Auto Trans Identification

I went down the hill to DMV today to get Esters VIN verified and get my new plates. I havent driven her much since getting her cause I was working out some kinks that she had. Well I noticed today that she seemed to have 4 gears instead of 3 like I thought. I thought I had a Turbo 350 trams but now I'm not sure. The B&M shifter is marked D-3-2-1, so went down into 1st and hand shifted the trans, and yup it has 4 gears. Woooo-Hooo.

So here's the ??? how do I tell what trans I have? Is there a site that gives me demenions or pictures? Any help would be great.

Are those the only OD trannies that work in our vans?

It rained pretty much all day and I didnt climb under her and check. I think that its a 700-R4 from what I remember about the pan the last time I was under there. I will check tomorrow, and I dont remember seeing a vacume line going to the trans.

Heres something to ID most trans

mountainkowboy sometimes a guy just gets lucky,thats some great someone already went to all the trouble of changing it to an overdrive trans. Bill

OK, its a 700-R4, I climbed under it this morning. There is a single wire coming out of it about midway down on the drivers side.........is that the reverse light? Does this trans have a lockup converter?

Is it a single wire coming out of a 4 hole plug with 3 pins? it should have a lock up converter if its set up right. I was going to ask you how the wire to the trans was run after ya said it was a 700R.

Digz wrote:Is it a single wire coming out of a 4 hole plug with 3 pins? it should have a lock up converter if its set up right. I was going to ask you how the wire to the trans was run after ya said it was a 700R.

Is it sposed to have power to it? The wire follows the speedo cable and then disapears in front of the radiator. I havent dropped the bellypan yet to see where stuff goes yet. I tried to search for some info on the trans but havent been able to find out about the wire.

If its a 1982-91 tranny, it can operate with 1 wire ( I am still learning this as we type), from what I am gathering there are a couple ways to make that work. 1 way being a vacumn switch in-line with a brake light switch, another that Painless wiring system(somewhat complicated) and a super easy way with 1 pressure switch in the 4th gear test port( the way I'm going to try). I have talked to 2 different guys that rebuild these and have gotten 2 different plans. so anybody with any knowledge jumpin in would be cool just to know how any of these affects the drivability .

I know I'm gunna have to drop the bellypan and check out whats in there and see what the PO has done in there. I also have to have an auto trans cooler put in the radiator or find a different one, since the trans is just hooked up to an aux cooler only.

God news for me, the parts van has a 3 core auto trans radiator in it..............................score.

From what I have read it's better to have an external tranny cooler rather than having one built into the radiator. The theory was that an external would cool better and more efficient because it would not absorb any heat from the radiator. I have seen many cars that just run a aux cooler with no problems what-so-ever. If you look at alot of the race cars and hot rods they just use an external cooler.

Monster trans website says that you need the cooler in the radiator because the trans runs hotter than the engine and that water transfers heat 32X better than air. I will do more research before I finalize the method.

Depending on where you live your tranny might not have problem getting it's heat that it does need to operate properly. In colder climates like Minnesota where it's still freezing in June I would use one of these...
http://www.jegs.com/p/Perma-Cool/Perma-Cool-Remote-Oil-Thermostats/748655/10002/-1
It's a thermostat for the external cooler that opens at 190 degrees.