my 87 b150 /6 has been mainly sitting around since I did 10 years of catching up on maintenance.

While no work I did directly involved the transmission, I did disconnect the wiring harnass (repaired engine harnass), drained a bunch of fluid (cleaned/oiled speedo cable), and possibly slightly relocated downshift linkage (machined manifolds--including redrilling the holes where the throttle bracket attaches--, new gaskets and reinstall. Pivot is most likely not exactly where it was when I started taking stuff apart.)

I took it out today for it's first trip on roads with speed limits greater than 35mph.

I found it doesn't shift into third, and does not downshift at appropriate time, or at all.

When I got back I properly checked the trans fluid level (when I first put the van together I had just poured in what I had estimated had come out) and I was 1 quart low.

I pulled the kickdown linkage and am soaking hardware in alcohol to assemble/adjust later this weekend.

It does not seem likely to me that a quart of fluid and a kickdown maladjustment could have such an effect. Am I wrong?

Should I be looking at the wiring harnass (I don't even know how it senses speed--there is no vacuum modulator of anything. Is it an electrical thing?)?

(ultimitely I'll find out after it's adjusted, I guess.)

btw it was rebuilt in 2004, and I doubt I've put 15K miles on it since.

Your transmission is not electronically controlled or vacuum modulator controlled. The kickdown linkage plays the role of the vacuum modulator ad the shift points are determined by the internals of the transmission.

(1) Get your fluid to the correct level

(2) Make sure the kickdown is attached and adjusted properly

(3) Adjust the bands

Try that and report back

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

ok.

will do.

thanks.

(if the linkage control is where the trans gets it's info from, then the repositioning of the throttle bracket may well be the problem by itself)

Fluid is in and linkage is adjusted. I'm reluctant to touch the band adjustments (like I said, I've barely driven on the rebuild). It shifted/downshifted fine before I started working on it, so I'd like to focus on what I have disturbed first.

It's raining too much to test drive it today. I'll take it out tomorrow and post results.

If it worked fine before you worked on it, then chances are whatever you did is the problem. You say you redrilled the holes to mount the kickdown linkage. The kickdown linkage is extremely important on Chrysler transmissions. Why did you have to redrill new holes and can you use the old ones still?

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

The studs had seized in the exhaust manifold. I grounded them off and redrilled...badly.

The machine shop had to overbore the intake holes to get it to line up.

Come to think of it, I didn't even use the stud holes to mount the bracket, but rather drilled all new holes in the bracket and manifold, and installed it with short 1/4" screws in roughly the original position.

The braket location is probably no more than 1/8" out of original position from the studs moving, but the whole thing is probably even more out of position due to the grind of the mating surface to the head. The way they machined it, the flanges are way thicker at cylinder #1 than at #6, which serves to rotate the whole thing counter clockwise a couple degrees, and move the bracket towards the transmission. (This was a quick and dirty machining. I had always intended to get another intake, exhaust and gasket set to do right, and at my leisure.)

I hadn't thought of the rotation thing until just now.

Anyway, it seems that I adjusted the linkage by about 3/8" (no way to know for sure as I didn't bench it other than in my mind's eye prior to cleaning everything.)

I'll take it for a test drive shortly.

Back from test driving.

Seems to shift/downshift ok, but the emergency brake seems to be sticking (both rear cables were suspect when I did the brakes over the summer, but since DMV said nothing, I did nothing.) I don't even really use the thing, but did yesterday to check fluid hot in neutral. Cable must've jammed then.

I guess I need to change them out.

thanks for the input.

Changed both rear cables, still stuck.

Changed front, then found I had no left front brakes.

Changed line/hose and finally test drove today. Shifts/downshifts perfectly.