I had the transmission in my Trans Am rebuilt about 3 years (less than 50k miles) ago and today it started acting up out of the blue. I pulled into a gas station off I-40 and everything was fine. After filling up I pulled back onto I-40 and it never made it into overdrive. It was staying around 3000rpm and vibrating like crazy. It didnt change when I pulled it into manual 3rd. I made it back to work just fine, but it didn't want to shift from 1st to 2nd. I had to run it up to around 4k rpm and let off the gas in order for it to shift. It made the 2-3 shift but it was soft as hell. Also when I floor it from 3rd gear it doesn't down shift, it just revs up and when i lift off the gas it drops back into gear.

Any ideas what blew up? There was no metal in the transmission pan but the fluid was black with clutch material. It seems like the clutches just burned up, but usually the transmission will give some kind of warning when it's getting worn out. This rebuild was supposed to be good for a track setup, I would hate for it to be just burned clutches after 50k miles when my factory transmission lasted 180k+.

 

A quick scan for codes may answer your question, or point you in the right direction. There are trans codes that don't turn on the SES light, and there are engine related codes that will cause the trans not to go into O/D or lock up, or affect how it shifts and what gears it uses.

Sounds more like a trans problem (about which I know nothing), but worth a quick code scan.

 

Thanks, I'll check that. I have the transmission out of the car now though, will having it unplugged trigger new codes if I don't start it up?

 

Chris,
Give me a call. We can look at doing a "freshen up" on it.

Frank

 

Thanks frank I'll give you a call on Monday. I figured I could trust a local guy to build this trans 3 years ago since it was only street driven, but that was a mistake. I had just washed the car and was gonna put it up for sale at the start of the week

 

Ohhhh. So, this isn't the one we built you. That's OK. Give me a call on Monday. I'll still try to help you figure it out.

Frank

 

Sure thing! How much do you charge for a base rebuild?

 

PM sent.