I know I have been sort of a post ***** lately but please forgive me I am just trying to make sure I can sell this one and get a newer bonnie .

Well I am having a strange tranny problem.

I have searched this forum and I came up with a few posts displaying problems but none of them that I found really covered what is going on here.

I know the tranny has 218,000 on it and it is the orginal case, so who knows if it has been rebuilt or not, but that is besides the point, The car if it runs is worth maybe 600 bucks so I would like to get that instead of maybe 200 if the tranny has to be put in.

87 by the way.

Heres what it is doing:

It has only done it a few times but all of these times were before I screwed with the thottle body and the sensors up there.

When driving at 35mph up to 75 whent he car is at a steady speed and also when you are accelerating sometimes it will JERK VERY HARD, but I dont believe it is trying to go into second, it might but it just seems to shake once maybe twice and then it stops. It is COMPLETELY RANDOM from what I can tell. Again it does not do it in second from what I can tell, only 3rd and OD.

Is there ANYTHING that can be done to fix this problem without dropping the tranny? or anything that I can check to see what is going on?

didnt the 87 bonnies have a balance issue with the engine tranny?..which was fixed in the 5 pin TCC plug 4T60 and the VinC 3800?

I dont think this is a matter of whether it is balanced.


The car shakes suddenly when at low as well as higher revs at high speed.

I was thinking maybe a vaccum modulator? would that screw this car up when it is NOT ACTUALLY SHIFITING?

To describe the problem more vividly.

It feels like a VERY hard 3 to 2 downshift.....

you might want to have the spider gear checked out on your transmission. I am having a problem with mine currently. I get a vibration around 50 + miles an hour... and it is especially worse if i am accelerating around a corner ... The spider gear allows one tire to spin faster than the other tire for when you are turning and such. And ill just tell you that the way i found out mine was bad was i jacked up the car and put it in gear with the wheels off of the ground and after i reached about 40 mph on my speedometer the engine would start shaking from side to side off and on really bad. I thought i had a bad engine mount but they were okay... But it was the tranny and engine jerking back and forth from the play in the spider gear.

What he said. One of our least frequent members, Noot, just fixed a similar "tranny" problem by putting the correct plugs in all 6 cylinders....

If you have the stock Magnavox ignition, a failing coilpack can do that particularly if the plugs or wires are getting marginal.

Misfire can feel like just about anything possible so I always check for that first. For me it is usually most noticable when going up a slight grade in cruise at 50 mph (o/d & lockup) - low rpm & moderate load.

96% sure it was a failed torque converter.

The car had 220,000, all orginal and it was abused by previous owner - as well as myself was a little hard on it at times.

Money pit.

The engine still runs like new but needed new paint really bad along with body work.

Plus the suspension was shot, rear struts leaked.


I had to sell it though.

The now $300 car is still on the road however. It is now servering a great winter beater for somebody that does not want to trash their new car with our roads in the winter here.