted correctly. I cant inspect it internally until tomorrow when I pull the valvebody and take a look. The truck never has upshifted early. I dont understand how I could not have 2nd gear overnight. Thanks for your reply, any other ideas?

Fred

 

before u do anything expensive i have always noticed that i get early or late shifts if my fluid level is not perfect...double check that first before anything...may be the cheapest solution

 

*Update*

I got off work early today and tore into the truck. After I drained the pan and started to drop it something fell into the drain bucket. What the h**l was that?
It was half of my front band strut. In the last two weeks it has been bending and causing my soft and late shifts. I called a local tranny shop at 3:00pm on a friday, he just happened to have what I needed and told me when it broke I lost second. He welded the biggest broken piece centered on the new strut to beef it up. I put everything together and it works great! That is a big load off my mind!

Fred

 

Thanks for posting what you found, it certainly was not something I would expect from a rebuilt transmission.

 

Do you think the bend of that strut may be due to the Transgo kit in any way? Too firm of shifts, etc.? Glad you figured it out, now get back to cutting that fescue.

 

roysleight,

I blame myself and my torque wrench not Transgo. It turns out my wrench is off 2 or 3lbs. Once I adjusted the front band it was still loose enough not to wear but when the front band solenoid tried to engage the band there was not enough slack in it. The strut is/was the weakest link and started to bend and finally broke. I now have it adjusted correctly and everything is fine.

 

The same thing happend to me with the Trans-go kit. When the part on the anchor side broke it allowed the apply piston to over travel when it applied, and that broke the snap ring in the piston assembly, it also blew out a o-ring inside the piston. I did not notice the trouble when I put everything back together and the apply piston hung up causing the band to burn to bare metal and did a very good job of grinding on the drum. The next time I checked tranny fluid it was gray from all the metal, now I have a GB trans.

 

Thats why Dave has you put in a billet apply lever when you put a valvebody in. There probably were some issues with the lever to start with. The added pressures of the transgo kit probably pushed beyond what it could take.