After the smoke cleared from the last 3 months of problems, I have now replaced the injectors, the entire fuel regulator assembly, the o-rings on the fuel rail, the rear end, the maf and installed an electronic speedo calibrator, the car runs beautifully.
Well, except one thing, my car won't shift out of first at any rpm. I have tried the usual stuff mechanics recommend, like pulling on the TV cable to give max pressure in the tranny and clear any stuck valves. This occurred after the rear end swap. After talking to several GM mechanics, they said it's very easy to damage the plastic gear atached to the governor near the tailshaft on the tranny when installing the driveshaft. Which I did bang a few times while lining it up.
The problem is that I can't get the cap that covers the governor off. Has anyone installed one of these? Is there something I might be missing? There's no bolts I can see or feel and the mechanic I've talked to as well as my trusty gm shop manual say to just pry it off with a screwdriver. I couldn't get it to budge. I tried hammering the screwdriver into the place it meets with the tranny, but with no luck. Maybe I need a bigger hammer and to get the car on a lift to give me more leverage.
I'm sure somebodies done this. It's located right in front of the vss. Any suggestions here would be appreciated. I'm so close to having the car run right.

Chris


[Modified by okinawa86vette, 5:22 AM 9/24/2002]

 

You do need to pry it off little by little but I don't remember the tailshaft being near it. :confused:

 

Sorry, I wasn't too clear, the governor splines into a gear on the tailshaft.
Is there any specific way to pry it off, because I wasn't making any headway after about an hour?

 

I was watching as my tranny guy did this on my 86, he took a long 24" flathead screw driver and a small slegde hammer and knocked the cap off at an angle. He did have to knock it pretty hard to get it off. To put it back on, set the top in first and reverse the knocking the crap out of procedure on the bottom. He used some black looking 3M adhesive to make sure it stayed. Hope that helps.

 

The plastic gear on the tailshaft is for the speedometer sensor in the removable tail housing, don't think you can hit it by installing the driveshaft though. The governor meshes with spiral cut gear that is integral to the tailshaft, forward of the speedometer gear, just inside the flange where the tail housing mates to the main body of the trans. Those GM mechs better look in their shop manuals for a refresher. I have pics, as I just rebuilt my '85 700R4. If I get a chance, I'll post the best pic. :cheers:

 

What's up, man, how have you been? I guess I was right, figuring I just need a bigger hammer and screwdriver and just brute force the thing.
BTW, I ended up selling my Trans Am to my brother when he came into town about a week after we were in DFW.
I'll have to wait for my next day off to get down to the auto hobby shop and get the car on a bigger jack so I can get a big screw driver on there.
When my dad spoke to a gm mechanic he gave him a tube of GM RTV, which is what he said they use when they put the cap on.
Thank you all for the very very fast responses.
Chris

 

Chris,

Just make sure you get enough room to have leverage to hammer that cap off. Mine was done with the car up in the air and I could barely watch as he swung away. There may also be a retaining clip that goes over the cap, mine was missing, but the trans guy put a new one on for me. If you dont have a shop manual, I can copy any instructions you may need.

Hey, I was reading that your parts car and your 86 both had the radiator oil cooler, you wouldnt happen to want to sell the one you aint using, would ya?

Oh and if you dont have a governor, you can get one from Jeff Kopp at Superior Chevy, or I can get one for you and send it to you. Remember, I still owe you for the A-arms you send (that is still sitting under my futon). Im lazy, what can I say.....

Anyhow, shoot me an email if you need anything. Good luck.

 

I've had the new governor for about 3 or 4 weeks now, just didn't want to bother installing it until the car was running again. I'm going to go down to our auto shop, kind of like a garage with bays where they let you use their tools, lifts, jacks, etc and charge a couple bucks an hour. My jack wouldn't get high enough to get any leverage on it. Don't sweat the A-arms, I had no use for them, and if they help someone else, thats better than having them thrown out.
As far as the oil coolers, I'm going to hook mine back up, when I get motivated, and my parts car has moved on to a better place. I had to get rid of it, so it's been crushed, I'm sure. New oil coolers aren't very expensive from summit, ranging in price from 60 bucks up to about 130. I think you can get universal ones from autozone and places like that. I know a lot of those places can get perma cool, which makes an oil cooler, and I'm sure they have adapter plates for small blocks. They might have one specific for our cars. I can't wait to hook mine back up, the oil temp ran anywhere from 15 to 30 degrees cooler.

Chris

 

Jack the car up and use a long screwdriver to knock the governor cover off.

It take me 10 minutes to jack the car up and 1 minute to pull the governor out.

Vic