That is a funny response cathedral club, that is how i feel!


its so weird how it could go from that condition and then perfect and then back again. thanks for the info, i'll check vacuum line and let you know what is going on.

I wonder if it may be a sticky situation in the valve body or accumualtor.
Try adding a half to 3/4 can of seafoam Trans Tune. This will clean varnish off very well.

thanks soft ride, that sounds great. I'll definantly try that.

I wanted to follow up on this. After trying a variety of things as mentioned in previous posts, we bit the bullet and did a full rebuild. This car is in such good shape, we deemed it worth doing. The biggest problem is finding a good transmission shop. They are becoming hard to find where the work is at a high level.

I read in a trade magazine that the number of shops has fallen from around 25,000 in 1960 to around 6,000 today. Apparently a lot of the business is going to re manufacturing
and then an install at a shop in your local area. With the advent of eight and ten speed units, the complexity and complication is rampant and good technicians are hard to find. We also get a lot of German cars here and they can be 8,000 dollars easily or more. I don't know if that is for a complete rebuild or a new unit. One shop I checked out had a late model Range Rover in for a rebuild. 14,000 dollars. I don't care if I had a billion, that seems patently ridiculous. It wasn't even ten years old! And I wonder frequently if transmissions of today are better like some claim. Guy I know drove a stock 1977 Lincoln Continental and said it drove and shifted as smooth as any so called modern car.

The shop I went to has an excellent reputation but even there, the veteran owner is transitioning out and the 22 year old son is taking over with mainly truck work and fabrication. That'* what we're seeing here in NY. Of course, places like AAMCO are still around but for me, not taking that chance.

Cost was 2,200 dollars for the Lesabre. Been about one month and one thousand dollars. Can barely feel the shifts at all. 4T60E transmission.

At the end of that post, I meant one month and one thousand miles.

And that friend said the Lincoln shifted at least as good if not better than present day.

I know they did a full rebuild however, by chance did the shop mention what they found wrong with your transmission,? Was it valve body related or clutch plates + etc?

Yes, they said the clutches were burnt out and that there was a lot of wear in general in the unit. He went through the whole of it. We just hit a thousand miles in a month and perfect.

Did the full re- build include a new torque converter?

I do not think this included a new torque converter. Keep in mind this is lower NY so prices for everything are higher than ninety five percent of the country. This rebuild could cost 1500 anywhere else. One mechanic told me the BMW rebuilds can be 8 thousand here and that is a rebuild he told me. Newer Japanese cars from a minimum of 3500 to 5000 depending. I believe that is why so many owners don't go that far and abandon the vehicle and get something else.

I long for the days where so many transmissions were manual and the automatics were non electronic and about one thousand to repair. My Camaro with 700R4 would be about 1300 here for full rebuild. Years ago I got that rebuilt at a local chain called Gibraltar and it lasted a few years. I then had it serviced at a longtime old Italian shop and it is still working 20 years later although not driven as much.

Stuff is just too complicated and complex today. A lot of times its pure guessing to get the job done and no I'm not that old at all so its not that I'm adverse too bettering machinery but are we bettering it or over engineering it?

The number of gear ratios in a transmission are being driven by fuel economy and emissions standards, and yes they provide better accelleration etc.

One of the big innovations that I think has greatly improved transmission life and performance is the addition of torque management. Very seldom do any of these transmissions just slam into the next gear like in the olden days. Even the old ones that shifted smoothly did so by overlapping clutch engagement, which increases wear and stress every single time. The torque-managed units coordinate with the engine computer (if they are separate computers) and beck the power off for the fraction of a second that they need to in order to give a smooth shift, and engage clutches firmly with little or no overlap.

That having been said, I understand what you mean about the old Lincoln. MY 3-speed automatics shift immediately, and smoothly if they were ever set to do so (often with the help of talllllll gearing in the differential). They also shift pretty much immediately. The one thing I don't like with a lot of the new torque-managed units is the occasional experience of a slight lapse while the robots in the transmission decide what gear to use . . . and the power lag while they go about doing it. Never have that with the old ones. The upside is that once the robots get done deciding, the new engines go like mad.