Ok, '77 comet, I6, automatic. Transmission fluid is full, however sometimes and lately more frequently, it won't kick into drive after going to reverse. All the other gears kick in just fine. Today I thought I was going to have to drive out a parking lot and home in reverse. Any hints as to why? Leaking transmission line maybe?
It sounds to me like you might have a broken seal on the forward clutch. Does it work better when it warms up?
I forgot I posted this here. It happens no matter how warm or cold it is. As first I thought maybe it's from not letting the car warm up enough, but it's been really warm outside for the past week. Yesterday on the way to work I could feel the car go from drive, to what seemed like neutral. I ended up sitting at a green light for about 20 seconds before my car decided to go back inot drive. Slightly annoying, I felt it try to do it again this morning, but revved the engine a bit as I was accellerating and it didn't seem to slip gears this time. But every time I park now, and then get ready to leave, my car seems to have a hard time kicking from neutral to drive.
All gears work proper except for drive. Although for now I kick it into 2nd which seems to let be put it back into D just fine most of the time.
I had a similar problem once before and it ended up being a loose, or completely off, vacuum line on the tranny.
The first place to check is that the vacuum line to the modulator is on and has manifold vacuum going to it.
