Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.

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#5,161
* I've said this before.......

I always find the irony funny. You break something, or something doesn't work right, and you have to tear something apart to fix it.
Depending on the situation, that may be a large or small project in of itself, but once you find the offending breakage or fck up you're happy.

I'll reiterate.

You're happy that you found broken, or incorrectly installed sht.

Forget the fact that you are now out money, or had to do a bunch of work to make this discovery, now that you've found it you're happy as a clam in a pond of scum.

Yummy.

Such is my case.

I get out my transmission overhaul book and go over the process to drop the valvebody. It says to remove the filter, then remove the wiring harness that is connected to the solenoids, them remove the 24 8mm bolts that are holding the valvebody and lower the thing down.

I do that. Least that's what I thought I did. Something was still holding this thing up.

Now I didn't really want to slide completely under this dripping mess at 5:30 AM, so I do my best to look around and see if I had missed a bolt.

Turns out I had.

One bolt hidden from my view as a result of me not being directly under the thing. I get the drill and remove it. But sure enough, no sooner had I loosened that bolt, than the entire heavy assed valvebody falls directly into the drain pan beneath, belly floppin' into 2" of previously drained transmission fluid.

BLOOOSHH!!!

I blasts transmission fluid all over me,.and a 4' perimeter of everything, everywhere under the car.

At 5:35 AM.

I do my best to get myself cleaned up enough to continue, drag the valvebody out from the pan of fluid, and tip it on end until it was drained enough to take it to the bench, and take it apart.

Once I did that,....I had my little Eureka moment.

20170203_062405_zpsae51n4c0.webp

There's supposed to be a check ball here. Obviously,...it ain't.

Again, I have no clue whether or not that contributes to my problem,..but I'm hoping that that is it. I sent the pics to the Transgo tech guy right afterwards, and hopefully when he gets in at 10AM this morning, I'll have the go ahead to put it back together. I have already added the omitted check ball back to it's proper slot that I got from that spare VB that I got from the trans shop a couple of days ago.

I also sent him the close up pic of where the drill bit laid into the adjacent passage where I drilled that hole when I first built the thing.

20170203_062547_zpsvbkbceg8.webp

I'm not thinkin that that is a problem.

In my search for answers, I emailed Dan @ Silverfox, and told him what was going on. When he replied he listed a series of possible problems. Among other things, one of them was a missing check ball....:oops:..

So,....in the grand scheme of things,...maybe I'm only out a few qt's of trans fluid, some free labor, and a filthy, slimy, red mess all over my orange garage floor. (wonder how that's gonna go over when we start showing the house come time to sell?.....
That orange garage floor?)

I'm gonna take a rare path here......(mark this). I'm going to be optimistico_O.

I'm thinking that this is the problem,..I'm saying that I'm gonna be able to put this thing back together Sunday,..and I'm saying that it's all good...:banana:
 
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#5,167
I wish I could figure out how to cut and paste my text conversation to Transgo this morning.
If you go back to reply 5122,.you'd see that I pretty much know what the trans was doing.....And I thought I conveyed that to the tech guy at Transgo.


Evidently. The tech guy didn't understand what I was complaining about:

Mark. Here are the vb pics as per your request. As soon as I looked at it I was immediately aware that I had omitted a check ball. ( as indicated by the red straw pointer.) I have also detailed the area where the but chamferred the top of the adjacent passage.
Click to expand...
That check ball machine is going to call cause the converter to come on whenever the transmission is in second gear or else
I wouldn't worry about the passage I've seen worse.
Click to expand...

I feel you have another problem. With the check ball missing it should've stalled the engine in 2nd gear. You may find that you have a torque converter clutch that's not holding. Put the check ball back in and get it back together and road test
Click to expand...
.

It did stall the engine in 2nd gear.
Click to expand...

It should have in drive or 3rd as well.
As I said put the check ball back in there and get the valve body back on and let's see how it works.
Click to expand...

It did.
Click to expand...

That was not my understanding. Get it back together and let's see what happens.
Click to expand...

Ok, Thanks.
Click to expand...


He seems real eager for me to get it back together... Don't ya think? If only he was attententive as he is eager...
 
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#5,168
I talked to a friend that has a trans shop and he said the same thing your guy said and he didn't seem worried about you sticking it back together, he said you likely didn't drive it far or hard enough to hurt it. Said it would smell burnt and junk in your pan.
He did ask if you had a trans temp gauge, I can't remember it being mentioned in the build.
 
