I bought the plate from IPD and installed it this weekend and every thing worked fine. No leaks, got 4th gear back and was enjoying it.

This morning on the freeway I realize that I no longer have 4th gear so now I wonder where in the hell do I go next to hunt this issue down ??

There was only one instance in those 3 days where it was a little " tight " ( for lack of a better description ) in not shifting to 4th gear and I'm stumped.

Fluid level appears with in specs.

 

Did you replace the rubber o-rings when you did the bypass?

 

The ipd plate should have only one o-ring on it. Be sure the older existing o-rings were removed becuase they could be blocking the fluid flow.

 

Sure did guys. The tiny little o ring came out with the solenoid and the bypass had a new oring. I cleaned everything prior to removal very well but I'm wondering if something might have slipped in. ALTHOUGH last night at about 65 mph it did kick into fourth gear on the freeway.

I'm thinking maybe a flush is in order since I brought the car used and I don't know when it was done last, even though the fluid color and level are acceptable.

 

Beware the "Quickly Lube" flush, the process can be unkind to high milage transmissions. If you choose to have the tranny flushed, use a reputable mechanic, not the cheap quick guy. You said the little o-ring came out with the solenoid, I assume you got two o-rings out with the solenoid?

 

If the transmission is over 100K you should reuse the existing oil, filtering it before pouring it back and add a auto trans treatment from Lucas, it will prevent future slippage and other problems...

 

Oldvolvonut: Yup they both came out fairly easy, and I used the new one that was supplied with the kit. It's just odd because when I hit around 65-70 THEN the damn 4th gear kicks in.

I'm almost wondering if I shouldn't replace the kick down cable as well.

 

The module on my 740 went and instead of buying the by-pass plate, I removed the inner o-ring and drilled a small channel from the outer area to the inner area and reinstalled the non-working module with only the outer o-ring and now my overdrive works fine.

How clean is the fluid and have you ever replaced it? You mentioned a flush, but both times I have had that done to a high milage vehicle, the tranny went shortly afterward.

 

Check the kick-down cable at the top to make sure it's working property, moving freely.
Move shifter through all forward gears and check engagement in each.
ED7

 

oldvolvonut: The fluid is actually very clean looking, I'm surprised. I did a stint few years back and especially with the old Tauruses, I'd NEVER flush the trans out if it looked even questionable. This in my opinion isn't bad at all but I don't know the prior history of the car so it's almost a toss up between " I hope it works " and routine maint.

Kick down cable " appears " to be doing it's job. I have all gear when I run it through the paces other than 4th. To restate it has worked on the freeway but not as a regular thing since I did the bypass plate.

The downfall is that all of the cars I've had prior were MT and not AT. So kickdown cable, it's functions and testing are not something I'm familiar with.

 

sounds like the by-pass plate you purchased may be the issue. If you still have the solinoid you removed, try reinstalling without the inner o-ring and see if that works. As I stated before, modifying the solinoid to work as a by-pass by installing without the inner o-ring and drilling a small channel between the two hole in the solinoid worked fine on my 1990 740.