C4 shift troubles!

6

66Fairlane500

Junior Member
Hey Guys!

My friend just bought a '63 Galaxie with 289/C4.


I Think it might have ****** issues, but i'll let you be the judges.


When you hold still and accellerate, it starts in 2nd and is pulling well, but then it shift to 1st for 'bout 2 seconds, then 2nd and 3rd.
Why is that?


It doesn't feel like it's troubled by pulling in 2nd.
 
Actually the only reason i have, to think it's a C4 is because of the number on the servo-cover, witch indicates to be from 1966 (C6AP-7D027-C)

We drove it in first dot after Neutral (as i do in my own)
 
"Trans Lube" in the black bottle that comes in a black and silver box is a friction modifier. It's available at most parts stores. Not very expensive and well worth a try. Sounds to me like the governor is sticking; especially if he doesn't drive it too often. Put a hundred or so miles and a couple of heat cycles on it prior to giving up on it. It should work but may take a while.

"Trans Lube" is also available in a red bottle in a red and silver box, and a black bottle in a green and silver box(I think). These are to address different problems such as leaks. Make sure to get the black bottle in the black and silver box.
 
I've owned several Ford with this type transmission over the years and I have never seen one that the owner before me had the linkage adjusted right. Like Alaska Jim said, I would try the cheapest thing first which is the adjustment to the carb and linkage first, then go for higher harder stuff next.
 
66Fairlane500 said:
Hey Guys!

My friend just bought a '63 Galaxie with 289/C4.


I Think it might have ****** issues, but i'll let you be the judges.


When you hold still and accellerate, it starts in 2nd and is pulling well, but then it shift to 1st for 'bout 2 seconds, then 2nd and 3rd.
Why is that?


It doesn't feel like it's troubled by pulling in 2nd.
Click to expand...

I have built quite a few C4's , and the problem you are having is caused by the governor hanging . It will not handle too many starts in third gear !
When you are having this problem stop and put in reverse then drive , it should start in first gear at that point , provided the quadrant is properly adjusted .
 
Darrel, I don't think they put 289's in 63's either, I think mid to late '64 was first 289, but I could be wrong, which leads me to believe that this is not the original eng. & trans combination. justold could be right. a sticking governor can cause several problems. I have never had much luck trying to get one to work properly when they start sticking, so I just got a new one, but then I am not a transmission specialist, and have only built a few of them and it has been many years since I have.
 
In '63 Ford dropped the 292 Y Block in cars (not trucks) and replaced it with the 289 in full sized Fords. Falcon and Fairlane used the 260 in '63.
I don't have a clue on the transmissions.

Sal
 
So there was no small V8 for the first half of '63 ? It went from the 6 cyl. to the 352 with nothing in between ?

Sal
 
The 260 offered in full-size Ford for full run of '63 production; 289 offered after approximately mid-January '63. As for the C4, I'm not sure that it was offered in early-mid '63 (or late for that matter), so if a C4 is in there it more than likely replaced a small-case Cruise-O-Matic/Ford-O-Matic.

For the record, I had a mid-Decmeber '62 build 260/3-speed manual boxtop Galaxie 500 2-door HT as a daily driver from just before my graduation from high school in 1979 until the fall of 1988, at which point in time it did nothing but ate front tires like candy. The 260 wasn't that much of a dog, but I did manage to blow up the engine by dropping a valve after driving 45-50 mph for about half-an-hour trying to get it to the exhaust shop to correct exhaust pipe routing (pipe kept shifting and let the clutch rod drop out of the clutch arm). The '67 289 I dropped in to replace it was a 4-Star rebuild that probably had more punch than a 260 with over 100K miles on it, and I was happy with the SBF/3-on-the-tree combo for getting back and forth to college and commuting.
 
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