In a message dated 1/11/2006 8:17:21 P.M. US Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
I recently purchased an 83 300SD, approx 260k miles. Transmission slips on 2-3 shift - but all other shifts are solid and positive, both up and down - and the 3-2 (edit - corrected from "4-3" which isn't the shift in question, oops) downshift is also solid. My question is, if only the one shift is bad, is this likely to be an adjustment issue? I would expect if clutch pack wear was involved, other shifts would be off too - in other words, how likely is it that one clutch pack is toast while the others are totally fine (my impression is there are separate clutch packs for each gear - this is my first auto-trans car in quite awhile so please forgive ignorance there)? The car came with sporadic records (well-documented for a few years at a time, then nothing for a while), so I'm not sure if anything has been done to the tranny - another question is, how long should these go before some service is required - how likely is it that the tranny may have already received attention at some point? Finally, if anyone can shed light on how auto transmissions work/what can be adjusted (pre-electronic trannies that is), I'd appreciate it much. Tim, Welcome to the list. My 79 slipped for 3-4 years on the 2-3 part throttle upshift and I thought sure it was terminal. About 6 years ago I replaced the vacuum modulator and that cured the problem. Still on original bands and clutches at 261,000 miles. Putting a mitivac on the old modulator revealed a very slow leak which may have been the cause but I really can't explain why this fixed it. Regards, Jim Friesen Phoenix AZ 79 300SD, 261 K miles 98 ML 320, 139 K miles