This morning on the way to work my signet '65 225 904 made a very noticiable shudder when drop into 1st. It doesn't do it in rev and once it gets moving it stops with the shudder and the noise. Any suggestions, the fluid is fairly recent and full when hot in nuetral. I am about to drive the thing home and should be able to give the car a few days rest. My other car (88 daytona) was down this morning or I would have drove it instead. Thanks in advance for any help.

Does the shudder happen when you select "D" and the trans drops into gear or does it shake when you start moving in first gear? If it shakes when the car starts moving, I would check the U-joints, especially the front Ball & Trunion housing.

From your discription it sounds like the shudder happens only when you select the "1"st gear. With the 904 there is a "friction application" difference between "breakaway" when selecting "D" and when you select 1st. Does the shudder happen when you select one or the other?
DD

How are your motor mounts? Check for clearance between the pan and K-member.

The noise has officially turned into a growl. I drove it home last night without a problem once it was moving. Everytime I give the car a little gas it starts to growl. On the drive home it was flawless unless I stopped. The noise only occurs when accelerating not while sitting stationary. When it is dropped into gear it just sits there at a nice slow (525 rpm) idle without making any noise, but starts growling the second it is revved up. The trans is the old style with cable shift and external p-brake cable. I don't have a service manual that covers transmissions with a rear pump so I can't really diag it myself. It does it in all forward detents but not rev, nuetral, or park. thank in advance. p.s. the computer wouldn't accept my password last night

Sounds like the trans mount is shot.

Old Mopar ASE trans guy.