Hey guys. You were all super helpful when helping me get my 85 auto z51 running so I thought I'd get your thoughts on this. After getting the car running I was on my way to the dmv to get the car registered. On my way the transmission started to slip or so it felt. I tried to lug it home but ended up getting stuck on the side of the road. I checked the fluid level and it was very very low. I walked to a gas station grabbed a couple of quarts of atf and filled it just above full. I was able to get the car moving after that but only if I floored it nearly bouncing on the rev limiter but once it got moving everything acted normal. I was able to get it home and check things out a bit. As the car sits right now it is in park while in park, reverse acts like park, neutral is drive and everything below d-1 is drive. When going back up the same thing happens except when I go into reverse the rear wheels stop and when I put it into park they buck forward a bit before stopping again. I put the car up on jack stands and did all of this. I also disconnected the cable and shifted the trans by hand and the same thing happens. When I installed my headers I threw a set of the shortest glass packs on the end in an effort to quiet the car down a bit so I could drive it a bit while waiting for my exhaust but the driver side was very close to the linkage. I'm not sure if the external linkage could have gotten caught on that and damaged something internally or if it's all do to the low fluid and possible roasting the clutches. Sorry if that's a lot of info to process but I've been at this for awhile with no results. Let me know what you guys think.

 

truth is im not real familiar with the internal workings of an auto trand but sounds like you killed your pump by running it dry (did u check all your fluids?) and shes roasted now.

goo news is that with 4 jackstands and a jack you can swap an auto trans in these cars really easily.

my 85's trans was fried and i bought a replacement out of an 86 and for $300 and away i went.

 

Put lucas transmission oil refresher in, it helped my auto bounce back, also check your filter did not fall out because of a loose ring.
Good Luck