Topic: Automatic Trans Question - to shift or not to shift
So we ran our 78 Cordoba last weekend in Pittsburg. It has has a Chrysler 727 torqueflite. Started fine but At the end of the first day the trans would really slip when going into 3rd gear . The trans temp went up to 250 degrees. It was cooked. I Changed the burnt fluid with fresh and ran the next day in second gear and the temps never went above 185. ( and I was beating on it ) . I have a big tranny cooler on it and the trans was pretty new with only one other race on it it.
The car does not have a manual valve body, however I was manually shifting from 3rd to 2nd gear to slow down and then back into 3rd under a hard pull on the long straights.
My three question to the Lemons World are
1) Does shifting a non manual valve body transmission this way put a great deal of additional stress ( heat) on the stock trans than just leaving it in drive? The results of day one would leave me to belive it does, but I could not find anything on the internet that was conclusive. My other drivers didnt shift it manually but I did because it does help slow that big girl down
2) Running in second gear on day two was fine - maybe not as quick ( I use that term loosely when talking about a Cordoba) . Would keeping it in 2nd all day actually help extend the life and keep the temps down?
3) Should I go full manual valve body? would that be significantly better?
Thanks!