Quote Originally Posted by flomulgator View Post
Yeah I definitely don't have that many gears. I only have:
D: 1,2,3
[D]: 1,2,"3", OD
So now I am wondering if I even have the 700 transmission? I looked at the stamping and everything and it all made sense that I had 700 but I definitely don't have a 4th gear so now I'm kinda at a loss.

As for the problem though, I looked up "overdrive" on wikipedia, learned about it, and thought about what you said. What my problem is is that overdrive is locking up too early and releasing too late. Basically it never gives 3rd gear a chance to show itself. So when my tranny is in [D] there is often only 2 shifts.... 1, then 2, then OD. The exception is when I am climbing a grade at such high speed that the tranny would explode if it shifted into 2nd; then it finally goes to 3.

Any idea on how to get the lockup to occur "later" and give me back my 3rd gear?

Any idea what transmission I have?

Thanks for your help!

Hello Flomulgator ... I am new on this site and I see that this thread is quite old but I thought I might add a bit to it .. the way your tranny is shifting it sounds like there may be a problem with the "torque valve" in the valve body ... or your torque valve control cable maybe set wrong ... my '66 chevelle acted alot like that when I put a 700r4 in it .. I was not aware at the time of how critical the " kickdown cable " was .. it is actualy a torque control cable... it does control the kickdown of the trans but it also controls the amount of hyd pressure is put to the clutch packs in the trans ... so that whatever throttle position your running at the tranny should shift about the same ..
another thought is that you may have a TH350LU tranny which is commonly mistaken for the 700R4 because they both ust the same electric torque converter lockup ... and both have the same square plug on the seft side of the casing ...
and as far as a " manual lock up kit " for the 700 R4 trans .. all you need is a fairly hard 5/16 rubber ball ... you just drop the elect. solonoid for the lock up down out of the valve body and set the ball on top of it and stick it back in .. works just like the electric lock up w/o the electronics hooked up ... this is a trick that a trans expert taught me when I was first putting the 700 tranny in my '66 chevelle ... a trick that most tranny professionals do not want to get out