First, What color is the fluid? Nice and pinky-purple, or coffee- sludge brown to black? Sniff it. Does it have a sweet sort-of-oily smell, or a burnt smell (the dark color and burnt smell go together). If dark and/or burnt, you probably have burnt-out clutches. Off to Rebuild City.
Next: verify which way the shifting lever on the transmission moves when you push and pull the shifter control at the helm. Then, disconnect the shift cable from the lever on the transmission. Manually move the transmission lever to the reverse detent, then pull the helm control back. See if the cable end post lines up with the hole in the transmission lever. If not, adjust the cable hold-down retainer near the transmission so that the post lines up with the hole. Before reconnecting, move the transmission lever to the forward position, push the helm control forward and verify that the post will still fit in the hole. You want to be sure that you have enough cable movement to fully engage both forward and reverse. If you don't, you might be able to engage the helm station end of the cable in another eye on the underside of the shifter to obtain more movement - the further away from the pivot point, the greater the movement. You want to be absolutely sure that the forward shift moves the transmission shift lever into its fully-engaged position, otherwise your forward valve won't be fully open resulting in lower pressure on the clutch plates and consequent slippage. This is most important in the forward position, since that's the setting you use most. Your next step is to get a transmission expert with a set of gauges to check the various operating pressures. You probably don't have the gauges to do this, and you'll need a transmission manual to find out where to hook up the gauges and what the minimum and maximum pressures should be. This will tell you if you have stuck or bad valves or internal leakage. You just *might* free a sticky valve by adding some aftermarket snake oil automatic transmission medic, but I'm leery of those. Proceed at your peril! Good luck. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/unifliteworld?hl=en.
