Powerglide damage from 'clicking' engine off in lights

[Jody Lang]

175 would be good. Is your pressure gauge accurate? That's what bit me.

There's another way to bump pressure without changing spring if you have access to some other pressure regulator valves. Even a shim if it doesn't already have one.

Building heat while not up against the converter can't be good.

Where's your sender located?

[Mike Pearson]

If you have been running steel sealing rings the snout on your pump is probably worn and contributing to the low pressure issue. The first thing to go will be the band will burn up in less than 10 runs. If you notice the car trying to back up when you get on the brake then the band is starting to burn up. This is what was wrong with my car several years back. Coan turned me on to a new pump and valve body and I started using the Teflon seal rings. Coan set my line pressure to 170. I would replace the pump and have a good trans builder like Coan rebuild your valve body. The Teflon seal rings work real good and eliminate the wear in the grooves on the pump snout.

[ken robinson]

Sounds like to diffrant problems which needs to be fixed . Low oil psi in the shut down and you will kill the motor . When you say you loose oil psi , it goes from what to what . What problem are you having with the trans. You could be over heating the trans by shutting off its oiling system and lose its cooling effects. Do you run and trans cooler ?

[Kevin Panzino]

Well, guys, I got to the bottom of this. You wont believe what I found... Amazing...

The shutting down in the traps was not the issue. Bearings, bushings etc were all fine. The issue I was having was burnt up high gear clutches and fairly excessive band wear and occasional burning of same.

I was convinced I was doing everything perfectly regarding setup, clearances, etc...

Both ATI, and TSR racing kept suggesting it was shifter adjustment, and/or a shifter problem. I had previously checked this several times, but checked again in the most thorough fashion. It was perfect.

So then I decided to tear into the valve body (ATI #203300) and take a close look at everything there, suspecting an internal problem. Everything looked ok in there with one exception.. The manual spool valve seemed to not line up properly with all the lands in the body as I moved it into each gear position. I had bought a new manual valve from ATI a week earlier figuring I would change it out as well, if perhaps mine was worn in diameter and causing leakage....

Well what I found is that my manual spool valve had two of the spools in a roughly 1/8" different position than the new spool valve, as well as one spool which was narrower. See the attached pic below of the comparison. When I put the new spool valve in the body, each spool lined up perfectly with each land in the body.

Further analysis of each position, and each port showed that in Low gear, only 1/16" of the low apply port was being connected to line pressure. Likewise in high gear the same problem was present. depending on ever so slight slop, it could have even been worse, as well as causing leakage from each port into another, or to exhaust...

I never would have thought of this. I assumed all powerglide manual spool valves were identical. Most folks I talked to did as well. I don't know where that spool valve came from, and what the heck could be the history of it, but I know realize I have had all these problems since installing that valve body, and this was the cause.

So moral to the story, if you build glides, have several manual valves on hand, compare them and make sure they are all the same, and that they line up well with each land in the valve body.

The car picked up .2 and 3 MPH, shifted like a raped ape, and ran four passes within .01 of each other. And the fluid is as perfect as when I poured it out of the bottle.

Sorry for the long post, but I don't want ANYONE to have to go through what I have gone through the past month, and its certainly a 'weird' one, so keep this in mind.

See pics below. 1st pic: both spools. 2nd pic, the old spool in 1st gear position. 3rd pic the new, correct spool in 1st gear position.

Than you everyone for the replies and the help.

Kevin

[BRIAN SEATE]

Turbo Action shifter for the glide as far as I am concerned. We have run the SCS shifter for years. This is the only shifter to run, Herb Sr. put dad onto this years ago. New drivers should practice going to neutral while rolling through the pits. I would not run any other automatic shifter.

[Adger Smith]

A long time ago I sold Trans King a big box of P/G parts I had collected.
There were about 11 V/B's in with all the other stuff. I did not get credit for two of the V/B's because he said they were older PG that had a rear pump. I questioned him and he said he couldn't use them because they were different. I just accepted it and went on. I can't remember if they were out of some old iron case PG's I had or the alum cased that had rear pumps. NOW!! I am wondering if the porting in the V/B was different. Could your Spool Valve be out of one of the older P/G's that could have had different porting??? Just wondering.
I'm not a PG expert on old parts by any streach!!

BTY: Where did you get those nice fluid diagrams in the pictures?? Nice!

[Adger Smith]

I found it on the http://www.brianswayneonline.info/index.html
Swayne has the pictures of the non rear pump and the rear pump VB's and they are different.Check out the size, spacing difference of the passages around the spool valve area!!
I would bet the spool valve that goes with each is different. It is not shown... :~(
I will try to upload the picture. You can use that link and look around for the pictures is you like. well, another case of Al's internet paying off with info!! :~) Kevin, I'm just like you... didn't know that one!!

[Jeff Lee]

That's some great mechanical detective work. I've had similar problems with camshafts of all things. Same issue as your spool valve; camshaft journal (which is ground from a "spool") that is off center in the cam tunnel and protrudes into the lifter bore ever so slightly. Of course the first time you don't notice until the cam is installed, degree'd, etc. Take it out and put it in the lathe. I've had this happen 2 or 3 times. And I guess everybody with a trans valve body will be taking them apart this weekend!

[Greg Reimer 7376]

I have a bunch of Glide stuff up on a shelf and need to assemble a trans out of all of it. Now, you got me to thinking not to ever disassemble a bunch of valve bodies and toss all the parts into one container. Very possible that the manual valves are spaced differently. Those pictures are worth 10,000 words in this scenario. I've had glides that lasted for years and years and still would work, and the clutch and band issues just weren't there. I hurt a high gear clutch pack in my Chevelle some seasons ago, it seemed that fluid level was the cause. This scenario you just described and located would drive a sane man nuts before he found it! Thanks for the message to all of us.

[Mike Rietow]

Originally Posted by Greg Reimer 7376

I have a bunch of Glide stuff up on a shelf and need to assemble a trans out of all of it. Now, you got me to thinking not to ever disassemble a bunch of valve bodies and toss all the parts into one container. Very possible that the manual valves are spaced differently. Those pictures are worth 10,000 words in this scenario. I've had glides that lasted for years and years and still would work, and the clutch and band issues just weren't there. I hurt a high gear clutch pack in my Chevelle some seasons ago, it seemed that fluid level was the cause. This scenario you just described and located would drive a sane man nuts before he found it! Thanks for the message to all of us.

In park, the first journal on the manual valve, will be flush with the VB, if it is the correct manual valve for the VB in play.