[msblckstck]

I have a 1969 Camaro with a 350 trans that has been slow to engage reverse, but now has gotten much worse. It will not engage at all unless you give it a little throttle, ane then it goes into gear very hard. All of the forward gears feel fine and it goes into drive with no delay at all. The only other problem is a leak that slows up after the car has been parked for a month or longer. Is there something to look for in the pan, or is this the early signs of a needed rebuild?

 

[boneyard Buick]

th350 reverse

Hey
i just helped my buddy put a new tranny in his car. Its from a 1969 beaumont. It has a B&M shift kit in it and it's been rebuilt. We put it in the car, and when we tried backing the car out, we had to give it gas for it to go into reverse, it was almost like shifting into second with a shift kit, it was THAT hard, jerked us pretty hard. I would also like to hear what other people have to say about this...i've never heard of this before, except for now

 

[stu]

The piston seals are probably getting hard and have shrunk.
This lets the fluid pressure leak internally resulting in slow engagement.
Driven this way long enough you will wipe the friction material off the plates.
This material floats through the entire transmission and enjoys itself immensely. Just looking for something else to tear up.
Drop the pan and look for any foreign material.
I bet when you remove the screen it will be covered.

 

[Crosley]

stu points out the possible problem....

I believe stu will also agree that during many cheapy over hauls of the t-350 tranny ...... the tranny guy never pulls the rear piston out and replaced the seals.


This will result in a great working tranny in forward gears , yet a weak reverse since the rear piston seals are real hard.


===== after a vehicle sits for a long period of time the torque converter will drain down. Fills up the tranny to a higher level and stuff starts dripping that normally does not

 

[msblckstck]

Thank you all for the quick reply and the info. I plan on dropping the pan this weekend(if the wife and kids allow me the time) and changing the filter. I will decide what to do once I get a look on the inside. Thanks.