normal trans behavior?

[BerniniCaCO3]

This is happening with frequency coming off the exit from the highway, making a corner @30mph having braked lightly, then immediately up a slope so I have to give it some gas after braking for the corner.
I'll press the gas pedal just some, hardly floored, and the car will kick down a gear, rev to 3000 for half a second, before dropping back to the appropriate gear and climbing the slope @1500-2000rpm as it should have.

Is this simply normal? That is to say, is 30mph in between shifts, and is it quite plausible that when I tap the gas for the hill it's misinterpreting it as a demand for more power than I intended? That the tv cable responds to abruptness of gas pedal depression, and not just how far you're pushing it?
If so, then I'll just need to let it slow down a little more and ease into the gas more gently?

TV cable SHOULD be adjusted right, now. Had a friend help me. Floored it revs to 3000 or a little more. Press the gas pedal strongly but less than floored and it'll go to 2400. Depends on gears/speeds.
Mostly just curious about how the tv cable works (i.e., does it work on impulse as well as pedal position?) than too worried, since it's just that one exit, and it's not acting funny any other time.


Btw, I do still have a rubber grommet. Seems firm, and rubbery, and not at all cracking.
Still worth switching over to the brass bushing for the tv cable? There is however something to be said for being able to just pull the cable out to adjust, remove the intake, etc., whereas a tiny retaining pin could get damnably irritating to remove.

[86VickyLX]

This is happening with frequency coming off the exit from the highway, making a corner @30mph having braked lightly, then immediately up a slope so I have to give it some gas after braking for the corner.
I'll press the gas pedal just some, hardly floored, and the car will kick down a gear, rev to 3000 for half a second, before dropping back to the appropriate gear and climbing the slope @1500-2000rpm as it should have.

Is this simply normal? That is to say, is 30mph in between shifts, and is it quite plausible that when I tap the gas for the hill it's misinterpreting it as a demand for more power than I intended? That the tv cable responds to abruptness of gas pedal depression, and not just how far you're pushing it?
If so, then I'll just need to let it slow down a little more and ease into the gas more gently?

TV cable SHOULD be adjusted right, now. Had a friend help me. Floored it revs to 3000 or a little more. Press the gas pedal strongly but less than floored and it'll go to 2400. Depends on gears/speeds.
Mostly just curious about how the tv cable works (i.e., does it work on impulse as well as pedal position?) than too worried, since it's just that one exit, and it's not acting funny any other time.


Btw, I do still have a rubber grommet. Seems firm, and rubbery, and not at all cracking.
Still worth switching over to the brass bushing for the tv cable? There is however something to be said for being able to just pull the cable out to adjust, remove the intake, etc., whereas a tiny retaining pin could get damnably irritating to remove.

The grommet is plastic, it shouldn't be rubbery.
Your trans sounds like it's doing exactly as it's supposed to. Downshift with little throttle depression (4th gear to 3rd gear)

The TV cable is attached to a rod which is attached to a pushrod that contacts a valve in the transmission. This valve controls flow to another passage in the transmission to another valve.
On one side you have the TV valve and fluid pressure, on the other side, the governor and it's fluid pressure.
The governor is a series of weights on the tailshaft that represents speed input.
The tv cable and valve represent load. The further the cable is out, the more the pressure increases, the valve that's in between is pushed in one direction, issuing a downshift effect (or if it's in the lowest gear it can be in, a gear held out longer (such as wide open throttle shifts)). When governor pressure is greater than tv pressure, it will upshift.

[1987cp]

A completely stock AOD has no stinkin' clue when, where, or how it wants to shift. Early shifts, soft shifts, ssslllloooowwwwww shifts, downshifts never happening unless you're going really slow ... typical AOD behaviour.

The original tranny in my wagon used to clunk into OD at 40mph with 3.27 gears. The TransGo-improved on in my Vic (also with 3.27 gears) won't even go into Third until I'm exceeding 40mph.


The pathetic stock WOT shift points can be solved with a $25 kit, BTW. I recently got through installing one myself, so you know it's not difficult!

[TomO]

I don't know if this will help or not, but here are my observations with my car.

I've got an '89 Grand Marquis w/ towing package (aka handling package), about 166k miles. I've owned it for just over 3 years and put about 60k miles on it.

The aforementioned package includes a 3:55 rear end. The transmission has always shifted firmly and early. The overall behavior of the transmission seems to be very consistent (maybe mine is an oddball).

If I'm just driving normally, I'm usually in 3rd by the time I get to 25mph and in OD by 35mph.

To the best of my recollection:

If I floor it from a dead stop or a very slow roll, it will wind out through 1st and into 2nd and stay in 2nd until about 55mph. If I floor it from about 10mph to 20mph, it will stay in 2nd most of the time without downshifting to 1st.

If I floor it from from 3rd it will downshift to 2nd but very rarely if ever will it downshift to 1st. If I floor it from OD it will downshift directly to 2nd if my speed is somewhere between about 35mph and about 40 or 45mph, but if my speed is over 45mph it usually only downshifts to 3rd.

Generally, it seems like it really wants to stay in the current gear unless I just about have if floored. In other words, it hardly ever downshifts unless you REALLY give it some major throttle. Grades don't seem to affect shift points that much. The input factors seem to be speed and throttle position.

EDIT -- I forgot to mention that my car is completely stock, with no modifications at all.

[1987cp]

Yeah, it's much nicer, given gears not much taller than 3.27, to be able to run it right up to 50mph in First just as a result of not shifting prematurely.

Would have been amusing to have a 5000rpm governor in my old '79 with 2.26:1 rear gears. Winding it to 5000rpm in manual-First, I was doing 70!