Hey guys. I have a 1979 Rs Camaro with a 350 and a TH350 transmission. Okay, so i was told apparently that with the type of transmission i have, i should be able to just put it in drive, and go flyin down the road the way that any automatic transmission would. Well the way mine is set up, i drop it down into 1st and shift up to 2nd, then to Drive which acts as a third gear. When i try to start out in drive, it just bogs and goes no where; almost like starting out in 8th gear on a bike. Its horrible. Could it be the valve body on the transmission? Or could it even be the torque converter? Any ideas or suggestions would be great. I know that 79 camaros have crappy stock horsepower, but this is just ridiculous. I know it could run better than this. And by the way, im running somewhere around a 2:70 rear end.

Thanks,

Tyler

 

Did you just get the car? It sounds like your T350 has a manual valve body. Mine has one, and whatever gear I put it in, is where it is. Put it in "D" (3rd) and it starts out in third. No automatic 1-2-3 shifts. Look and see if you have a vacuum modulator on the passenger side of the trans, and if there's a vacuum hose hooked up to it.

 

I've also got the full manual shift kit in my turbo, and if I start out in drive, it only does drive. Fortunately I've got plenty of power and torque from the 427, and 3.31 rear gears.
Your problem may be you've got a really high gear, really low horsepower, and a manual shift tranny. There's no way to know for sure what you've got, if you don't have info from whoever put the tranny together.

 

If the transmission was converted to a manual valve body, you wouldn't have a vacuum hookup to a modulator, and you wouldn't have a kickdown cable either. If both of those are MIA, you can be fairly certain you have a manual valve body.

 

Iv'e had the car for a little while now, im just tired of the horrible performance im getting from it.

And i haven't been able to check for the vacuum modulator yet but i will later today. And a missing kickdown cable would explain why my car doesn't go anywhere when i nail it haha.