I took the time this week to fully service my 1994 SC2. It is driven occasionally and is no longer used as daily transportation and I need to repaint it again and up grade the interior. It has a little over 100,000 miles on it, uses no oil and runs where ever and when ever I want to with no problems to speak of except age is beginning to show.
Cosmetics are tuff at the present.
And the transmission was beginning to shift harsh.
It has the neat performance/economy switch which when set in performance starts things off if 1st gear and uses all 4 gears and lets the engine work out against it's rpm curve. It is fun to drive that way and scares the hell out of late model mustangs and camereos. In economy, it starts out in 2nd and short shifts.
It is a neat feature. I change the filter about 25,000 miles back but never changed the fluid.
So I did and another new filter. I could not tell if anything was bad, color looked o.k. and odor was acceptable but.
The new fluid took care of the harsh shifting. I guess that is a good thing. Glad I did it.

 

I'm confused, Unk. You said you haven't changed the fluid, but you changed the filter about 25,000 miles ago, and then you say the new fluid took care of the harsh shifting. Did you actually change the fluid and filter or what? I know you said you took the time to fully service the car, but your statements seem contradictory to me.

 

you tell em, rube!

what the hey, unc?

 

Look at the time he posted that memo --> that time of night, my comments usually have a touch of "old barleycorn" in them .... just funin' Unc

 

I'm not being disrespectful, Uncljohn, I'm just trying to figure out what you did exactly that changed the shifting. I had that switch on the SC1 that I had and couldn't tell any difference at all in either position. Maybe mine didn't work.

 

Well that time of night my pain pills start kicking in so the same effects can be attributed to it.
Full service, new fluid and filter. I believe the number was near 7 qts. It always bothers me that if the fluid is yuckey the torque converter still is full though. But other than the Saturn I have not even seen a transmission drain plug on the pan in years and trying to change fluid by unbolting the dang pan spills it everywhere except in the drain pan you are using.
Yeh, Ruby, the switch apparently (at least mine does anyway) does two things.
1. It causes the transmission to start out in 1st gear from a dead stop. When set in performance mode. Also the shift points are higher up on the rpm range. Both up and down shifts. This makes it fun to drive in heavy traffic as it squirts through things by tickling the gas pedal to cause it to down shift.
2. In economy it starts out in 2nd gear and then short shifts. This mode is not uncommon. Although I have not noticed it recently I also have not looked for it either but on many transmissions, the old Fordomatics for example, in drive they would start out in 2nd gear and then shift to high.
Those transmissions depended on torque converter slippage to adequately move the car from a dead stop. The shift quadrants were P R N D L or P R N D1 D2 L where
D1 started in 2nd gear and D2 started in Low.
Those same transmissions you could manually shift for drag racing and things of that nature by starting in the Low range and then moving the lever from Low to Drive and it would up shift to 2nd and pulling the lever back to low would lock it in 2nd gear until you moved the lever from low to drive again.
Today's technology of paddle shift is just a variation of what always has been there right along. Except it is done Electronically now rather than through hydraulic pressure.
With the torque converter that locks up it in essence eliminates the slippage which reduces engine rpm at a give road speed. Which is also what another gear does. Reducing engine rpm at a given road speed.
My 32 year old Chrysler 904 3 speed automatic in my Fuel Injected 1980 AMC Spirit with a 2200 rpm Stall Torque Converter which locks up at a higher rpm or road speed depending on how you define it, is also controlled by hydraulic pressure rather then Electric as the Saturn is or the 700R4 I am installing in my Hornet, has the spring changed that controls the pressure so rather than locking up at 39 miles an hour as designed it locks up at about 55 mph.
The transmission acts as if it is a 4 speed transmission on the road.
Historically, there were no 4 speed transmissions made at all other than the 4 speed GM hydromatic which was used in GM cars other than Buick with dynaflow (1 speed) and Chevy with Power Glide (2 Speed) and sold to be used in Lincolns and Nash and Hudson for a while. Packard the only independant manufacturer to develope their own transmissions used a 2 speed transmission with a lock up torque converter. It was sold to Nash to be used with the V8 also bought from Packard in 1955 and 1956 and Studebaker for the infamous 1956 Golden Hawk. Packard powered. That transmission turned out to be problem prone and a restorers nightmare today.
BorgWarner developed a 3 speed automatic which pretty much became a standard in many automobiles that had not developed there own transmissions. It was developed before Ford designed their own and the Ford transmission shares a lot of design features and some parts depending on the transmission. The BorgWarner transmission besides being identified as problem prone became an international vendor for automatic transmissions for years.
Both Ford and Chrysler developed 2 speed automatics used as a bottom line option for many products in the 1950's.
The stories behind the multiple semi-automatics that existed from the 1930's to the very early 1950's are bizarre and weird.

 

Nice write up, Uncljohn. That's some good information.