Perkolator

Hi all, hoping for some transmission advice.

Inherited my dad's Delmont 88 after he passed away, it's been almost 2 years and only now have I mustered up the guts to touch the car and start doing some work on it. About a week ago I bought a new battery for the car and replaced the 2 front tires that were flat. She started right up, but then I couldn't get the trans to catch any gear and actually move the car anymore. Thinking I have a transmission problem now.

When I moved it into storage and parked it, the car had major "tip in" problems and wanted to die when you gave it gas. On top of that, if you could get it into gear and not stall out, it wouldn't really go forward very well - kinda like a slipping trans i guess. After sitting for the last year in storage I noticed that there's a puddle of fluid under her, maybe 1-2 qt volume from the look of the puddle....guessing it's transmission fluid since it's fairly clear, coming from the center of the car behind the engine...and she won't go into gear!

I don't know a whole lot about cars (YET!) and assume my trans has leaked enough fluid to no longer have anything inside the torque converter. Assume since it's a GM auto trans, that this must be some sort of turbo hydramatic, maybe a TH350 or TH400 auto trans.

I understand that the leak could be caused by any number of things - such as a bad seal on the fill tube or dip stick tube, maybe a bad shaft seal, etc.

Since I do not have access to a lift and because the car is stored in a shed without power, my options are fairly limited for working on the trans, especially if I have to remove it from the car. Wondering if you think that me simply adding in some trans fluid will work temporarily to get it moving? I read that a way to refill the TC inside is to have the car running, then slowly cycle the gears from low/1st up to park, then do it several times in the hopes to clear all passages of air and refill with trans fluid.

Think that will work?

I'm trying to get the car out of storage so I can take it to a mechanic and work on tuning this thing so it runs/drives/stops under its own power.

oldcutlass

First warm the engine completely and check the trans fluid with the engine running and in park. Keep adding fluid through the dipstick tube until it reads full. Then shift the transmission from park to drive to reverse and back to park again. Do this a few times and recheck the level again, add more as required until full. Do not overfill.

Perkolator

awesome, pretty much the sequence of what I thought i'd have to do. is it better to cycle into the individual lower gears (1 &2) or just simply into D/R/P?

95% of all my previous cars have been manual trans, I think I recall from high school shop that you have to check an AT with the engine running -- thanks for that tip, I totally forgot!

oldcutlass

Hope it works, good luck.