Mushy automatic shifting?

[mediaguy99]

Hey folks:

I have an 87 GL automatic with a 2.5 Subaru RMW conversion. The transmission was rebuilt about a year or 10,000 miles ago.

This weekend my shifter got all mushy. Mushy? Smooth? Hard to describe exactly what was happening. Hard to find reverse, drive, and neutral because the "stops" are gone. Also, shifting into park is a 50/50 bet: half the time, the van ends up in park, and half the time it's in reverse.

I looked at the shifter cable underneath and it looks OK--that is, it's connected at the front and taut all the way back to the transmission.

Has anyone experienced this symptom before and know what the culprit was?

Thanks,
Rob

[danfromsyr]

ok, so what did the conversion do to connect the throttle cable to the transmission kickdown (relay) lever?
the oe. van throttle went from the pedal to the trans relay lever then a rod w/spring to the throttle body

if that transmission relay lever isn't connected AND it;s free to float or move then it will settle into a mushy shift bands.. and burn up the clutches from slippage. it needs to be slightly held back by a spring or wire..

it's located on the front pass side of the trans buried above the coolant lines.

this is how Ben and Vanaru do it, I don't personally like it because of weather and snow/slush potential complications.. but your driving conditions may differ.
http://www.benplace.com/vanaru_pedal_bracket_automatic.htm
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[mediaguy99]

Hey Dan From Syr(acuse?):

Thanks for the info. The throttle kickdown connector is in place. That came disconnected last year, and I re-connected it. Checked it yesterday and it looked fine.

I took apart the shifter box up front and the selector there is moving along just fine. The spring is a little loose. I don't have one of those, so I cleaned up the assembly and it's a little less "smooth" now but it still doesn't want to shift into Park, it just stays in Reverse.

I am going to look again tonight at the selector on the transmission, while having my lovely wife move the selector from the driver's seat. Hopefully I can figure out what's binding it up, and preventing it from going all the way back into park.

RL

[MarkWard]

There are two ways you feel a notch when you shift. The shifter base has some notches built into it that you have seen. There is also a cam type plate in the automatic section that actually selects the gears and activates the parking pawl.

I would crawl underneath and disconnect the shift lever cable from the transmission. Make sure you are on a level surface with the brake set. You don't want to run yourself over. With the engine off, work the lever on the side of the transmission you just disconnected the cable from, not the accel cable. You should feel when shifting by hand definite notches as you go through the gears. If not, you need to dig further into the transmission. You can drop the pan and observer the cam I am talking about, but don't dig in just yet. If you feel the notches, I would suspect the actual shift cable and you may want to replace it. There is a cable for early and late. Slightly different part number. Post your findings.
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