JamesOneill

Hello guys, been viewing your forums for well over a year now and have not had to ask many questions. This dang thing has me stumped:

My a518 tranny is acting weird. I have gone through the band adjustments and line pressure adjustments, TV cable is adjusted as well. Throttle is going wide open and TV cable is moving the arm on the transmission to it's maximum travel, no problems there. However the transmission will not upshift until I let off the throttle, if I hammer it down WOT from a dead stop it will engage first no problem but will not come out of first and it just keeps picking rpms up, as soon as I let off the pedal she will shift into second, and the same is needed to go into third. Tranny downshifts normally temp is good on the motor side but do not have a tranny temp gauge. I drove it about a mile at highway speeds and pulled off on the side of the road and checked the tranny fluid after cycling the gears stopping in neutral and the fluid is right in the middle of the O.K. zone. I felt the fluid with my fingers and it didn't feel like it was very warm. Any suggestions guys would be a great help need the truck working optimally because it's our only vehicle while the other one is being repaired, really don't need the double whammy right now.

update: I just ran the truck again and when I manually put it into first or second the truck picks up to about 2k rpm and does not pick up anymore speed or rap the transmission out, its like slipping but it's not a slip. It's almost like it is going into neutral because it starts losing speed but keeps the rpms up. I did not do that but one time. Also when going from 3rd to O.D. I can stand on the throttle and the tranny shifts fine. seems like mainly a 1st and second gear problem, front band maybe?

JamesOneill

Welp it turns out the front band was out of adjustment. See I had the tranny rebuilt about a year ago and to make a long story short it kept tearing up the seal around the pump on the tranny about 3 months after the rebuild. I changed the seal 3 times and yep I pulled the tranny 3 times before I figured out that the torque converter shaft was bent...so in with a new torque converter and she stopped tearing seals. I noticed the front kick down band was worn a little unevenly when I finally got on here and gathered up the courage to break into my first transmission job! I could feel the band was unevenly worn with my fingers but not see it with my naked eye. So what I am thinking was this was the first real time I hauled some heavy, heavy, heavy weight with it a couple days ago and put the tranny under some real stress and I believe it wore the band down some to where the band was actually kind of even and it caused some slack in the adjustment. So what I am saying is I adjusted the band correctly after the torque converter replacement but it was kind of oblong shaped and it wore itself down close to a uniform shape and knocked itself out of adjustment a couple of days ago under a heavy tow. So guys there is my contribution to this wonderful community, sorry for such heavy detail but I'm sure someone down the road will find this very helpful. By the way I am ordering a Kevlar kick down band and a shift kit for this baby and dropping the tranny again this weekend and perking her up! I was for the first time able to stop and actually light the tires up and keep the pedal on the floor and have her keep spinning the tires all the way up til 3rd gear. This site is the BEST!!!!!!!!! Oh and if you own an a518 tranny I highly suggest you tap a hole in your tranny pan and install a drain plug on it so you can keep this transmission running in tip top shape. What I have gathered on this transmission is that you need to keep the fluid changed, the filter changed, and the bands adjusted every 30k miles and it will never let you down. This transmission needs more attention than your wife! They are great transmissions and very strong but demand some very high maintenance in fact the a518 falls into one of the most maintenance demanding transmissions on what I have gathered throughout the course of a year.