reset the TV.... I've seen them change adjustment before...
CK5
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The Great Smaug
- Thread starter campfire
- Start date
So...change the TV from the news to the weather channel?
Basic noob questions...
How should the cable be adjusted?
How will I know that it's adjusted correctly? (What behavior should I be looking for when I adjust the cable?)
Wouldn't an out-of-adjustment TV cable cause it just to shift at the wrong points? Is there something else that it also affects?
At this point, I'm not bothered by the lower 2 shift points, it's the total shifting time that bothers me. The 3-->4 shifting point was fine until it warmed up, and then it started jumping. I could see the TV affecting that, but how would it impact the other 2 shifts?
too many questions, you're overthinking it... reset it so you know it's correct.. 
it controls the line pressure, which is EVERYTHING in a 700.. they will do all kinds of funky stuff when it is not set correctly.. and it's not an adjustment, you're SETTING it...
it's easy peezy, 3 minutes... engine off... depress "D" button on cable at bracket, with button depressed, push cable sheath back all the way towards the firewall. release D button...
go in truck and mash gas pedal to floor... release... done... the cable should have clicked out a few clicks..
it controls the line pressure, which is EVERYTHING in a 700.. they will do all kinds of funky stuff when it is not set correctly.. and it's not an adjustment, you're SETTING it...
it's easy peezy, 3 minutes... engine off... depress "D" button on cable at bracket, with button depressed, push cable sheath back all the way towards the firewall. release D button...
go in truck and mash gas pedal to floor... release... done... the cable should have clicked out a few clicks..
I agree with Ryoken. Start with the tv cable.
Yeah,IF your lucky enough to get both a transmission with its mated transfer case--if you try swapping a SM465 in place of a 700R4 or TH350,the input shaft needs to be swapped to a 32 spline one..you need a manual flywheel,bellhousing,clutch linkage,pedals,etc,its best to have the whole donor truck sitting there till the swap is done..
I happen to have 2 NP208's from TH400's,one in my K2500,the other is a spare I bought..so I could use those behind a SM465,however with both my pickup and Burb getting to the point I dont feel its worth the effort to change them over any more..the pedals are the suckiest part of the job,and I'm in no shape to be wrestling with transmissions either--its hard enough putting back what was there to start with..
Campfire,my Burb has a 6.2 with a 700R4 behind it..never got it on the road,so I dont know how high it winds up at 65 mph..
My K2500 must have the highest gears a SF axle can get,because that can go up to 50 mph in second before it sounds like it'll be near the govenors limit,and at 65 it cruises along quite nicely,I dont have a tach,but I'd guess its no more than 2100 RPMs..
Sometimes I find it annoying that it feels "overgeared"..it'll tend to stay in third above 20 mph rather than downshift into second,and I usually pull it into second manually on a hill,rather than let it lug along in third,it seems to use the torque converter to make up for the load instead of dropping down into second,it'll wait until your only going 15 mph or so before it'll drop down by itself (unless I floor it of course !).....but at least its driveable at highway speed limits without screaming..
As stated above, the 700 doesn't cool as well in 4th as it does in 3rd. But with the TC unlocked, there is WAY MORE HEAT. Actually MOST of the heat in an auto is from an unlocked converter. It wasn't designed to even really be driven in 4th with an unlocked converter, much less towing. Plus, you have no fan shroud, so even if you have a tranny cooler, it's not seeing much air. So the only cooling (or is it warming?) of the ATF is in the radiator, which is also over temp.
So this isn't a case of a bad transmission design - sounds like it held up to tons of abuse before giving trouble.
Maybe Ducato has some good tips for a tranny that's been overheated, but I would look for excessive clutch material in the pan, give it a fluid and filter change, check the governor gear and reset the TV cable. If it starts to drive OK, be happy and get that lockup working!
Check TV cable first as others have said, that will be the baseline from which all other diagnosis can be based. Cable should be as tight as it can be at wide open throttle, have a buddy hold the pedal down (engine off of course) and be sure the cable is as tight as possible. Test drive again and see how she does.
If shifts are still wonky, pull the pan and replace the filter which may be chock full of something from the current trans or even something from a past trans dislodged by the overheating of the radiator cooler.
While the pan is off, remove the round pressure switches screwed into the valve body. You can use some channel lock pliers for this if you don't squeeze too hard. Using a rubber tipped air gun, shoot a little air into each switch to be sure the diaphragm isn't blown, this is especially common on the 4th pressure switch which sees the most action.
If all looks well, pop the governor cover off and slide the governor out. Check the shaft where it meets the valve body, it should be a tight press fit. If it is loose it will cause erratic shifting. The gear is probably OK or you wouldn't have shifts at all. Good luck and post results please.
