[mgarblik]

Part 2: the bad news. So now I have the SD engine running great, idling smoothly @ 900 RPM's in park, 750 RPM's in drive. Time for a test drive. Car backs up fine, feels good in drive. On the street gentle acceleration, car will not shift. Stays in 1st gear no matter what. Manual shifting or in drive, stays in 1st. Took it up to 4000-4500, no shift. Background on the Turbo 400: It was refreshed/overhauled in 1979 and never installed in the car. I installed it with the hope it would work OK since it was stored in a climate controlled environment the entire time. What do they say about assumptions? Yea, everything that can be wrong with a turbo 400 is wrong with this one. Really only 2 things can likely keep one in 1st gear only. A governor problem or the detent system is stuck open. I had both situations! I unplugged the detent solenoid that was shorted, (passage open). Then I removed the governor and found it to be stuck. I cleaned it, checked it and reinstalled. 2nd road test. Car does have all 3 gears now. 1-2 shift is late and extremely hard. 2-3 shift is also late and very soft. Not to my liking at all. Back in the shop, the transmission is leaking fluid like a torpedoed tanker. Leaking from the front pump seal, leaking from both cooler fittings at the case, leaking from the speedometer adapter O-ring, leaking from the front pump bolts, leaking from the pan too. The only areas dry were the governor cover and dipstick O-ring.
So the transmission will need to come back out and be completely re-sealed and a basic shift improvement kit installed. This will take at least a few weeks to work through the shop. So lesson learned. Expecting ANY automatic transmission to work properly after sitting 45 years is a fools errand IMO. I should have known better. I will update with some pics and video when it's sealed up and ready for a proper road test.

Just remember, you can always count on me to make ALL the mistakes, so you don't have to! You never stop learning, and if anything can go wrong, it will.