First post here, and a few questions.


I picked up this car about a week ago and the only issues I have had so far is a slight vibration at around 25mph, as well as a random shuttering right after the switch to 2nd gear, it engages fine tho, no issues with shifting, just right after. When looking at the car, the original owner assured me it was just a wheel out of balance. I''m skeptical simply due to the fact that I do not feel it in the steering wheel at all. I''m not sure if it could be the transmission, drive shaft, or rear differential. Only reason I question the transmission is because it recently had a rebuild and the clutched where replaced. All work was done by fireball transmissions, but im not sure what fluid was used when refilling it. Other reason for questioning the drive shaft or rear differential was appearantly the original owners daughter ditched the car in a snow storm, and kept switching from reverse to drive over and over, hence the clutch replacement and rebuilt, but that also could have caused damage to either drive shaft, or rear differential. I went out and took some pics of the driveshaft, as I noticed there was about 5 inches of space between the transmission and the seal on the driveshaft. I''m not overly familiar with these cars, or rear wheel drive cars at all lol. The logical explenation would be that it allows enough room for the engine to move under load and not cause damage from the rear differential, but I could be wrong.

So, after that long winded paragraph, my question is, what are your thoughts? What is the most likely cause for this? I plan to flush the transmission, replace the filters, and refill with micronV, and also change the fluid in the rear differential just to be safe, but are there any other suggestions??

Thanks!

Here are some pics I took of the drive shaft play I was referring to:

 

Interesting!


I was about to refer you to the search function, as the "shuttering" is unfortunately very common on these transmissions.


However, after looking at your pictures, I have to say that looks very weired. I have a ''92, which should be similar. I will check on Friday and take some pictures on how mine looks. Maybe that helps.


Oh, by the way, use the search function. You will find quite some interesting details about the transmission, converting it to Mercon V and more.


Will let you know.


Greetings!

 

driveshaft has to be able to slide in and out for movement from the rearend moving up and down to accomodate it since it doesnt move straight up and down. rearends swing forward slightly when the rear raises sounds like the shuttering is caused from transmission pressure being misadjusted and being set too high. just a guess, but a real transmission shop would have a way to gauge the shift points and set the pressure to the transmission.

 

Well, makes me feel better that that''s normal. I got in touch with the original owner, turns out he used dexron when filling the tranmission back up, so I will swap filters, and fill up with merconV and then take it to the nearest transmission shop to check all the shift pressure stuff out, thanks guys!!