AODE:which parts are failing here?

[jaymac]

Hey gus,
I DID do a search but didn't find al the answers...
First off, when I swapped in a new rad., the tranny cooler fittings were stripped and leaked tranny fluid, so once I found out (trans slipped on the way home one night BIG TIME, I just had to have my fiance (her car), check it and top it off every day as needed. Just replaced the rad. yesterday after a few weeks and toped it off. Now here's the questions:

1.) When it oges into drive or reverse and takes longer to engage than normal, is that a bad torque converter, or slipping clutches?

2.) When driving around 40 sh, and you apply gas and the RPMS will raise before the speed (didn't happen before), is it the converter or clutches?

3.) Just cruising down the road, let off the gas, there is now a loud "whirring" or "humming" coming from the tranny, and you can even feel the vibration. Not a shudder, but a constant vibration....
converter, clutches, or both....

Thanks guys,
j

 

[gcomfx.com]

Smell your fluid on your dipstick... I would bet it smell burnt. Also what color is it? If you catch burnt fluid soon enough, you can flush it out and put new in and save the tranny, but if it's now slipping like you say, it may be too late and your clutches are fried.

On question #2 what gear are you in? Please don't say O/D, because that will definately fry your o/d band. Our trannys are famous for doing a "neutral drop" type effect when tooling around town in o/d and dropping the hammer on it. The tranny gets confused during the downshift while your engine revs sky high and then BAM... she finds 1st gear. This gets worse the more your clutches and bands get fried.

 

[jaymac]

On #2, there is absolutely no "flooring" involved. Just enough pressure to raise the RPM's 100-150.
We're talking less than 10% throttle...

 

[gcomfx.com]

What gear? It's going to be a tough call on a change in 100-150 rpm.

 

[jaymac]

probably 3rd gear, I'd have to check again....

 

[gcomfx.com]

Here is an easy way to tell. Take the car out, manually run in each gear. In first run aprox. 10 mph and goose it a bit, not enough to turn the tires loose. If the rpms go up and you don't go faster... that gear's clutches are about gone. Same in second but run around 25mph. In third somewhere around 40.

All these are aprox. as I'm not sure what gears you have. If your tranny is slipping, you will know it if you drive a little aggressive.

o/d is the easiest to burn up. My last rebuild was due to the band frying. All it really takes is a couple shifts into o/d at WOT to kill it. I "never" let my car hit o/d in a race. I have been known to let up, shift into o/d and then gradually get back in it.