1962 cruieomatic woes

[mikhett]

I had my 1962 galaxie xl 500s cruiseomatic ****** rebuilt in 2007 @ FISHER TRANSMISSIONS Fairfield N.J.Ive never had a problem till recently when putting it in reverse the whole car SHUDDERS and SHAKES till I give it gas.Its not a carb problem and never stalls in drive .It has no performance problems in any other gear.It only has 1000 miles since 2007.THANKS

 

[Motorhead6]

Take it back to the builder and get them to re-adjust the bands. I'm sure they will have to charge you for this after 8 years even though there are so few miles on the rebuild.

If this doesn't fix the problem or they don't want to do the adjustment, go to a Ford shop or a local transmission parts supplier and get a friction modifier additive. Try this for a few heat cycles and miles; it should help. Don't go to a rebuild shop for the additive as they are gong to recommend another rebuild.

I have no affiliation with the product, but this is second time in a few days that I highly recommend "Trans Lube" as a fix. Be sure to get the black bottle in the black and silver box. The other colors are for different problems and I don't know if they work or not.

Good luck.

 

[123finboy]

I had the same problem with my '58 Cruise O Matic, and found that it was about a quart low on fluid [after checking it with the car fully warmed up and idling per the shop manual.] Added a quart of type F and it solved the shudder. Hope it's that simple for you.

 

[packrat5]

Adjust the bands, good luck finding someone who can still do this, and then do a COMPLETE drain and refill with type F fluid. This includes the torque converter too. There are two drains on the converter on opposing ends. They both must be removed so that the converter will "breathe" and allow a complete drain. Many times these places use a "universal" fluid instead of the proper one. Not good. Problems arise sooner, or later, but you will have problems not using the right fluid. Type F is sometimes hard to find, and often type FA is used. Again, not good. Type F is or was used in farm equipment for years, so try a farm-fleet store if you can't find any. Please don't use any snake oil additives, you don't know what is in it, and the correct fluid doesn't need any additives.

 

[Motorhead6]

Ford service disagrees in that they commonly use a friction modifier in their A-Ts/torque converters to correct "shudder" problems. There are service bulletins on this. Most transmission re-builders that I know routinely use it to circumvent problems. Most limited slip rear end builders also use a friction modifier to eliminate that popping noise you sometimes get. Having said that, I do believe the band adjustment would correct the problem. As you said, no one will want to do less than talk him into a complete rebuild. A few bucks (about $10 at O'Reilly's) for a friction modifier could very much be a cost effective thing to do.

If the friction modifier thing doesn't work, he might try to re-adjust the reverse band himself. Not hard to do and just might work. The reverse band is the one located furthest to the rear of the transmission. The adjusting screw is external toward the top of the case on the passenger side so it's pretty easy to do assuming you can access it. At worst case you might have to drop the cross member a bit for access.

Loosen the 3/4" locking nut while holding the square headed stud with a wrench. Continue to hold the locking screw and back the nut off by a few turns and then turn the screw in just until it is as snug as you could reasonably do with a screwdriver. Keep track of how many turns it takes to bottom it out. Now back the adjuster off by 1 1/2 turns. Make sure you hold the stud while you then tighten the locking nut. That's all there is to it. You do not have to remove the pan.

If this procedure doesn't work undo what you did by exactly the same number of turns of the adjusting stud and you are back to where you started.