Weird spring and Kudos to David Husek

[S60sbc]

I came over here from another forum since you guys know the 200-4R best. I am rebuilding one and am cleaning the valve body and checking everything and I found this weird piece of spring in the 1-2 shift line-up. It was between the low/1st detent valve and the 1-2 throttle valve just like it shows in the picture (see arrow).

Can you guys confirm this shouldn't be there? Looks like a hack. Any idea why someone would have done that? It looks like a cut piece of spring. You can see the cut marks on the coils (see closeup below).

I was suspicious due to some 1-2 shift issues so I took the 1-2 lineup out to clean and check it. Everything else checked out good.

 

[mikestertwo]

That's not a spring. It's a spacer to hold the line bias valve open. Part of a shift kit.

 

[S60sbc]

That's not a spring. It's a spacer to hold the line bias valve open. Part of a shift kit.

Thanks Mikestertwo. I just got off the phone with David Husek and he told me that as well. He said that it is part of an earlier Transgo shift kit. Apparently that kit used a cut spring as a spacer in the 1-2 lineup. David told me he always removes those when he finds them as they can cause trouble. I was having second gear starts and had ruled out all other possible causes first. Looks like I may have found the problem. I'll post up the outcome after I get it all back together and test driven.

 

[mikestertwo]

Second gear starts is usually caused by too much line pressure.

 

[S60sbc]

Second gear starts is usually caused by too much line pressure.

Yeah I had that checked out and the pressure was within spec (75 lbs at idle with instant rise off idle) TV adjustment was checked and run through several changes using pressure gauge as guide. Still started in second no matter where it was set. Maybe this is wishful thinking but hoping that removal of the shift kit part plus removal of debris found in the 1-2 line up solves this. what do you think?

 

[S60sbc]

Update: Second gear starts are resolved now that I removed that spring spacer. Huge thanks to David Husek! He spent about 4 hours on the phone with me over a period of about a week or two and he helped me address several other issues too. David is unbelievable. He answers his phone night, day and weekends. He never sounded annoyed by my calls (I would have been). He took my call every time, texting me pictures, walking me through cleaning and tuning of the valve body and he solved EVERY problem I had with my tranny.

If any of you have a TH200-4R and want a high quality build and custom tune with a lot of attention to detail, call Dave Husek at Turbo Buick Performance. David can be reached at 516-285-1103.