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I was only 2 years old then.  However my parents tell me that we were just outside the building when Jack Ruby shot Oswald...We lived in Dallas ifrom 60-67  We also have some movie footage my mom took at dealy plaza (sp?) the day after.

Doug

November 22nd 1963 ..... President  John F Kennedy was assassinated ... 45 years ago.


Do you remember where you were IF you were alive?

Thanks for the reference.  I am located in Southern Illinois...
Doug

...Oh... :oops:  I don't know where you're located, but if you call this number (772) 220-6062 (Palm City Transmission) ask for John.  He's the owner.  Tell him Tony deFoster refered you.  He is, without a doubt, the hands down BEST transmission guy I've ever come across.  He will be able to tell you over the phone exactly what the problem is, and how to fix it.  He diagnosed  a problem that I had with my Jaguar BW66 tranny, over the phone, and he was right on the money.  I've since had 2 trannys rebuilt by him and they're perfect...one of them a 700R-4 he built from a bare case up...

It FEELS like the Torque Converter is locking/unlocking/locking/unlocking, etc....

Not for me...the converter is not shuttling, it is going from 2nd to 3rd to 2nd to 3rd etc. etc...

check for full pull of the  TV cable first

add 1 clik to the TV adjustment....if possible.

DO you have the proper geometry  on the carb ?

Already tried all of this....the carb is the origional Throttle body that was stock with the 700r4...so I suspect the geometry is correct...that is it worked correctly until this rebuild

adding a click to the TV cable seemed to help some until I put the foot on the floor and it clicked again...but it still would shuttle shift...
I am asking this question cause I am rebuilding the engine and have the tranny out...kinda easy to do work right now..

Problem is I don't do enough of these rebuilds to know right from wrong all of the time.

my first car was a 1963 2 door belair.  283 powerpack rochester square bore 4bbl carb, Air conditioned with a powerglide tranny.  I should be shot for all the places I took that car.  It was built like a tank, and probably saved my life when I wrecked it back in 1979.  It hydroplaned due to poor tires, spun twice in the road and then went into the ditch.  A lighter car probably would've flipped.  Bent the frame, messed up a fender.  Pulled it out off the tire with a sledge. and drove it for another 6 months.  I still have the car, but it will probably never be resurected.  The replacement car was a 67 camaro that I still keep in the garage.

Been a while, but I got another tranny question...
1989 pickup, 350 with a 700r4.  tranny was rebuilt bout 20K ago.
put the transgo shift kit into the valve body.  Has the .500 TVboost valve, beast sun shell etc....works well except for one problem
at approx 35 mph at partial throttle, it will shift up, then down, then up then down ad infinitum.  stops once I get to 40, or I am not trying to maintain 35 mph...
So...did I get a spring wrong?  if so, which one would u recommend I change?

Thanks in advance.
Doug

tomslick wrote
i'm getting the feeling that YOU don't have the grasp.
it's that little "nitpicking" that makes a difference..

Hmmm, I really don't think that I need to respond here

Tom Slick wrote
it's 2000 gm 5.3 and don't EVEN tell me how you "studies" tell you it should get better milage.
OBVIOUSLY you don't deal with altitude drivability issues.
now, if it were a flex-fuel vehicle, you MIGHT have a leg to stand on...

There is a big difference between mean increase and the range of responses.   Yours (and I am assuming that you have conducted a standardized trial that makes all inputs as randomized as possible and keeps biases such as a predisposition about how the results should be out of the trial) would be classified as one data point out of many.   Once many many points of data are collected, regression analysis would be conducted to determine a trend of whether GPM increases as Etoh content is increased or whether the GPM decreases.  If you examine most any scientific study the collection of data rarely produces a nice clean graph that in every instance trends the same direction.  
If anything your GPH at altitude should increase if my feble understanding of chemistry and physics is correct.  But rather than rely on intuition, I defer to experimentation.  Your results may vary, but overall, experimentation found that mileage will increase on non-flex fuel injected vehicles ON THE AVERAGE.  To get that average there are vechicles that increased a lot, some would even show decreases.  My car increased....but mine is only one data point.  As a scientist I would never determine a trend from only one point of data.  Statistically I would need many points and would be able to assess how well the regression reflected my data from the accompanying r2 value.

lets see, in an overly simplistic calculation, if you accept that Etoh has about 60% of the heat value of gas, and you are running a 10 percent blend, then the gasahol you are burning should have a heat value of about 96% of straight gasoline.  Just to use a car with a straight gas miles per gallon of 30 mpg, using heat value alone and ignoring other factors you should get about 96% of you original mileage.  Calculated you would get 28.8 mpg....if you got 10 mpg on straight gas then your drop should only be 0.4 mpg....
In the real world things aren't this simple, but rather your mileage may increase, or decrease....only experimentation will tell


I didn't originally challenge your statement about declines in mileage, I said that yours might not reflect the overall trend as determined in this study.  Heck that study might be in error....it has happened before, that is why in science studies are replicated before much stock is put in their reliability

Wayne Pettys statements about the catalytic converters are probably dead on.  So I won't comment

However, nobody is forcing you to buy Etoh blends above 10%, There is talk about increasing that to 15%.  But nobody is holding a gun to your head to buy E-85, However if gas continues to increase in price and E-85 is competitive in price, then I have no problem buying it (once I switch to a flexfuel auto)  I do however want the option.  I am sick and tired of having only one choice for fuel.  diversification will make these guys recognize that they aren't the only game in town and will be beneficial for all of us.


