89 302 2wd atx

when i'm accelerating and the tranny shifts to third gear, EVERYTHING shakes in the vehicle.

also when i'm slowing down, everything shakes when it downshifts.

what could be causing this?

i throw the trans in neutral when i'm slowing down so it doesn't shake so much when stopping.

and i'm not sure, but are these things supposed to be soo slow?

 

bump?

 

Universal joints.
If you have a two section drive shaft, there is a bearing and shock mounting in the middle cross member support.

 

I would guess direct clutch problems knowing it is an aod they were really good for that.
Alan

 

i've allready had the driveshaft checked out by a guy at my shop. he says they're fine.

how would i go about checking on the tranny? cuz it's all looking towards the tranny as the problem. even though the guy i bought the truck from says it's been rebuilt.

 

You can drop the pan and do an inspections. I'd be pretty confident it was the transmission myself.
Alan

 

so a fsm wouldbe very helpful for me then, eh?

 

so i had the driveshaft checked out by a mechanic at work and he says the u joints and driveshaft is fine. the front yoke is fine also.

i popped the driveshaft back on the truck and then i took the wheels over to get them checked and rebalanced. they were slightly out of balance so i balanced them (with a wheel balancer at work) and popped them back on the truck.

i also replaced the rear drivers side shackle and shackle bracket since they had been rotted out.

test drove around the block and out on the roads for a little; still shakes in third gear and also in OD (4th gear).

it seems as though it has a really hard time downshifting as i'm slowing down to make a turn. the truck would be in third gear and i'd be slowing down to make the turn and EVERYTHING shakes. i glance at the instrument cluster and the voltmeter is bouncing back and forth from normal to LOW. seems as though the pulsations with the truck and fluxuations in voltage coinside with each other. kinda seems like the truck might stall out. i don't have a tach though. seems really difficult to slow down with the motor reving back and forth like that.

what are the symptoms of a bad Torque Convertor?

 

bumpage.

 

You or some one else experienced in sorting out the major source of the problem by testing is the only way short of doing trial repairs and throwing money.
The engine could be running rough at coast down.
The trans could be a cause as well as other associated faults.
Try coast down with the trans out of gear.
Try it with the engine off.
You have to do these things to get a lead.

 

problem solved. mostly.

in this crappy weather i had to try and fix the truck. so i went outside and froze my *** off..lol

i was gonna check the ignition timing as the motor was pinging occasionally. supected ujoint; nope. also possible bad spark plug and or wiring. so i put some premium gas in there to see if it'll help. it didn't. plus the vibrations like i posted above; supected transmission problem. so i grabbed the timing light and i hooked up the sensor to the #1 marked plug wire (it had a single dot that the previous owner had marked). i lit up the crank damper and i couldn't see any marks. so i adjusted the timing on the light to see if i could read what the timing was on the motor while it was currently running. nothing.

so i was totally confused. did the previous owner not time this thing correctly?

then i traced the '#1' plug wire from the distributor all the way back to the plug. strange, the plug wire was hooked up at the #6 spark plug. so i was like, HOLY CRAP!

needless to say, i pulled off all of the terminals at the distributor and rewired them back to spec..lol. finally retimed the motor and it runs AND drives great!

the truck doesn't shake at all. downshifting isn't difficult as it was before either. so i guess it was just a badly tuned motor that was causing the 'suspected tranny problems'

wtf was up with the bad plug wiring, i'd never know...lol

although the truck kinda has a difficult time stopping......so i guess this story continues at another forum..lol

thanks!

 

Wow, that's the kind of stuff that makes forums tough to help through.

Adrianspeeder

 

Trying to make sense of a post for help is alway a crystal ball routine if all the right info is not given.
In this case either he bought the truck like that or some one screwed up just recently and should have been noted as such.
We all have assume a problem come from a properly running engine to begin with.

 

It's good to know that there is a way to sort through problems like this. I am suspecting a torque converter or forward clutches in my 1988 XLT Lariat with AOD. I am going to check the plug wiring and so forth. In my truck, I get the same shaking in 3 and 4 and it wants to downshift a bit rough now that I screwed with the adjustment of the throttle valve cable. I have been quoted $850 for tranny rebuild and recently found one in the Bargain Post out of an 89 Crown Vic. for 49 bucks. Which way should I go? DUH I think I will try the $49 option over hte $850 one. Question is, will it bolt right in? Anyon that could let me know would be thanked greatly.

 

Not if your truck is 4x4.

Adrianspeeder