Welcome to Club Hot Rod!  The premier site for everything to do with Hot Rod, Customs, Low Riders, Rat Rods, and more. 

  •  » Members from all over the US and the world!
  •  » Help from all over the world for your questions
  •  » Build logs for you and all members
  •  » Blogs
  •  » Image Gallery
  •  » Many thousands of members and hundreds of thousands of posts! 

YES! I want to register an account for free right now!  p.s.: For registered members this ad will NOT show

 
Like Tree3Likes
  • 2 Post By junkyardjeff
  • 1 Post By 34_40

Thread: C-4 will not downshift after being on the highway
          
   
   

Reply To Thread
Results 1 to 13 of 13
  1. #1
    junkyardjeff's Avatar
    junkyardjeff is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Dayton
    Car Year, Make, Model: 37 chevy p/u 55 ford convertable
    Posts
    629

    C-4 will not downshift after being on the highway

     



    Put a used C-4 in the sunliner and it will not downshift at all after being on the highway a few miles but will start downshifting after manually shifting on the side streets,I presume its the governor sticking so can anything be done while still in the car.

  2. #2
    rspears's Avatar
    rspears is offline CHR Member/Contributor Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Gardner, KS
    Car Year, Make, Model: '33 HiBoy Coupe, '32 HiBoy Roadster
    Posts
    10,989

    Have you pulled the vacuum hose off of the vacuum modulator to see if it's wet with tranny fluid? That's my only guess for a relatively easy fix.
    Roger
    Enjoy the little things in life, and you may look back one day and realize that they were really the BIG things.

  3. #3
    34_40's Avatar
    34_40 is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    New Bedford
    Car Year, Make, Model: 34 Ford 3W Coupe Replica
    Posts
    14,606

    It sounds to me like the governor might be stuck, Depending on the year - I believe it is located under the tailshaft housing. Drop the driveshaft, remove the mount fasteners and then remove the bolts from the tailshaft housing, You will need to remove the speedo drive connection cable, but you may or may not need to remove the speedo drive from the housing. slide the housing off and inspect the governor for movement, it works on centrifugal force, so you can pull the weights out ( carefully) and feel if it does move or is stuck hard. Roger Just had his trans worked on as it had some "stuck" components from sitting. The C-4 is a pretty simple unit, the shifts happen when the governor moves, the vaccum modulator can modify the shift points but the governor is the main operator. Hopefully the gasket doesn't break when removing the housing, and be careful to not overtighten the bolts when re-installing. Don't be a gorilla, you can damage the case! HTH...

  4. #4
    Mike P's Avatar
    Mike P is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SW Arizona
    Car Year, Make, Model: 57 Ply, 68 Ply Valiant, 83 El Camino
    Posts
    3,747

    Just a thought......many years ago I had a C4 that started acting strange. Turns out the valve body bolts had worked themselves loose. Of course I didn't find out what the problem was until I did a postmortem after I had burned up the clutches and bands.

    Likely not your problem but might be worth a look just for peace of mind.



    .
    I've NEVER seen a car come from the factory that couldn't be improved.....

  5. #5
    HOSS429's Avatar
    HOSS429 is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    New Market
    Posts
    2,584

    i was going to say governor as well but he stated it will not down shift but then it will downshift in the same sentence .. stuck governors wont unstick themselves ..
    iv`e used up all my sick days at work .. can i call in dead ?

  6. #6
    junkyardjeff's Avatar
    junkyardjeff is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Dayton
    Car Year, Make, Model: 37 chevy p/u 55 ford convertable
    Posts
    629

    Will not down shift automaticly after the highway drive but will manually and after a few miles with start to down shift when its supposed to until taken on the highway then back to having to manually do it again..

  7. #7
    Mike P's Avatar
    Mike P is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SW Arizona
    Car Year, Make, Model: 57 Ply, 68 Ply Valiant, 83 El Camino
    Posts
    3,747

    One other though. Try this;

    Put the transmission in drive and when you take off does it up shift one or 2 times?

    If it only up shifts once, come to a complete stop put it in 2 (or on the green dot if that is how the quadrant is marked). Does it now up shift twice and operate normally?

    If so you have a dual range (green dot) transmission and it's operating as it should. On these transmission the "drive" position only uses 2nd and 3rd gear while the "2nd" gear shift position uses all 3 gears and is the position the used for normal driving.


    .
    I've NEVER seen a car come from the factory that couldn't be improved.....

  8. #8
    junkyardjeff's Avatar
    junkyardjeff is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Dayton
    Car Year, Make, Model: 37 chevy p/u 55 ford convertable
    Posts
    629

    This is a later trans and shifts 2 times when in drive,most likely will have the trans I took out rebuilt again.

  9. #9
    junkyardjeff's Avatar
    junkyardjeff is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Dayton
    Car Year, Make, Model: 37 chevy p/u 55 ford convertable
    Posts
    629

    It now will not downshift at all,as soon as its put in D its in third so its manual shift only right now,after taking it on a couple hundred mile trip it started working better but today it did a delayed shift into second them full on manual so I am going to get the trans I took out gone through again.

  10. #10
    rspears's Avatar
    rspears is offline CHR Member/Contributor Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Gardner, KS
    Car Year, Make, Model: '33 HiBoy Coupe, '32 HiBoy Roadster
    Posts
    10,989

    Sucks. Thanks for the update.
    Roger
    Enjoy the little things in life, and you may look back one day and realize that they were really the BIG things.

  11. #11
    junkyardjeff's Avatar
    junkyardjeff is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Dayton
    Car Year, Make, Model: 37 chevy p/u 55 ford convertable
    Posts
    629

    I am now thinking of never using automatic trans again,since I am planning on putting a Y block in it again I do not want to have that trans rebuilt since its a pan filled where the C-4 to Y block adapter is for a case filled. A friend has a case filled I can use and is good enough to just put in so that might be where I go. I am seriously thinking about going to a manual trans when the Y block goes in.
    Dave Severson and rspears like this.

  12. #12
    34_40's Avatar
    34_40 is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    New Bedford
    Car Year, Make, Model: 34 Ford 3W Coupe Replica
    Posts
    14,606

    A manually operated trans in a hot rod will always rule. Especially with the plethora of overdrive combinations available now. A C-4 is a good unit. Light, simple, easily rebuilt. But like many things in our cars.. it has some "quirks", when I was working in a tranny shop here we would have one kick our butts every once in a while. Like this one, some wouldn't shift up or down or shift once and never even move after that. Most of the time we'd drop the valve body and double check everything, including the gaskets. The re-install, double checking the torque setting / sequence / re-assembly. We'd rarely find anything visually, but sometimes things would just click and the unit would work after. We always blamed the problem that the case and valve body were so "light" they would bend just enough to cause an issue. I did the same steps when re-doing my A.O.D. just to make sure it works after install. It did / does. 8-)
    Dave Severson likes this.

  13. #13
    junkyardjeff's Avatar
    junkyardjeff is offline CHR Member Visit my Photo Gallery
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    Dayton
    Car Year, Make, Model: 37 chevy p/u 55 ford convertable
    Posts
    629

    I think I am going to check the governor on any used trans I get from now on.

Reply To Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
Links monetized by VigLink