Performabuilt 4L60E won't move the car at all
 

Gentlemen,
i have a 1998 Trans Am, Performabuilt Stage 2. its previous owner installed the Performabuilt. It has a TCI 3600 stall. i have driven this car for 13K miles with no shifting/driving problems at all. the only issue i had was the shift shaft seal, which i replaced (because it leaked) and it is holding just fine. recently i bought 383 engine parts, including the PCM, from a friend who had it in his '99 Camaro along with an A4 and a 3600 stall. after re-building the engine, i installed it in my Trans Am.
while the car was still on jack stands, i put it into gear and was surprised that i did not feel any resistance to the motion in my hand on the shifter. The rear wheels did not move, either. so i got under the car and checked to see that the cable was attached securely to the shift shaft on the transmission. then i marked the position of the shaft. then i went into the car and moved the shifter handle from the "park" to the lowest gear (1st). i then observed that the shift shaft position had indeed moved. it rotated counter-clockwise as the shift lever on the transmission moved from its forward position toward the back of the car.
after that, i disconnected the battery's negative post, and went under the car to verify the connector was properly plugged. i un-plugged it and re-connected it a few times to be sure that i had properly done so. same for the vehicle speed sensor near the tail housing. then i re-connected the battery post.
then i removed the inspection plate on the bellhousing and "bumped" the engine over a few times, checking in between bumps to verify that the converter was turning with the flywheel. at this point it is worth stating that when i installed the converter, i turned it over clockwise while pushing it backward until i heard/felt the 3rd click. then i could barely get my fingers behind it. the transmission was then mated to the dowels on the engine, which was on a cart (outside of the car at that time). the starter was not installed yet so i used that opening to put in the torque converter bolts. for my TCI flywheel, i used slightly longer bolts because of the greater thickness of the bolt-hole position versus the stock flywheel, which was on the engine that i removed. then the bellhousing bolts were torqued.
still would not move the wheels.
so i pulled the pan down. the filter was in place--not fallen into the pan like i had hoped. would have been an easy fix! the pan was nearly full of clean, bright red valvoline ATF. my dipstick, with the engine off, showed "full cold" level. i expected to check the fluid again after running it by letting it idle and putting it into each gear for a few seconds, then park, then checking the level while idling again after 3 minutes. couldn't do this because still--it would not move. and it still doesn't "feel" right at the shifter in the car. not like any other vehicle does when you shift it from park to reverse/drive.
i will go through these steps again (except for dropping the pan) some more to try to figure out what i missed/did wrong. any advice you can give will help me! thank you!

The first thing I would do before dropping pan is remove pressure port plug just above linkage, If you have a pressure gauge install it if not that's ok just be ready for a mess,
Start engine does it have pressure or does fluid come spraying out?
If not you have a broken pump.
Frank

Yes sir, thank you. I have an oil pressure gauge and I can get my hands on the fitting that I need after work tomorrow.
Eric

Much easier and less of a mess. Disconnect the top line at the transmission and put a container under the line and have someone start the motor for a couple of seconds, and see if there is oil coming out of the line. If there is, pump is not broke. If no oil coming out, pump is broke.

I was actually hoping he had a gauge and it seems he does , Trying to keep it all as simple as possible, But with no other changes except an engine swap I will bet on broken pump.
"MYUSERNAME" if the pump is broken please give us a call at the 888 NUMBER in my signature and we may can help you out with that,
Frank

I agree....

thank you, Frank and PBA. i am not going to get to it until THURSDAY evening now. however, i will then have time/tools and get on it.

Performabuilt 4L60e
 

This evening i had my pressure gauge installed like in the photo. Port located above the shift linkage on driver’s side of the transmission.
Started the engine and observed the gauge. It read zero pressure. I let it run about a minute while observing no change.
What should i do next, please?

[img]blob:https://ls1tech.com/a4e76991-c7f1-4b2b-867a-5fd884228951[/img]

Pull the transmission and pull the pump out and go through it.

Sounds like pump is broken, You will need to repair it or get another one, Give Alan a call at the 888 number to get a price on one,
Frank

So your car was driving, you put a 383 engine in it (trans was disconnected or out of vehicle), you put it back together and now it wont drive?

definitely seems odd. did you lose a bunch of trans fluid some how? I was going to ask if the converter was bolted up but you said it is lol.

I would guess he cracked the pump. Converter not all the way seated and pushed the converter into the pump.

Sounds like you broke the pump rotor when installing the new engine. Did you remove the torque converter or have it pull out from the trans when removing the old engine? I have seen torque converters move out from the trans when moving a vehicle in and out of the shop if there wasn't anything put in place to hold it. Anyway it sounds like for some reason or another that the converter came out of the trans at some point and was not reengaged and the rotor was then broken when the engine was installed.

Thats bad luck, Should've noticed when bolting the trans up. Though he did say he needed longer bolts, perhaps he didnt shim it and bolting it together pulled it out of the trans? If I read that right

Thank you, Frank, i will call the 888 number and speak to Mr. Alan. As 98 suggested, i will pull the trans pump and have the best transmission shop around her look at it. that is, unless an obvious solution becomes apparent during the pulling process, like broken/damaged harness or something like that.

bbond, I fear that i have broken the pump, too. hope to find something less disastrous but i am not counting on it.

trillkb, you read that right. although i have pulled and re-installed the trans before this time, it was the first time i used the TCI flywheel, so my blunder may be associated with that process.


probably be another week before i can start pulling it outta there. then i will post what i find.

The transmission came out yesterday. After the front seal was removed, we visualized that the rotor had one ear removed from its location on the rotor and was loose in the vicinity of the input shaft. with the help of Frank's (and the tattooed guy's) videos on YouTube, we plan to remove the pump and disassemble it for inspection. any and all comments on the matter are appreciated.
thank you, gentlemen, for producing the video.

11 min marker in this video

The pump rotor was indeed broken. I got another rotor and cleaned up the rest of the pump carefully. After bolting it into the trans, i put the assembly up into the car.
then i noted 0.293” of space between the converter and flywheel. I shimmed this with three 0.060” washers at each bolt location and it now pulls like it did before. I am very happy with it and i will get a Performabuilt when the next project (LS-powered ‘71 Nova) is ready to run.
thanks Frank, PBA, trilkb, bbond105 and 98CayenneT/A.

Thanks for the update. Glad you got it going.