I picked up a almost kinda not really okish 740 station wagon today. Paid only 400 bucks. The transmission on this thing is extremely wonky. shift points are really out of wack and it will not go into 4th gear even after playing with the overdrive button. I noticed that it looks like the kick down cable has allot of slack in it. Can this cause the symptoms i have described?

 

yes.

and if the kickdown cable is not retracting, you need a new one, its probably frayed ands tuck at the lower end, which is inside the transmission.

 

When you say in the transmission.... How in do you mean? Will i need to pull the transmission in order to install the new kickdown cable?

 

no, it can be changed on the car but you need to remove a plate on the side of the tranny, so you have to clean everything in the vicinity off really good first (and its undoubtedly under 1/4" of grease and grit)

 

I played with the cable and it is retracting. i even tried to adjust it to take some slack out of it which caused it to shift even worse :/ Can it be too stretched to properly adjust? i wanted to at least see if i could 4th to work.

 

4th/OD is a whole seperate thing, although a too-tight control cable certainly will keep it from ever engaging. the cable is supposed to have a little bead on it just forward of the adjustment ferrule, near the throttle spool. this bead should stop about 1/8" past the orange dust cap on the ferrule with the throttle at idle, and the cable should be just barely slack. touch the throttle hardly at all, and the slack should be taken up

does your yellow uparrow light toggle on/off with the button ?

 

Yes it does, and today when i was driving for a little while 4th gear finally showed up to the party. So i am thinking maybe a sticky solenoid? If so how hard is it to replace?

 

the solenoid is pretty simple, its bolted onto the side of the transmission, has a single wire (return circuit is via chassis ground), that wire has a connector on it near the shifter.

the solenoid is actually a hydraulic valve. power off, its closed, and this prevents OD from engaging. solenoid power on (when the light is off, go figure), the solenoid opens its little valve, hydraulic fluid flows, and OD is enabled (the tranny will only shift into OD when it feels like it).

one dirty trick is to cut a notch in the business end of the defective solenoid such that it acts like the valve is always open, this will leave your OD always enabled regardless of the state of the button + light.

its possible there's a bit of debris stuck in there, and clearing it out will fix things. absolutely critical, CLEAN OFF ANYTHING NEAR THE SOLENOID BEFORE REMOVING IT. last thing you want is even a spec of grit getting inside the gearbox.

btw, tighter cable == up shifting later, downshifting sooner. looser cable == upshift sooner, downshift later. but a STUCK cable is equiv to a tight cable even tho the end looks loose.

 

I really do appreciate all your help man I went to try and drain some fluid today and it looks like the previous owner over tightened the trans pan bolt and it just spins now