'91 K5 - 700R4 Tranny will not shift up, only have 1st and reverse - UPDATE: TV issue

[Kjunky5]

so the bracket that is covering the plunger, found a pic online for this.

by pulling on the cable at the TB, that releases pressure on the plunger, which in turn relaxes the spring and allows the actual TV valve to move forward (toward the front of the vehicle).

gosh, I wonder how long they expected that spring to actually hold up? expecially if the vehicle had been sitting for some time.

You've got it backwards. Pulling on the cable increases pressure on the plunger and spring. Example at idle it's all the way out. WOT it's all the way in. Flush with the sleeve I should say. When you install a new cable, make sure that at WOT at the pedal equals flush at the T.V. plunger and sleeve.

 

[renstyle]

got a TV cable ordered now. will check on the valve once that shows up. hopefully I can get the cable "set" correctly. the linkage has the D style snap clip, so should be fairly easy.

heh, and this is on a stock TBI. I can only imagine how much of a PITA this could be with an aftermarket carb!

 

[renstyle]

Sadness!!!

Well, was all excited to check the TV valve and cable today. Dropped the pan and saw *alot* of debris from the clutches and the bands, some metal shavings as well. Hard to say which parts the metal is coming from, but doesn't look good.

I guess the dipstick didn't give me a good indication of the level of debris. The TV valve itself is springing with no trouble, but the linkage needed to be tweaked. The cable itself didn't look bad, but due to age swapped it out anyway.

To my chagrin the tranny has the same trouble it had before, stuck in first.

I cleaned out the pan and used a new gasket when it was reattached. New DEX-2 and allowed the addition to settle about 15mins before turning the engine over.

Not sure where to go at this point. The tranny looks like it needs a fair amount of work, at least a rebuild kit to get it back up to par. I don't have a decent garage to even attempt a rebuild (and that was if I had any experience at all with trannys, which I do not). Plus I'm not sure what hardware may need to be replaced (prolly the torque conv at the least).

This one kinda stops me cold. Paying somebody else to do a rebuild is not realistic, and a replacement tranny would run more than 2x the original cost of the truck ($2200 with a GM rebuilt including labor).

I'm game for any suggestions I could try moving forward. The tranny is appears to be toast, but I'd be willing to plow a little more time into it.

Heh, really wishing I had that garage, this thing would make a fantastic parts truck!

 

[renstyle]

You've got it backwards. Pulling on the cable increases pressure on the plunger and spring. Example at idle it's all the way out. WOT it's all the way in. Flush with the sleeve I should say. When you install a new cable, make sure that at WOT at the pedal equals flush at the T.V. plunger and sleeve.

Even though the tranny doesn't appear to be up to snuff after checking it out I really want to thank you for all of your effort, with the pics especially.

I felt MUCH more comfortable dropping the pan to give things a look after seeing how it SHOULD look.

As I said before these pics really need to go into a HOWTO section somewhere here on the forum so that others can benefit from your efforts.

Thanks much!

 

[Blue85]

Here's a band-aid to keep it shifting while you source parts and/or a new tranny. If you remove the throttle valve from the valve body you will find that there are many more pieces to it than what are shown in the pictures posted by Kjunky5. The inner-most piece is a tiny "floater" with no spring return to it and that is what gets you stuck in 1st gear. Get a small spring, maybe 1/2" long and very light rate and put that in front of the small floater piece. This will keep it returning even when the debris would otherwise make it stick and doesn't effect the action of the valve by any noticeable amount.

Bear in mind that something is gone in the transmission that lets metal rub on metal. The longer you drive it the more likely catastrophic failure becomes.

You might try a junkyard transmission. There is mixed luck with them. Or some guys here will sway you towards a manual transmission swap. A rebuilt transmission is probably cheaper than the combination of selling a broken truck and buying another running one.

Good luck.