[DanielR]

Hello, thanks for reading.

I bought this car about a year ago from the previous owner, and it ran fairly well up until a few months ago. Currently when you press the gas the RPMs go way up(even to 5000-ish), but almost none of that power is translated to the transmission. When the car is put in Drive or Overdrive it struggles to get moving, and even when it does it will only go about 20 MPH or so.. I haven't tried to push it. Before this started happening I had a problem with it not shifting properly, or rather it would hesitate to shift, and then jerk when it finally did shift(I think it was 3rd->4th gear).

I was told the problem could be a clutch or other part of the transmission being worn down, and there might be metal shavings in the bottom of the transmission pan so I dropped it, but I didn't find anything.. the fluid looked ok and there were no shavings or parts in it. While I had it down I replaced the transmission filter along with the fluid. This seemed to improve the performance slightly, but I still had the same problem.

I found several messages on various forums/sites stating that the problem could be the fuel filter, so I replaced that as well. That also seemed to improve the engine performance slightly(it sounded like it was running a little cleaner, and taking less effort to get the RPMs up when revved), but still there is a severe lack of power getting from the engine to the transmission.

The only thing I can think of is the torque converter, but I'm basically an amateur, so I'm looking for thoughts/opinions/advice.

Thanks!

[ethangsmith]

Suspecting the torque converter is probably not too far off. It sounds to me like the converter may be shot. Either that, or your clutches and bands are toast, but you most likely would have seen metal bits and burnt fluid. Are there any gears that acutally work (including reverse)? If none of them work, I would highly suspect either the torque converter or a valve body problem.

[DanielR]

All of the gears work, just all of them suffer from the same problem of not getting any power.

[ethangsmith]

It would be far-fetched that ALL of your bands and clutches would be equally burned up- including reverse. I would really consider the torque converter.