57 caddy trans woes

[art woody]

Are there and transmission gurus out there that can shed some light on a 57 tranny which works fine thru first, second, third, then goes nuetral after third under slight acceleration, then catches smoothly under harder acceleration but never seems to go into fourth gear (no fourth gear). Reverse also works normally. Thanks for any insight in advance.

[Roger Zimmermann #21015]

A friend of mine had a similar problem with his 57 Brougham. After a long discussion with him, he admitted that he had trouble to take apart the front unit coupling. He removed the transmission from the car to inspect the parts. The front unit coupling cover had indeed a crack caused by improper removing. I could supply a good cover to solve the problem.
The front unit coupling is also used for the second gear; according to the logic, the second gear should give also some trouble when the front unit coupling is not good. In case of my friend, he had just a trouble with the 4th speed.
Good luck,
Roger

[Ed Mobley - CLC 19300]

Sounds like low oil pressure to me - maybe a bad pump or a very leaky front coupling unit (cracked cover, stuck exhaust valve).  I suggest you hook up a pressure guage as per the directions in the service manual and let me know what you get.  I can help you from there.

I ended up running a piece of copper tubing into the passenger compartment where I could monitor transmission pressure.  

Regards,

Ed

[art woody]

Thanks for the input, I dont have a service manual for this model yet, but will soon.

[Ed Mobley - CLC 19300]

I have the version from http://www.detroitiron.com TARGET=_blank>www.detroitiron.com


Regards,

Ed