Intermediate servo ball assembly missing?

BuickMike

Money pit
Joined
Jun 7, 2001
Hi all,

I'll have tons of questions since I'm tearing apart my trans for the first time. The 3rd gear clutches are gonners. Here is my first one. I noticed that there is no check ball assembly in the hole for the intermediate servo assembly. What is the point of that missing? I have my ATSG manual that I am going by to disassemble and have a CK manual on the way too.
 
My 1-2 was never that hard. Still working on finding and documenting what other mods were done to the trans. It was rebuilt by Len Freeman back in 2004. So far I found this and the smaller spring missing from the servo. All other servos look to be stock. Next is comparing the separator plate for extra holes and the missing check balls. I just want to take note of the calibration before I go any further.
 
Interesting the small return spring is missing from the intermediate servo. As long as you don't have any binding on the 2-3 shift I guess it's ok. Is it a stock intermediate servo?
 
I believe it is. Here is a picture.
IMG_20180831_123254724.jpg
 
There was definitely no inner spring on it. I'll figure out what the rest of the mods are and go from there.
 
More info. Here is the spacer plate. 3rd accumulator hole blocked. Looks like maybe drive 3 was enlarged a hair? Possibly small second hole drilled next to send clutch hole. RND4 orifice might be bigger. RND4D3 hole looks bigger too. Thoughts?
 
There was definitely no inner spring on it. I'll figure out what the rest of the mods are and go from there.
You need that spring and it needs to be the spring specifically for that large BRF servo. The most common problem created by leaving that spring out is a clunk when coasting to a 3-2 downshift.
 
Never had the clunk, bit there is some funky stuff here. My 3rd gear clutches are wasted and everything else is fine.
 
describe the assembly you are talking about and its location.

The servo on the side of the case. There is supposed to be a check ball in a sleeve in the passage that goes to it from the valve body. That has been removed. The passage has also been blocked on the spacer place.
 
There is supposed to be a check ball in a sleeve in the passage that goes to it from the valve body. That has been removed. The passage has also been blocked on the spacer place.
The encapsulated check ball,that you are talking about, is in the 3rd gear oil circuit. It is put their to allow pressure to leak away from the back side of the servo to help the servo re-apply the band during a 3-2 kick down. If someone removed the capsule or removed the check ball from inside of the capsule a leak would be created in the third gear circuit and you would have no third gear. The resulting open hole would have to be plugged in order for third gear to engage.
The hole that is blocked on the separator plate,is blocked to slow down the flow of oil to the back side of the servo/3rd gear accumulator to slow down the release of the servo and speed up the apply of the direct clutches to help improve or get rid of a flair during a 2-3 upshift. After blocking that hole,you would typically drill the hole next to it to a larger diameter than its original very small diameter. Their is no need for this mod if your direct clutches are set with very little clearance. The reason that your direct clutches are burnt is because they had too much clearance
 
Thanks! The ball and sleeve are missing. The hole to the left of the one blocked on the separator plate is definitely bigger than what I see if the reference pic I have. The funny thing is that this transmission never banged the gears hard. The direct clutches are down to the metal, where the rest of the clutches look fine. So other than setting proper clearance on the direct clutches when I put this thing back together, should I undo all the 3rd gear circuit mods?
 
Thanks! The ball and sleeve are missing.
Again,if the capsule has been removed and the remaining hole that allows all of the oil to leak into the case cavity isn't plugged in some fashion,you will have no 3rd gear. If the capsule has been removed and no attempt was made to epoxy the hole or block it in some fashion,you can simply install a new capsule. Call Dave Husek at Turbo Buick Performance and he will get you the parts you need and instruct you on what to do. (516) 285-1103
 
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