If shifts are still wonky, pull the pan and replace the filter which may be chock full of something from the current trans or even something from a past trans dislodged by the overheating of the radiator cooler.
While the pan is off, remove the round pressure switches screwed into the valve body. You can use some channel lock pliers for this if you don't squeeze too hard. Using a rubber tipped air gun, shoot a little air into each switch to be sure the diaphragm isn't blown, this is especially common on the 4th pressure switch which sees the most action.
If all looks well, pop the governor cover off and slide the governor out. Check the shaft where it meets the valve body, it should be a tight press fit. If it is loose it will cause erratic shifting. The gear is probably OK or you wouldn't have shifts at all. Good luck and post results please.
Thanks guys. Don't know whether I'll get to checking it this week, but I'll update the thread when I do.
I'm aware.
I think this is the dumbest I've felt for quite a while. 
I was nervous about making this trip with a 700R4 of unknown history, non-locking T/C, and without much time for test-driving the fan replacement. And that was before I forgot the shroud at home. The fan issue still isn't something that bothers me. Aside from pulling hills with the trailer, I haven't run into any situations where I hit the limits of the system. But the transmission had me nervous even before it started acting up. Now it has me downright bummed.
I'm aware.
I think this is the dumbest I've felt for quite a while. I was nervous about making this trip with a 700R4 of unknown history, non-locking T/C, and without much time for test-driving the fan replacement. And that was before I forgot the shroud at home. The fan issue still isn't something that bothers me. Aside from pulling hills with the trailer, I haven't run into any situations where I hit the limits of the system. But the transmission had me nervous even before it started acting up. Now it has me downright bummed.
too many questions, you're overthinking it... reset it so you know it's correct..
it controls the line pressure, which is EVERYTHING in a 700.. they will do all kinds of funky stuff when it is not set correctly.. and it's not an adjustment, you're SETTING it...
Thanks for the input. As you probably can figure out, I had no idea what "setting" the TV cable entailed. Went through the easy-peasy procedure, got a click or two out of it when I advanced the throttle (IP) linkage, and took it out for a test drive. Fired it up, put it in reverse, and it didn't shift. Raised the engine speed slightly, waited, and it...slow...ly...shifted into gear. Once into gear it backed up fine. Put it in drive and it shifted into first. Kinda slow, but not like the initial shift. Drove it up and down the road for a couple of miles, and it shifted exactly like it did before. 1-->2 was slow, 2-->3 shifted into neutral before settling into 3rd, and 3-->4 shifted normally (I did not drive it long enough for it to get hot this time).
It's sounding more and more like my fluid-deprived TH400.
Won't get to opening the pan up this weekend (we'll be on the road again), but I should have some answers next weekend. Or at least a few pictures.
at least you know that is correct now...
Oh, yes. I am so glad that my not-shifting transmission is not-shifting correctly. 'Cause it would be terrible if it was not-shifting incorrectly!
whatever...
You know I'm teasing...
I appreciate the help, and I'm moving onto the next item on the checklist (fluid/filter).
After that, I'm not sure what I'll be up to. If the tranny is terminally failing, I'm pretty sure it's not gonna be rebuilt this year. I only intended to have this thing insured and on the road for the duration of camping season. Camping season is winding down now. I want to have the M1009 ready for winter driving, so the Suburban is gonna get put out to pasture either way.
Insurance is getting switched over to Big Blue for the rest of the non-salt season. Tomorrow I'm heading back South for the holiday. Will be returning the car hauler to its Iowan owner. Will be more careful with the tranny shifting this time. Big Blue's tranny has <20k miles on its rebuild. I'm not anticipating problems with it, but I am more antsy than normal.
Having driven both of them tonight, the K10 is still funner to drive than the Suburban. Still not sure why the Suburban disappoints. It's almost perfect. But only almost.
maybe the extra weight?
700's can be made to work well.. but the right parts, and more importantly someone who knows their chit building them, are required...
700's can be made to work well.. but the right parts, and more importantly someone who knows their chit building them, are required...
I bought Big Blue for $1 back in 2010. The truck was priced cheaply because the 700R4 was blown. I didn't have much truck experience, and I certainly wasn't feeling like rebuilding an automatic. I wanted to do a stick-shift conversion, but those close to me talked me out of it. Too much work, they said.
I still feel like they were wrong, but CK5 wasn't imparting knowledge and courage into my life yet, so I opted to hire out the tranny rebuild and focus on the bodywork. I budgeted the tranny rebuild as the true cost of buying the truck, as the purchase price didn't count for much.When I took the truck to the tranny shop, I talked shop with the mechanic responsible for my rebuild, and he was able to teach me a bunch about this tranny and how it compares to other trannies out there. He rattled off a list of non-standard extra-strength parts that he used in the rebuild, but they didn't mean anything to me then, so I don't remember them. I'm not even sure they would mean much to me now.
