I just discovered that my TTA does not have the original transmission in it
It has been replaced with a 200-4R out of an '83 Cadillac without the Emissions Control System. Anyone know if this will cause problems?? Does this tranny have the same specs as the ones for the TR's & TTA's?? I'm not real tranny savvy so any help you could give me would be appreciated. I had it rebuilt a few years ago, the torque converter doesn't say D5 but it has a 5 with a cirle around it. Correct??
HELP!!
I would say you should start looking for a new transmission. I'm basing this on what I've learned with the tranny in my GN. The main part is the valvebodies, which are unique to our setups. I'm not sure of which valvebody the TTA's have in them, possibly the BRF which was used in the 86-87 Turbo Regals, or another special setup designed for the TTA's. I would maybe check on TurboBuick.com, I've seen some more info about TTA stuff there. If you can't find a TTA valvebody/transmission, then look for a BRF, after that(I've been told) the list goes BRQ(out of 84-85 Turbo Regals, but supposedly still not as good, which I'm dealing with now but am not positive it's a problem) then look for the tranny used in the Monte SS. Past that, everything else is junk, or will soon become junk after a few good runs. That is what I was told. I had a tranny rebuilt, but am not sure if it was the correct tranny in the first place and they swapped it on me or if someone really knew how to tweak a non-TR tranny to work in the car. Well it never worked right after the rebuild and on a trip a few weeks later it puked all of it's fluid out. It was toast.
The converter doesn't sound correct either. I'm pretty sure they are supposed to have D5's in them. I think a 5 just indicates a regular converter. If you never drive the car hard, and aren't having any problems now, you may be ok. But I'd be looking for a replacement to have ready.
Crap, that's what I was afraid of. The stall on the converter seems to be right, and it is a locking type. I don't race on a regular basis but I don't want to hurt it if I do.
Any ideas on where I could find valve body info on the tranny? Thanks for your help. . .
About the only place I know of or can think of, would be to go to TurboBuick.com and go into their transmission section. I believe Bruce Toelle(sp?) is a moderator there and he owns/runs a transmission shop that specializes in these transmissions. He should be able to answer your questions. Good luck.
I'll give that a try, thanks!
Your other option is to rebuild the existing 200-4R with "severe-duty" components and a modified VB. (From what I understand, there's a very similar VB that was widely available & easily modified to "BRF" specs, Eric Ruybalid (gneric@earthlink.net) may wanna pipe up here..??) I'm SURE Bruce Toelle can speak to this better than I, but I think you should still be able to build a suitable 200-4R for your TTA from just about any core, of course it'll run a bit more $$, but it is possible..