Oh one other point I forgot to mention in my previous posts.
Using corn for Etoh production, (while not the most efficient method of producing Etoh...Sugar cane is much better, But we cannot grow it in much of the country),  corn is not used up, nor is is wasted.  DDG and WDG  dried distiller grains and wet distiller grains respectively are excellent feeds and organic sources for food and other commodity production.  The amount of feed stock that enters the distillary is reduced to about 1/4 its volume by the time it leaves, but its feed value is increased over straight corn.  So the impact on the food industry is not as great as one might think.  
Another thing, I just don't understand how keeping grain prices low helps farmers? Farmers here in IL go broke when corn is below $2 a bushel.  and their input costs keep going up.  Corn prices up until the last couple of years had been stagnant.  Only by increasing yields many farmers were able to keep afloat.

Geeze, I gotta stop this.
I don't want to attack anybody, I just want to decry some of the misinformation that is being preached to us...
 
anyhow I'm through....back to your regular programming....
Doug

Uncle Bob, I realize that I am probably preaching out in the wilderness here, but I will make a couple of rebuttals...
First I haven't embraced the cult like dialoge of anything, but have rather studied the subject and work in the agricultural field.  

You stated
" I would contend that the media does a fairly poor job of disclosing the realities of the discussion in an organized and concise way and are therefore supporting the "the cult".  "

I agree, the media does a poor job of reporting most everything.  When I see them grossly misrepresent a subject I know, I am very suspicious of the subjects that I have less knowledge of.  I contend that the media is overall not bright enough to support a cult or any other entity, but simply reports things that make news....rather if it bleeds, it leads....

The website you referenced makes compelling arguments, but much of its data is very old. The study that it referenced about energy output of ethanol was a 1991 study.  Things have changed greatly since then.  
The entire process of distilling Etoh is very different since then.  Its assumptions were probably close then,  However just picking on corn, its yield per acre has increased dramatically since 1991  (average increase is just under 4.5 bushels per year).

Petroleum output versus input.  That is a very variable rate.  If you look at easy to reach oil such as middle east oil that has few impurities and could almost be put directly into your fuel tank (preferred since the ROI is very good) the rate is probably 15:1 or maybe even better.  But lets just look at the Sinclair plant in Tulsa.  They do not refine sweet crude.  I have a friend who works there and has described the process to some degree.  They buy a very thick heavily sulphur laden crude for 20-30 percent less than the light sweet crude price that is tossed about (about 92$ a barrel on Friday)  Oklahoma Sour is first pumped from the ground mostly from stripper wells (yield <15 barrels per day) that have to be reworked every 2-12 months  (Cleaned, because the high parrafin oil gums the plumbing up.  At the refinery it is boiled, fractionated, catylized or cracked, reboiled refractionated etc.) While I don't have good input to yield figures for that particular plant, I doubt that they are anywhere near 15:1.
Next if you look at world oil, who controls it?  For the most part we don't.  Venezuela has much, but Chavez is playing dictator and controls all they have.  Mexico produces a lot, but it is a country while stable now, has little history of stability.  the middle east has a lot, but not stable nor ever was,  North sea, probably one of the most stable areas, but Europe has dibs there.  Russia?  Emerging as a producer, but once again has dibs.  Anwar,  lots of oil probably, but still would only suffice for 10-15 years in concert with other sources.  Gulf of Mexico, being developed and produces most of our domestic production,  (shuts down in hurricanes)  California coast,  might help, but it too will be depleated in only a few years etc. etc.
The whole problem with the fossil fuel argument is that it is not being replenished.  Etoh is not new, never said it was.  it faltered in the early 1900's because it was not economical....oil was cheap.  oil is still cheap, but its economy is disappearing.  
I want cheap fuel as much as the next person, but rational reasoning and examining demand, reserves and a little common sense tells me that unless we make everybody else stop using it, it will not be cheap much longer.  Just try to tell China to stop development.  They are close to our heals in petroleum consumption and have 4 -5 times our population.  India wants what we have too.  Essentially the economics are changing and if we are not developing new sources, then what?

