The back story:

1990 240DL , Automatic, under 100K miles.

I lost a vacuum line on the way to school one day last month, limped in the last 20 miles and fixed it over lunch. It was the 18" or so long line right at the top of the engine. Seemed to fix the problem.

A couple of days later.
Every time she goes to shift the RPM's have to climb considerably higher than usual before she shifts, then, thunk and I start accelerating again. Once I'm up to highway speed, no problem. And it does it less after the car has been driven awhile. Feels like a slip..but not exactly.

I have no overdrive relay, the P.O. had a "Bypass Plate" installed, by which I assume he meant a solenoid, that works without issue.

Any ideas at all would be appreciated.

P.S. I am still driving 300-400 miles a week like this.

 

Checked the transmission fluid level yet?

 

That was the first thing I checked, it was a little low, but not that much. I topped it off. Did not make a difference.

 

My friends 85 Chevy CItation likes to do that.

.

This stuff works wonders. I use the engine formula as well.

 

Well, here's the options I can think of...
1. The downshift cable is adjusted too tight. That will make it have to rev up higher before shifting. Still, that's usually unrelated to temp of the transmission. Small adjustments of that cable translate to big changes. It's the other cable on the throttle spool that goes down and under the firewall rather than entering the driver's firewall panel.
2. The transmission just isn't healthy. Changing the filter and fluid may help. If it doesn't, the transmission may simply be failing. AW70 transmissions are not all that robust and after 100k miles, driving style and maintenance mean more than actual mileage.

 

Looks like I have some research to do.

I'll have to check the cable, but it was working before, all I can figure now is that I did some damage limping in without that vacuum line. Hard to believe it is that fragile.

Hopefully I can find a way to avoid facing this now, I need the car and have no time to replace the transmission.

 

Found out what is going on, I blew a seal and the juice went away. By by transmission. I should have looked under the car, funny thing is, I never noticed any spots in te driveway.

$1500 will get the whole thing rebuilt with a 3Yr 36K coverage. So she's getting fixed, just going to make life a little expensive for awhile.

 

Looks like it was the carrier bearing going bad that took out the tailshaft seal. I never felt any extra vibration.

Check your driveline folks, transmission rebuilds are not cheap!

 

The last several months have been an odyssey, but the 240 should be home tonight and driveable.

I picked her up last week from the transmission shop after a two plus month adventure.

The shop owner managed to damage his good eye in an unfortunate shop accident. He's endured several surgeries since while my car sat in the shop partially dismembered. A good friend of mine who's also my regular mechanic, (But not a transmission tech) went over on his off time and helped piece the 240 back together.

She was driveable again except for the wiper motor finally calling it quits. Sunday I picked up something in the left front tire. But tonight I should have it back and everything working once again.