Putting a question out to the 3FE hoard because you guys helped me bring a high mile aged and neglected 3FE to sewing machine like reliability...
On the A440 when I first got everything running I had to replace the kickdown cable. Replaced the old fluid (black) and filter was clean, magnets had minimal metal fuzz accumulated. After adjusting the cable all gears worked great and converter lockup was functioning as it should at 53mph on speedo. I have 37s stock gearing and live in the mountains so it would never stay locked very long..
Put 1200 miles on it commuting on highway 20-30min each day. Recently the 1-2 shift got sticky and hung in 1st until reved high or manually shifted to 2 on shifter for the first couple shifts of the day then acted fine. Also noticed converter lock stopped occurring. Did party trick (2-3 times) adjusted kickdown looser and ultimately changed fluid/added lubeguard trans bottle. The 1-2 shift is back to working great but still no converter lockup. All other gears work great so I believe the governor is working correctly and adequate pressure is being built. Fluid that came out wasn't burnt nor did it look full of debris.
I suspect either the lockup valve in the valve body is stuck or the converter had an internal failure to the lockup plate/disk.
Trans has fresh fluid withe lubeguard, no flare shifts and each gear holds well. Fluid is at correct fill on dipstick measured when hot. Does have big reverse clunk but drivetrain has 274k miles..
Does anyone know any other diagnostics to isolate between those without shotgunning parts at it, I have no issue getting one of Rodney's valve bodies if that is the issue or having the converter r&r'd but wondered if there was something dumb im overlooking thats 440 specific.
I'm leaning sticky valve body with the 1-2 shift issue it had.. and selfishly that can be done without dropping the trans so thatd be much easier.
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