I do remember that he mentioned upgrading the Reverse Input Drum and using a Corvette servo. He said he had some fun building it strongly because he saw that I had the diesel and he wanted it to withstand abuse. It shifts firmly, and the 2-->3 shift is downright abrupt. I originally brought it back to the shop because I thought that such abruptness was a bad thing. He reset the TV cable (which I now understand!) and told me that firm shifts are good. I once asked Greg Ducato about it, and he told me that he wasn't sure why 2-->3 would be so much firmer than the others, but not to worry about firm shifts. Pretty much what the mechanic had said.So I don't know what all he put in there, and I can't say for sure that he knows what he was doing. But given my conversations with him, and my general habit of driving gently, I've not been concerned about damaging that transmission. The shift points are set nicely. When cruising on the highway, I can get the throttle most of the way down before it downshifts to 3rd. Hunting and pecking has only happened when trying to trailer up a hill in O/D. Something that I don't think I'll be doing anymore.
It's now been about 16k miles, and I'm thinking it's time to change the fluid.
Part of my instruction from the rebuilder was that it's fairly easy to induce failure when introducing clean fluid or cleaning solvents into an old transmission. Old transmissions should either be treated to several flushes of progressively cleaner fluids (spread-out over time), or ignored and left alone until they croak.
For the new tranny, he recommended changing the fluid every year if I was going to be driving it a bunch. Or every 20,000 miles if I wasn't. I still haven't racked up 20,000 miles, so his fluid is still in there.
Given that this tranny is not yet old, what about the many products marketed toward flushing or cleaning out transmissions? Things like this, that clearly claim to loosen varnish deposits (what I was warned against). I wouldn't use such in the old Suburban tranny, but I assume that these additives are supposed to be helpful for newer transmissions? Is there any value in cleaning or flushing out the varnish deposits before they get to be a big deal?
Part of my instruction from the rebuilder was that it's fairly easy to induce failure when introducing clean fluid or cleaning solvents into an old transmission. Old transmissions should either be treated to several flushes of progressively cleaner fluids (spread-out over time), or ignored and left alone until they croak.
For the new tranny, he recommended changing the fluid every year if I was going to be driving it a bunch. Or every 20,000 miles if I wasn't. I still haven't racked up 20,000 miles, so his fluid is still in there.
Given that this tranny is not yet old, what about the many products marketed toward flushing or cleaning out transmissions? Things like this, that clearly claim to loosen varnish deposits (what I was warned against). I wouldn't use such in the old Suburban tranny, but I assume that these additives are supposed to be helpful for newer transmissions? Is there any value in cleaning or flushing out the varnish deposits before they get to be a big deal?
Weight is different, and it probably makes a difference. But it's lots of little things that bother me. Half of which are maintenance issues that should be knocked out before next camping season begins. Dashboard lights are dim (LED replacements didn't make much difference
). Rocker arm cover leaks. P/S leaks. Rear diff is slightly oily (and I'm the one who installed that gasket ). Alternator was finnicky (probably solved). HVAC vacuum controls stopped working. Stupid exhaust has 1 glass pack, and I'm not enjoying it. Drenching it in the puddle seemed to temporarily quiet it down quite a bit, and life @ highway speed got more fun for a while. Do not plan on keeping the loud pipe. Sounds ok, but I don't like the noise level. Not here, nor there, nor anywhere.Having P/S back on line made it noticeably more fun. Also, on this last trip, I discovered that cruise control works.
I've never owned a vehicle with cruise control, but I found it kinda handy. It isn't able to pull much on the IP (weak), but it will hold a throttle position if I help it. Probably a cracked vacuum line. But it works. It actually works.
When servicing your trans under regular maintenance intervals, never use any cleaning agents, especially if you are only doing a filter swap/pan service because the additive will stay with the remaining fluid. Fluids have a detergent additive and that is sufficient, your trans will never become varnished up unless the fluid is not maintained and subjected to extreme heat ranges. The best type of service is a total system flush which replenishes all the fluid in the system. If you have a high mileage fluid that is discoloring you can use an additive during the flush process to act as a cleaning aid, but only an additive especially designed for this purpose.
There are some additives which contain friction modifiers, anti foam agents etc that are good for the system, these are few and far between. May of the products you find on the shelf will be geared more toward leak stoppage etc and are not of benefit to a good working transmission. As long as the fluid in your system is serviced you should never require an additional additive beyond something like "Lubeguard" or other beneficial product.
