My C-4 transmission has started to develope a slipping issue... The thing is, is that it only slips when it's cold (in the morning) or if the car has been parked for awhile (as in when get off of work). Here's an example; I start the car to go to work, I let it warm up abit (a couple minutes), put it in reverse and it goes right in... no prolem there, I put it into drive and I try to go and instead of going I just sit there, I give it some gas and the car dosent move, it revs though, after afew moments it gradualy starts to move but anytime I give it gas the engine will rev but the car will hardly accelerate if at all, I let it roll through the apt complex parking lot on the way to the road and hope it will grip enough to get going into traffic, I wait for a llaaarrrgggee enough gap and move out it gets going a little better but for another hundred feet or more it I can rev it without it going as it should (slipping), so it slips for about 300ft or so. But after all that it goes and shifts fine... I have installed a vaccume modulator a couple month ago, and I had a trans-go shift kit installed a couple month before that, I also added a bottle of Trans-X a little while ago as well, two years ago when I last rebuilt my engine I put a TCI torque converter in. Sorry for the long dicription but I need info back and I figured a accurate discription should get me some accurate info. I take any suggestions, and would appreciate any info. Thanks
david, it dosen't get cold in the morning out here. J/K have you tried adjusting the bands? ii'm assuming the tranny fluid is full. if you put in a new modulator, did you try adjusting that? if those don't work, i'd say you might need a rebuild. maybe paul will get on here and give some insight.
Well it's either cold or should I say when the car had been sitting overnight or for the time I'm at work. The bands had been adjusted when the shift kit was installed. Yeah tranny fluid's full. I havent adjusted the modulator, actually I installed the modulator to correct a similar problem which it did and my tranny was working fine until about a month ago. So, yeah I need help and to make it worse I have a tight budget. And I'm attempting to find a good shop or in my budget someone who knows there stuff who works out of their garage to cut the extra labor charge of a shop.
Yes, PaulS from the board will be able to help you with this. If he doesn't reply to this, you may want to contact him yourself.
had simular problems like that,, the "mod" was damaged, replaced it, worked alot better. when it didnt work, I could hook up the vac line and the forward gears would go out,,, act like it was neutral. the mod adjustment was wrong in my case. I got lucky,, did a fluid change and filter swap, with F type fluid, new mod, and was good to go. not saying thats whats wrong with yours,, but it happened to me.
I just remembered before I installed the modulator it was doing something similar except all the time, after installing the modulator it was working great, but now it has similar behavior after it's been sitting for awhile..... maybe I should replace the vacume lines and see if that helps anything...
David, The problem you describe is the forward clutch pack is slipping until you get the tranny real warm. Normally, if it slips for ten or so seconds then I call it "morning sickness" and recommend a few tricks to put off a rebuild. In your case the slipage is severe enough that you need to rebuild it right away. When it is slipping there are a maximum of five clutches, that are about four inches in diameter, slipping against steel plates. Your clutches are burnt up and it will leave you stranded. When you drive it while it is slipping you are getting very close to welding the clutches and steel plates together. The longer you drive it the more damage is being done. Get it fixed or replaced now. The modulator, shift kit and torque converter affect all gears and not just the forward gears. If you have some mechanical aptitude and mechanicl background you can probably rebuild it yourself but if you had the shift kit installed then you should probably have it done or just buy a rebuild. You can get a hi-perf tranny from Broader Performance for around $800. You can probably find a local transmission place for the same price but it will be a stock rebuild. That gives you a good cost comparison. Nobody is better than Broader sothey are the top of the line tranny.
dave, you might call marty fox at 480-229-8327. i believe he lives in mesa. he built my tranny. i've used it for 2 seasons now. i took it out and brought it to his garage. had it back pretty quick. pretty good price too. he does this during the day also and takes in jobs at home in the evenings. tell him don graham gave you his number. probably won't remember me as this was the first time i used him, but i will go to him back when needed.
Don, how much is a pretty good price? I just got my first house out in Maricopa so I'm kinda scrapped for cash but I know I'll have to shovel out some money to not be stranded... thanks, and thank you PaulS, I kinda fingured as much... the reason I had someone install the shiftkit was because I lived in an appartment and I had no experience with a automatic and the "exploded views" I've seen on the web kinda scared me, and I didn't was to damage anything but after watching the guy install the kit I felt like a idiot because of how simple the whole thing was. As far as my mechanical aptitude goes I have rebuilt my engine twice from the bare block up. Was running perfect the first time until the so called "Performance" heads I bought from PAW took a dump on me. So anyway I'm still not sure how hard it will be to do and now that I have a garage I might be more willing to do it... I just can't afford to have my car down to long yet at the same time I can't afford much at all at the moment or in the near future. But I am going to have to do something and soon.
If I was to rebuild what brand would be good... hughes... broader performance...? also based on the discription of my problem and the fact that the tranny has never been rebuilt and the person who had the car before me never changed the tranny fluid (at least by the look of the fluid... it was a redish/brown milky color, instead of the transparent red that it's sapose to be). What is the most likely thing to go out next? Hard parts specificly? Pump? Servo? Also does anyone know of a web based tech manual? or something of the sort? With pictures and discriptions? thanks.
david, i can't give you a price. it's been 2 years since i had him build mine. he had to replace some hard parts inside. if i remember right it was around $400, but not sure if that is still the going rate for him. man i can't believe how maricopa has grown. i used to work in that area a lot. give him a call and ask him what he charges.
I just tried to call, it was a wrong number. By any chance do you remember how you initatially got into contact with him, thanks. or does anyone else know someone? on a differant note I've been wanting to do a manual conversion for years but I'll bet that would cost even more... I do have the pedal assembly though but thats it.
David, you can get parts locally at any transmission parts outlet or from any number of on-line outlets. JC Whitney has a high performance over-haul kit that coms with Red Eagle frictions and Steel plates and a TransGo reprogramming kit. ( jcwhitney.com ) If you go that way it will cost about $150 and will provide you with everything but the following extra parts that you will need to complete your overhaul. 1. front band (flex band) 2. Selective thrust washers #1 and #2. (use these to set end play) 3. #9 thrust washer (these take all the load on acceleration) 4. Rear Servo Piston and seal assembly (these are failure prone and you should always replace them during a build) 5. Green Stripe vacuum modulator (if you have two vacuum lines on your modulator now then you toss the front line and plug it at the EGR manifold. The Green stripe uses only one line that is connected to the intake manifold and the back of the modulator) Armed with the kit and additional parts get the Haynes Techbook "Ford Automatic Transmission Overhaul" for a step by step "How to" and the video for rebuilding the C4 that is on line. (I don't have the address) If you can rebuild an engine you can build a C4. You can also use the information found in the Tech Articles section entitled "How to Hot Rod your C4 Automatic transmission" (by me) to modify the transmission for high performance. (disregard the valve body section if you are using the TransGo kit) I will be happy to give you all the help I can through Email (paulstephens(AT)q(DOT)com - replace the (AT) and (DOT) with the appropriate symbols)