Oh one other thing with respect to H2.  It would be great, but you have to produce it first.  Inputs could be solar, wind, hydroelectric geothermal nuclear or ?? but it does require more energy to produce than you get from it.  You can make H2 by hydrolysis, water plasma conversion or through a catalytic conversion of natural gas/petroleum.  
   
Personal observation:  My car  TBI  gets abut 1 mpg better on E-10 than on straight gas.  Another thing, most fuel already has some Etoh in it as an anti-smog additive.  (less problems that using MTBE).

Quote "the bottom line is, it's poor policy to cannibalize your food stream for motor fuel, and if ethanol were inherently cost effective it wouldn't need subsidizing with tax payer dollars."

You are right that there is a subsidy currently for Etoh.  IIRC it is about 54 cents per gallon.  But the pressures on grain prices are not being driven by fuel production alone.  China is a very big driving force nowdays.  They are net importers of massive quantities of grain after having been exporters for the last 20 years.  This is driving the price up.  Soybeans are high due to crop production problems in Brazil.  Wheat is over 10$ due to a world wide shortage.  Currently Farmers are snapping up land for prices up to 7K/acre because the profit potential works at that price.  I say that they wouldn't be doing that if they weren't making money.  These guys are not dummies as the media has suggested.  Most of the farmers I work with are very shrewd businessmen who are very in touch with reality.

Argument given; Producing ethanol for motor fuel is a young industry and needs help getting off the ground.  Untrue!  It's been around almost as long as gasoline.  Henry Ford had ethanol in mind as one of the fuel streams for the Model T (he was also big in promoting soy beans as a source for fuel and plastics).  The above linked article has a picture of a station selling ethanol blen in the '30s.  Ethanol never "caught on" because it never made economic sense...................until the government mandated it AND threw a bunch of our tax dollars at it.  Back to my earlier comment about which pocket we pay from.  Increased comparative energy cost  without increased productivity puts us at an economic disadvantage.

That was then, this is now, the future will be the future....things change......

Argument given;  It helps the farmer.  The older one gets the more certain types of catch phrases become red flags.  When a politician says "it's for the children", bend over you're about to get a lesson in guilt driven piracy.  Or when the human caused global warming fanatics say "the debate is over", that means they don't want to discuss their losing cause because they can't really prove their point.

I agree with you about global warming....when somebody says the debate is over, then I glaze over knowing that the debate is never over.  I won't go into my diatribe about the falicies of global warming except to say that the enviornment is not stable, is in constant change and that change should not be feared but rather embraced

I won't argue benefits of farm subsidies, due to my limited experience with them...

Last one next because I doubt I can sway any "true believers" in ethanol, only help arm my fellow rodders with the other side of the story that doesn't get much exposure.

Actually I am not an exclusive Etoh advocate, but rather I am a supporter of alternatives.  Butanol is another biologically based substance that has merit.  H2 in certain forms has merit.  Nuclear? I don't know enough to say. Others? I'm open to suggestions.  Staying only with petroleum?  Describe to me how petroleum is being replenished at even close to the rate it is being removed and I will support it.

Argument given; Would you have us continue to be dependent on the middle east for our oil?  (or some variation on that theme)  About 2/3 the way down this page; "link deleted "is a chart showing 2005 import spreads from which sources, 2007 (link under the map) are somewhat similar.  We get a much lower percentage of our imports from the middle east than most people have been mislead to believe.  However, to a degree, that doesn't really matter.  Let's say we get all wound up and refuse to import any more oil from then thar a-rabs.  Great.  So we go somewhere else and buy oil that, oh say France and Japan are buying from.  What will those guys do?  They'll go to where we just left and buy their oil there.  Net net?  Nothing has fundamentally changed except the routing of tankers.  Some when seeing this example will then say, "That's why we need to stop using crude oil!"  Yeah, great idea.  What have you got to offer that's price competitive per unit of energy?  

Problem with buying oil from the next guy is that oil price is determined globally.  Where it comes from doesn't matter, but cut off production one place and the price spikes everyplace.  Case in point  On Thursday it was announced late that Brent sea production was to decline by 15% in March.  the price of crude jumped on Friday from ~86$/barrel to
~92$/barrel for sweet crude in New York, Cushing, and Brent spot.
Additionally, only the zealots have said stop using oil completely.  I say that we should diversify our energy sources so that if supplies are curtailed, cut, or whatever, we are not sucker punched by the shock and new price.

There are lots of alternatives mentioned; electricity, hydrogen, water, wind, solar, and so on.  They all exist, they all provide output, but none of them can compete with oil price wise on a large scale..............by a long shot.

