Broke down Part II...lost 2-3 and reverse Turbo 400

[243]

Last night I left a stoplight and manually shifted from first to second and felt something odd through the shifter, maybe a slipping of the shift linkage and it didn't upshift, I drove about a mile in first and stopped at a car wash hoping to find a linkage issue. It seemed fine although I tried to adjust it several times before driving 12.5 miles home at 27 mph.

Before I dig into it, and I really don't have the time or the money to start major work right now, does this sound like a failure of the transmission or could there be an issue with the shift mechanism in the pan?

I have to say, of any system or part, the Turbo 400 is the last item I would expect a catastrophic failure.

[csuengr]

Don't know if this will help, but when this happened on my TF727, the shift mechanism inside the transmission had come loose. I had to lower the pan and tighten it back up.

[Tatsadasayago]

Assuming you are feeling the detents as you shift manually, if not I would suggest doing as csuengr mentioned.

Questions:
When you run the RPMs up then lift the throttle, does the trans have engine braking or does it feel like it's free-wheeling?
How does reverse work?
When you place the trans in gear, are you feeling the slight thump or is it mushy?

[243]

I have not looked at it today, last night with the shift linkage disconnected, I can feel the detents at the transmission.

When I drove home the linkage was disconnected, it didn't seem to find park when I was trying to adjust it.

It's raining pretty hard right now, I will go out later and try to adjust the linkage correctly.

Looking at Youtube videos, there appears to be several items that could have broke or become loose that might cause a problem, I won't get my hopes up though.

[Tatsadasayago]

Hopefully it's a linkage/valve body issue rather than the over-running clutch.

[243]

I could not stand it, raining or not I wanted to drop the pan, I immediately noticed the detent spring roller was off-center from the detent lever.

I was shifting it from park to first and noticed it won't fall into the 1st gear detent, and I almost missed the valve that was recessed in the valve body, as I messed with it I pushed it forward and found the valve is not engaging the pin on the pawl.

I don't want to remove the valve body or the detent lever so I am going to gently bend it, hopefully to get the pin in the groove and then try to bend it back into alignment. If that does not work I guess I try to remove the shift rod and detent lever.

Fluid looks great, just a light coat of fine black powder in the pan.

Found a nice manual online,

http://www.buick-riviera.com/servicemanual/076.pdf

[243]

That was it!!!!!!!!

Took a quick test drive in the neighborhood and it seems no damage was done

[ShagWagon]

Not your month huh? Lolz....

Gonna be mine soon I'm sure..

[Transman4]

Mine use to do the same thing ever 3 or 4 months so I changed the worn out rooster colme and put a new pin in the detent pin never did it again any trans shop should have the parts around for a low price