1981 Oldsmobile Cutlass Brougham- my thread

[GT_80]

I got the trans pulled out, new torque cinverter in, no change. So I changed out the weights and springs in the governor and changed out the spring and valve on the passengers side of the trans, no change... grrr. The trans is messed up, I found it has a shift kit in it, and sometimes I know if you aren;t really careful, they can cause more problems. May be why the kids sold it one week after putting it in his car. It is great on the highway, but a dog around town. With the governor kit in it, it holds 2nd gear way too long as well.... I need to rebuild one of the other transmissions I have, and I will get a transgo kit as I have heard they are better than a b&m kit alone..

I got the hood worked out a bit more today too. Ground off all the crappy bondo work, cut a big hole in it, riveted the sheet metal back to the supports, and glued and screwed the scoop on. Once it dries fully, I will take most of the screws out, use short strand kitty hair and some glass mat/resin to finish it off, then lightweight bondo, sandable primer, and maybe paint it satin black for now...

 

[DRIVEN]

You sure you don't just have a bad lockup solenoid or is the locked convertor issue solved?

 

[GT_80]

You sure you don't just have a bad lockup solenoid or is the locked convertor issue solved?

no, the issue is not solved...

its a non lockup converter- At least not an electric lockup... Is there a lockup solenoid in a non-electric trans? I personally think it was a shoddy rebuild, or the low speed clutches or drum are fused together. It does not 'slip' when you put it in drive with your foot on the brake. Basically, in park, it idles at 1100 rpm, as soon as you put it in drive with your foot still on the brakes, the motor drops to like 200 rpm, then stalls. If you are driving and come to a stop light, when the car stops, it stalls out. This is a first for me. I have never had this much trouble with a th350- it's probably my favorite transmission.

Looks like I will be learning a lot about them soon- gonna rebuild the one that was in my car that I sheared the pump gear teeth off of.

 

[DRIVEN]

I feel like an idiot 😳 . For some reason I thought you were dealing with a 200-4R when you were talking about the converter being locked up. What you're describing is a new one to me for a TH350. Sorry.

 

[GT_80]

I feel like an idiot 😳 . For some reason I thought you were dealing with a 200-4R when you were talking about the converter being locked up. What you're describing is a new one to me for a TH350. Sorry.

Thats OK I was starting to think no one reads my thread.

 

[GT_80]

Just got my FlowTech afterburner headers in!! Sitting in my office at work- turned a few heads coming in 🙂 Just my style- I plan on documenting the install- I have not found any installed pics of them yet, and I know it would have helped my decision to get them in the first place... I will let you all know how it goes- hopefully as easy as they say...

 

[procircuit]

right on! keep up the good work :!:

 

[85blacksalon]

Good luck with the flowtechs. I tried 2 sets, the left 1 would hit the shift linkage, ended up with a set of hedmans

 

[GT_80]

Thanks for the encouragement guys! The Flowtechs went in without a hitch- I have a floor shifter, so no clearance issues with shifter linkage - i did a write up on them in the moor swap section of the forum.

In bigger news, I found out that most of the problems I had been having with my car stalling when going into drive was NOT due to the transmission.. As it turns out, I did a ton of reading in the last couple weeks and I found out that if the carburetor is running too lean, or if it has a vacuum leak, it would cause the car to stall when in gear, mush like a locked up transmission... SOOOO while I had my headers off I had to pull the plugs, and they were WHITE - not tan, not gray, white... Much too lean on the carb.

I had initially assumed that the factory 70/78 jets on the demon 625 I was running would be a fine jet setting, and because of the trans I had not had much time to tune the carb... SO, I bought a holley gasket kit (same as demon for the most part) from auto zone for $27 and I set out friday to gut the demon, completely clean everything, replace the accelerator pump diaphram and check valve, gaskets, jets, etc...

I got the carb all tore down and cleaned up, blew out every tiny hole, new gaskets, and I had to file the base plate a tiny bit in one area where the PO had screwed a screw too deep in the base plate and almost out the bottom, thus creating a dimple in the baseplate towards the motor, so it was not entirely flat, went with 74/81 jets to start, and I threw a 1" tall 4 hole spacer under the carb while I was at it (sometimes helps off idle stumbles if the carb is too big) and low and behold, I can drop the car in drive without it stalling! It stumbles a tiny bit when dropped in drive, but once it settles out, it will idle in park with my foot on the brake at 900 rpm all day, same with reverse. Unfortunately it still slips in first to second so I still think the last person to do a rebuild forgot something or put a disk in the wrong place.

I found a TH350C from a local guy that just took it out of his vette for $150 and bought it- it was driving two weeks ago, and although I am taking another chance on someones word that it is good, I think I will be fine this time around. I am going to just do a filter swap, new front and rear seals, new manual shift lever seal, and drop it in. If it drives good, maybe over the winter or in the spring I will have my buddy help me drop a trans Go shift kit in it.


I started cleaning it up yesterday, and accidentally stabbed a razor blade 1/2" deep into my left palm, so I need to tend to that before I can do any heavy lifting...


I plan on hooking up the TC lockup as well, with a vacuum switch and interlocking the brake switch, with a toggle to turn it off, and a light to indicate when it is on. Pretty simple wiring really, just a lot of in and outs of switches.

 

[GT_80]

I almost forgot... my horn button was getting stuck down because the ground clip was broken and putting too much tension on the internal return spring... So I bought a new horn button...

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