KyleM1990
Newbie
So as is the usual something always has to go wrong. '92 K1500. The Saturday before last I drove about 120 miles total in 95 degree heat, everything was fine, truck stayed cool, etc. I came home and parked it in the garage. About 20 minutes later I went into town and back, which is about 5 miles round trip. I noticed that my 1-2 shifts were late, like 2500-3000 RPM late, 2-3, and 3-4 seemed normal. I got home and noticed there was some transmission fluid on the garage floor, maybe 1/2 quart? It's hard to tell as spills always look like there is more than there is. I checked the fluid and it was still good, it was a bit over full when I got the truck a month and a half ago. The next day everything was back to normal and it stayed fairly normal until this past Thursday night. I went to Lowe's about 20 miles away. Truck ran and shifted fine all the way there. I was in the store for maybe 25 minutes, on the way home about 6 or 7 miles from home after slowing to allow someone to turn I noticed it didn't want to shift into overdrive. I slowed down and turned off onto a backroad and came to a stop. I could not get it to shift out of 1st gear, but I didn't try to force it and didn't rev it over 3000RPM. I kept it below 2500 and made it the rest of the way home. At this point I was quite upset and thought the transmission was probably shot. Then I got to reading about sticky governors and damaged governor gears.
The next day (last Friday) I went to go to work and it was shifting from 1st to second but not until 2000-2500 RPM or about 25mph. At light throttle it would sometimes shift earlier but sometimes not. It will also not kick down to accelerate regardless of what gear you are in. Since last Friday I've kept it close to home my drive to work is 2.5 miles in one direction and the nearest city is 2.5 miles in another and as of today the shift points are getting later 1-2 at 2500-3000RPM or about 25-30mph, 2-3 at 45-50 mph, and I have to get it up to 60mph to get into overdrive. As it warms up sometimes it will shift normally but sometimes it is still late. If I let it sit and idler for 5-10 minutes after it's warmed up they start getting way late again like 1-2 at 3000RPM late. I have checked the TV cable as I'm familiar with them from having owned a handful of cars with the Ford AOD which also uses a TV cable. It appears to be just fine. I found two different adjustment methods one manually moving the throttle to ratchet the cable, the other using the accelerator pedal. Both put it about the same spot. So I think that's good, but I don't have the gauge to fully correctly set the TV pressure.
Later tonight I plant to pull the governor out if I can pull the governor on a 4WD with the front driveshaft in place. I hope I can. I'm going to have a look at it and clean it. But I'm wondering if there is any chance this is something simple and I'm not going to have to have this transmission rebuilt or replaced? I haven't noticed any slipping and all 4 gears and reverse feel strong. I'm just getting these weird shifts later and later and no kickdown. I never did figure out where the fluid that leaked out last week came from as it hasn't leaked a drop since. It is still a bit overfull but I don't know how over full one of these can be before it causes issues. I myself have not added any fluid to it. Sorry for the long post I just wanted to make sure I described everything that has happened to give the most information possible.
The next day (last Friday) I went to go to work and it was shifting from 1st to second but not until 2000-2500 RPM or about 25mph. At light throttle it would sometimes shift earlier but sometimes not. It will also not kick down to accelerate regardless of what gear you are in. Since last Friday I've kept it close to home my drive to work is 2.5 miles in one direction and the nearest city is 2.5 miles in another and as of today the shift points are getting later 1-2 at 2500-3000RPM or about 25-30mph, 2-3 at 45-50 mph, and I have to get it up to 60mph to get into overdrive. As it warms up sometimes it will shift normally but sometimes it is still late. If I let it sit and idler for 5-10 minutes after it's warmed up they start getting way late again like 1-2 at 3000RPM late. I have checked the TV cable as I'm familiar with them from having owned a handful of cars with the Ford AOD which also uses a TV cable. It appears to be just fine. I found two different adjustment methods one manually moving the throttle to ratchet the cable, the other using the accelerator pedal. Both put it about the same spot. So I think that's good, but I don't have the gauge to fully correctly set the TV pressure.
Later tonight I plant to pull the governor out if I can pull the governor on a 4WD with the front driveshaft in place. I hope I can. I'm going to have a look at it and clean it. But I'm wondering if there is any chance this is something simple and I'm not going to have to have this transmission rebuilt or replaced? I haven't noticed any slipping and all 4 gears and reverse feel strong. I'm just getting these weird shifts later and later and no kickdown. I never did figure out where the fluid that leaked out last week came from as it hasn't leaked a drop since. It is still a bit overfull but I don't know how over full one of these can be before it causes issues. I myself have not added any fluid to it. Sorry for the long post I just wanted to make sure I described everything that has happened to give the most information possible.