Valve body- slipping all gears

[Brown_Muscle]

So I put an 86 valve body and baumann shift kit in my vehicle. Meticulously followed directions every step of the way, triple checking myself with the shift kit install.

Problem is now that it's in, it acts like there is no TV pressure, or a lack of pressure in general. Give it more than a hair of light throttle and it will slip going into every gear. The more you push the more it slips. I tried adjusting the TV pressure multiple times, both on the large adjustment end and the smaller (I have a TV Rod). It strangely seemed to make little difference at all.

Fluid level is good, checked it multiple times once it was hot.

I have one theory, but idk if it is even possible: The linkage is not connecting with the TV valve in the transmission. I did not think it could go together without it being properly connecting that though..

Anyone encountered this??

[gadget73]

It can. Unfortunately the only way to check is to drop the pan and watch what its doing. From memory here, the TV lever works a linkage on the inside that slides a valve back and forth in the valve body. I want to say its just a finger looking piece that engages the slidey bit. if that finger isn't in place, you'll get no TV action. The other thing is to make sure the parts are all properly torqued and the gaskets are where they go. Its apparently very critical that things be done just so. I've never fooled with swapping a valve body before, so I'm not real sure whats in there other than implements of black magic.

[Brown_Muscle]

Went in there this morning, everything was lined up correctly. So i got to thinking. I removed the throttle valve and looked over some more pictures (the one that came with the install pic was extremely blurry). After seeing the two photos i attached, and getting thoroughly confused, I surmised that I put the little throttle valve plug in backwards.

Reversed it, but it back together and BAM, crisp hard shifts like i've never felt before!

[L1011tristar17]

+1 for the simple fixes!

[IPreferDIY]

I had taken off a valve body once in the process of figuring out that I needed to replace the torque converter on a Tempo. I had learned the hard way that trying to see how fast the car will go puts too much strain on the part of the torque converter that drives the fluid pump shaft. Luckily, the part held out until I was in a more convenient location. It was totally fascinating to learn the basics of how an automatic transmission works. Congrats for figuring out the problem and for all the other work you did. (BTW, you got me to the point of Googling shift kits for my car.)

[gadget73]

Cool. Is that the piece that the TV linkage moves then? Transmissions are half voodoo to me. I've seen them with the pan off, but I've never gotten more involved than swapping a shift lever out.

Do you have park now too or is it still permaneutral?

[Brown_Muscle]

Glad I could inspire someone towards looking at shift kits lol. I'm not the best candidate to judge, as the valve body I put in was already in better operating condition than my old one, but I would say the kit did a pretty good job. I'm going to post more details in my readers ride page.

Yeah that's the piece that the linkage moves, well, part of it, the whole thing is much longer and have another spring in there. There is definitely a lot of engineering that went into the valve body, that's for sure! I took out pretty much every valve and actuator to clean and inspect.

Unfortunately I do still have my park-delete option...That will get taken care of..eventually. lol
I did install a drain plug in the pan, so it's not as much a pain in the ass to take off and drain.

[IPreferDIY]

Doing a shift kit on the Tempo wouldn't have been worth it, but I'm hoping to have my current car for another 14 years. It looks like the "proper" thing to do would be a J-MOD, which is apparently enlarging holes etc yourself. I just did the fluid recently, so I'll probably wait a couple of years for that.