[B]Will NOT Park[/B]

[78Suburban]

I just though to ask yall about one of the things that happens to be wrong with my burban. It rolls freely in the park gear. The parking brake helps a little, but I think it must be half worn out because with will still roll if the ground isn't fairly level. Is my transmission screwed up? I'm thinking about using a brick under each tire as my parking aparatus .
I saw something in a magazine a long time back about some sort of driveshaft parking brake, would this be a reliable way to keep if from rolling away, and how much would it cost? Is there something I can do to spiffy up my stock parking brake? I really don't feel like getting into huge money trying to fix my turbo400 so that it will park. Could it be that some sort of transmission linkage simply isn't adjusted right.
thanks in advance for the help.

 

[divorced]

Maybe you have a broken parking pin? I've never replaced one on a 400, but they are fairly easy to do on a 350. I used a chunk of metal for my tire chock until I fixed my pin.

Is your 400 connected to a 203?

 

[78Suburban]

could you replace the parking pin by just dropping the pan, or did you have to take the whole transmission out? (I dont know very much at all about transmissions.) How much did the new pin cost?

 

[divorced]

I took a pin out of a blown up transmission I had laying around. It was about 6 or 7 years ago, and I did two of them at the same time, but I can't remember the specifics of the swap, but it was real easy. The transmission stays in and it is changed by dropping the pan and unbolting a couple things. The 400 may or may not be as easy, I'm not for sure. A transmission shop may have a pin fairly cheap, otherwise maybe go to a "pick-n-pull".

 

[78jimmygirl]

My truck would slip out of park when parked at an incline before i replaced the drums,shoes and pads. Im no mechanic

 

[wheelzss500]

you probably just need to adjust the linkage

find where the linkage connects to the transmission then follow it up towards the engine bay

there will be one rod coming down and one rod going back to the tranny

loosen the one that connects the two! be careful not to break the bolt head off

then once its loose get in the truck and push the lever up into park, then get back under and put it in park at the tranny (all the way forward), then tighten the linkage back up



chances are thats all thats wrong

 

[78Suburban]

Thanks, that is very helpful. I will try to get out there and mess around with the linkage as soon as it quits raining (I'm not lucky enough to have a garage, just a shade tree)

 

[unclematty]

1. It's called a park PAWL
2. it's really easy to change takes about an hour and a half,
3. drop the pan, pull the valve body, and walla there it is,
4. check, see if your linkage is out whack first.
5. get a friend who has done it before, the valve body cn be a PITA if not installed correctly.

 

[1-bad-burb]

I was just gonna make a post exactly like this, but my truck has a 4l60E, being an 85 it should be a 700r4 though right? how can I tell a 4l60E from a 700R4? or 4L80E? I'm not too sure what I got under there LOL but it does have OD. I'm gonna try adjusting the linkage to the tranny, I think that may be the problem, if not are the methods to fix it the same as described above for the TH400-350??



heres something realy weird wth my tranny, when accellerating it shifts fine and pretty hard (suposed racing overhaul&shift kit who realy knows, guy lied like a MOTHER) it shifts fine going into second but going into third it shifts normally for a split second BUT then its like it goes immediatly into OD and bogs the motor totally killing my acceleration then I get up to about 50mph and overdrive kicks in??????????? WTF is goin on???? do I have some magic 4 speed with an overdrive unit? or am I just crazy? it realy makes getting to 55 a long journey


btw my suburbans a 3/4 ton 6.2diesel

wow, I just totally jacked this post, sorry dude

 

[dyeager535]

Stock parking brake fix is easy, and what should be holding your truck anyways. I'm not saying don't fix the transmission park issue, just that once you see how the park pawl operates, you will understand why no one should be using it all by itself to hold the vehicle in place.

Under the drivers side, you'll see the cable come from the pedal under the truck, and it will be a long threaded rod with a nut on it.

E-brake OFF, tighten the nut enough so that you can start depressing the e-brake pedal easily, but by the time you get close to the floor, it should be quite solid.

Depending on how worn your setup is, you may need to thread the nut on quite a bit before you get some engagement, but if your parking brake partially works, you won't need to tighten the nut as much.

1985 is a 700R4, however the 4L60 and 80*E* both are completely PCM controlled, and aren't just a drop in swap.