TH350 issues

Pinkston

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Mebane, NC
The transmission in my buddys buggy is a th350 behind a 6.0. Recently it seems like it has started slipping in reverse. 1, 2, and 3 seem fine. In reverse it takes more gas than normal and then it will get moving.

The other issue that we noticed today is that there is some movement in the flex plate / torque converter. We noticed a slight tick at idle, got to looking around and you can see the flex plate moving in and out a little as its running. Rev the motor and it goes away, no ticking and no moving in and out. Is it out of balance? With the motor off we did some pocking around and everything feels tight.

We are going to fall crawl and he is trying to figure out if he can get one last trip out of it before taking it apart. Any ideas?
 
the flexplate is supposed to move slightly(that's why it's a FLEXplate)
the reverse issue could be a few things, did you check the fluid level?
if the fluid level is ok, then the low/reverse seals are probably getting hard. the reason it only does it in reverse is because in low it has the help of the forward clutches plus the low reverse clutches.
 
The only thing that got us looking at the flex plate is the noise it was making. A slight knocking sound. I was thinking it could be barely hitting the back of the motor or even the torque converter rubbing in the bell housing.

As for the reverse, would it be ok to run one more trip? Front digs instead of reverse to turn around are not a problem.
 
the knocking noise could be a broken torque converter hub(not uncommon on converters built more than 5 years ago)

as far as one more trip, that's hard to say. my crystal ball doesn't work for crap. since it's a buggy i assume you trailer it, if that's the case you have nothing to lose.
 
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