<VV> PG shifting issues

[judynrandy at comcast.net]

Tom, 

I had the same issue with the tranny in my '65 4dr.  I too, tried swapping in another tranny that hadn't run in many moons. (Don't do it!)  It turned out to be full of garbage and contaminated the fluid in the t orque converter and still didn't work.  I ended up pulling the drive train 5 times till the problems were finally resolved. 

I hate to say it, but your best bet is to pull your drivetrain and disssasemble the tranny and at the very least put in a paper and rubber kit.  I took mine to a local guy who worked on all kinds of trannies and had a soft spot in his heart for corvairs.  (He had a '66 4dr buried in the back of his shop.) He took it apart and inspected it.  My problem was o ne of the aluminiun pistons had what they call a porosity cavity in the casting and it cracked there and the crack bled off all the fluid pressure.  You probably don't have that going on as it is a rare phenominum, but it's what else he found that got my attention.  The rubber o-rings and seals were hard as a rock and the paper gaskets were petrofied.  Also, the clutches were severely worn.  The band was ok.  What was mind blowing was the car only had 45,169 miles on it when I bought it.  The dude used my other "dead" pg for parts and between the two made one really good one. 

I feel the wise choice is to get it looked at.  Our beloved Corvairs are now 50 or so years old.  That way you'll know for sure your car is going to be reliable and dependable like we expect them to be.  Also, since you'll have everything apart, I highly recommend getting your torque converter cleaned, flushed and inspected.  Most big tranny shops can do it.  Lastly, I can't stress enough to use synthetic tranny fluid.  Heat is your biggest enemy in automatics and synthetic fluid dissapates heat and reduces friction.  I use Amsoils' "Universal ATF".  It works great and I've had zero tranny problems after installing it. Try it, you'll like it. 

    
Cap'n Hook 

'63 ragtop 84/PG 

'65 monza 4dr 110/PG