<VV> Powerglide stuck in Low...

[Barry Gershenfeld]

...again!   One or two of you may remember a post like this back in the 
spring of '01.  At the time, I figured out that the governor gear had 
stripped, and a swap of the governor fixed the problem.  Until a month or 
so ago, when it happened again.  This time, it wasn't the gear--the 
mounting tab that held the governor in place had broken, so I put in my 
next best one.  That was good until last Thursday, when it happened 
again.  And nothing's broken.

I hate it when that happens.  I hate it more when it doesn't seem to be the 
same problem.

For one thing, it didn't wait until I was on the freeway, it downshifted as 
I was going down the street.  After a few "undecideds", it went into low 
for the rest of the trip.   On the way home it got into Drive once or twice 
but then went back to Low for the remainder of the trip.   (These are trips 
of less than 10 miles).   When I got home I pulled the governor out but 
there was nothing visibly wrong with it.  I tried to look into the bore on 
the PG case to make sure there was a drive gear in there but I couldn't 
quite see.  I didn't see anything else unusual in there.  So I put another 
governor on and it worked OK but I wasn't satisfied that I had found the cause.

Despite that, it worked for two days, until today.  After it dropped into 
Low (on the freeway, it sounds and feels as if you have shifted into 
Neutral) I exited and after a stop or two it went back to behaving 
normally.  Tomorrow, we'll see what it does.

I'm almost out of ideas.  I did remember there was something about an 
E-clip, and after pondering this for awhile I checked the Basics book and 
there was a writeup by someone using my name (I'm glad I wrote it all down 
*somewhere* <gg> ).  Yet it doesn't sound like that problem.  Supposedly it 
gets stuck in Low only if you put the selector there first.   So that 
leaves the "pieces floating about the system" theory.

For some reason, the more I know about something, the harder the problems 
are.  I can fix other people's stuff.   If I've overlooked anything, or if 
anyone's got ideas, please share.  (BTW, I have been driving this car for 5 
years and no major work, so it's not due to "something I just did")

Barry