#5,171
Maybe, just maybe, Mike, while you have the pan out, put a drain plug in it!!! Why didn't OEM's hardly EVER include one? And then Ford one upped in in the 2000's by not including a dip stick on automatics! WTF!
 
#5,176
Well, feeling a little better, but let me tell ya....I'm seriously starting to consider stopping drinking.

I went out with the wife last night, and had 4 beers. Nothing exotic, just plain ole rolling rock. I had a burger and fries and was back home by 9.
I had the tiniest of headaches when I went to bed.
I was awakened at 3AM w/ a blazing frontal brain cramp. I know all too well what that means by now.....I have neglected to drink enough water to offset the alcohol, and now it was too late.

Nonetheless, I slam (3) 12oz glasses of water hoping that I could re-hydrate my now damaged brain. Unfortunately, that had zero effect. After 30 minutes, the headache had intensified to the point where all I could do was stand to not have my head pound. I decided to add some caffeine to the mix to help. So I made me a cup of coffee, and I drank it down, ...........at 3:30 AM.

Then I stood for a while....hoping that the inevitable had been averted...

Nope.......w/i another 30 minutes, I was puking.........water and coffee.

I knew that there would be a part two, because my system had failed to do what it wanted to achieve when it pounded me awake at 3 o clock........get rid of the alcohol.

It takes another 30 minutes for the second wave to hit me, and this time I'm literally Puking my guts out. My throat still hurts almost 12 hours later.

You'd think I'd know my limits by now. Not that 4 beers is that much, but with zero water in my system,...( because I never drink water throughout the day) the alcohol has nothing to thin it out,...and in my case,.....4 beers was probably more like 6-8 to my brain...

And my brain don't play when it comes to alcohol.

I do this to myself once every 3-6 months.....I assume that I have properly hydrated myself either before, during, or after going out and drinking. And just as sure as I'm sitting here,..get it wrong every time I make that assumption.

I told the wife that I was done drinking....that I was done having to hug the toilet like some frat boy at age 60.

She just rolled her eyes....telling me that she was sure that it was something I ate.

I'm just as sure that it was something that I drank,....and something that I didn't at the same time.
 
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#5,178
madmike1157 said:
Well, feeling a little better, but let me tell ya....I'm seriously starting to consider stopping drinking.

I went out with the wife last night, and had 4 beers. Nothing exotic, just plain ole rolling rock. I had a burger and fries and was back home by 9.
I had the tiniest of headaches when I went to bed.
I was awakened at 3AM w/ a blazing frontal brain cramp. I know all too well what that means by now.....I have neglected to drink enough water to offset the alcohol, and now it was too late.

Nonetheless, I slam (3) 12oz glasses of water hoping that I could re-hydrate my now damaged brain. Unfortunately, that had zero effect. After 30 minutes, the headache had intensified to the point where all I could do was stand to not have my head pound. I decided to add some caffeine to the mix to help. So I made me a cup of coffee, and I drank it down, ...........at 3:30 AM.

Then I stood for a while....hoping that the inevitable had been averted...

Nope.......w/i another 30 minutes, I was puking.........water and coffee.

I knew that there would be a part two, because my system had failed to do what it wanted to achieve when it pounded me awake at 3 o clock........get rid of the alcohol.

It takes another 30 minutes for the second wave to hit me, and this time I'm literally Puking my guts out. My throat still hurts almost 12 hours later.

You'd think I'd know my limits by now. Not that 4 beers is that much, but with zero water in my system,...( because I never drink water throughout the day) the alcohol has nothing to thin it out,...and in my case,.....4 beers was probably more like 6-8 to my brain...

And my brain don't play when it comes to alcohol.

I do this to myself once every 3-6 months.....I assume that I have properly hydrated myself either before, during, or after going out and drinking. And just as sure as I'm sitting here,..get it wrong every time I make that assumption.

I told the wife that I was done drinking....that I was done having to hug the toilet like some frat boy at age 60.

She just rolled her eyes....telling me that she was sure that it was something I ate.

I'm just as sure that it was something that I drank,....and something that I didn't at the same time.
Click to expand...
Mike, I may have a little experience in this area you're speaking of.

I bet there's something else involved too, not so good food, or a light stomach bug.
 
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