With oil at 20-30$ per barrel, these don't compete.  however Etoh competes well when oil goes above 70$/barrel and corn stays below 5$/bu  Remove the subsidy and it requires corn to be below ~$4.50/bu when oil is above 70$/barrel   change the inputs and the equlibriums change.  Wind,  must be economical now, have you seen the number of turbines being erected?  A factory that produces wind turbines south of me is backlogged about 2 years currently.  I see a unit being shipped up I57 virtually every time I drive the Istate....and these aren't little toys either but require a 32-48 tire trailer to ship.  Solar could be more economical, but needs a kick in the pants to bring initial costs down.  generally you are talking about 5-7 thousand dollars per kw and it only produces power on sunny days....great in the SWUSA, but here it stays cloudy much of the winter.  

Essentially, there is no simple easy answer.  But alternatives will be forced on us at some point.  when is open to debate, but I for one want to be ready should that occur in my or my kids lifetimes....what you want to do is your choice.....Choose wisely


Oh just to make sure that I have some hotrodding content in this, my current plans are to build a FI E-85 burning dragster this next year.  I will gladly put my 12.5:1 speedpros back into the 350....It will be cool to see what kind of performance i can get at the local track  I-57 speedway

[it takes 2 quarts to make 1!?!?!don't sound like progress to me......]

I gotta reply again on this.....

Guys I gotta disagree with a lot of the crud being spouted by the liberal media about ethanol being bad...
First I work in the industry (Univ. of Ill Extension) and have studied many of the projections and outright non truths about ethanol.
First:
There is a net sum gain when ethanol is brewed from corn.  If you use figures from the way ethanol was distilled in 1900 then it takes about 5 quarts of ethanol to get 4....That is simply not true today.  The exact net gain depends greatly on the process.  but in most cases it borders on a 2:1 ratio,  very competitive with oil.



it takes 2 quarts to make 1!?!?!
don't sound like progress to me......

That would be 2 parts of Etoh produced for every 1 part used....Your response is typical of somebody who is trying to nitpick because they don't have a good grasp on the topic

Second:
I just read a study about the mileage that is derived from etoh/gas mixtures.  contrary to popular belief there is a net gain in mpg in etoh/gas mixtures up to E-30 mixes in non-flex fueled autos.  this is mostly due to etoh being an oxidizer that promotes more complete combustion of the mix.  Above E-30 the lower energy content of Etoh comes into play and mileage suffers.


tell it to my truck, it's dropped 3 mpg since we've been on this "oxygenated" crap

Your drop in mileage may be very real, but there are always exceptions to any study.  Is yours carbureted or FI?  The study focused on FI, non-flex fuel vehicles because that is the predominant auto being used today

Third.
Ethanol production will cause the planet to warm significantly.......What are these guys smoking?   Etoh is produced from carbon that is easily accessible on the surface of the planet.  And every bit of it has been and will be again released once the source plant dies.  FACT!  Petroleum is large quantities of hydrocarbons that are sequestered deep within the earth that aren't released until they are pumped up and burned....HOW CAN ANYBODY SUGGEST WITH A STRAIGHT FACE THAT BURNING A SEQUESTERED CARBON SOURCE IS BETTER THAN RUNNING A CIRCUITOUS SOURCE SUCH AS PLANT MATERIAL??
What happens when corn, sugar, switchgrass, miscanthus, or whatever is harvested? it is replanted and the successive crop removes the Carbon that was released.  Simplistic? yes, but it works,  Reference everyother life cycle on the earth.


ever ask a farmer why he doesn't plant the same crop year after year on the same plot of ground?
what happens with a drought?
disease?
bugs?
hail?
you want me to go on?
i grew up in nebraska, i know where corn comes from...

Did I say the same crop??? I did not!  However all of the things you say are real problems that occur from time to time.  Simple crop rotation doesn't always work,  the Northern corn rootworm has figgured out that if it lays its eggs in soybean fields, the farmer is likely to plant corn the next year....its favorite food....GMOs are now the predominantly grown crops in the US.  3 out of every 4 acres planted in corn is GMO corn, while 9 out of every 10 acres of soybeans are GMO.  A new corn on the horizon is a 8 gene insertion corn that essentially takes most insects and weeds out of the equation.  Monsanto is currently testing several events of drought tolerent and water conservative corn....The corn of your past is not the same corn of today.... Oh and Etoh can be made from virtually any biological source.  Corn is easy, so that is what is being used now.  On the horizon are other sources such as sugar beets, sweet sorghum for the traditional type of sugar fermentation processes, yet as cellulostic Etoh processes are improved, then Etoh can be made from virtually anything that has cellulose.  Additionally lignin can also be broken down and converted into Etoh.  These sources could improve possible yield of Etoh from an acre of cropland 3-5 fold.   One other point.  Nebraska grows corn that is rotated with grain sorghum, soybeans and alfalfa.  But as a state Nebraska is not the only state to grow crops...last time I checked, crops in some form or another were grown in every state.  Each has its own unique principles, needs and potentials....

Finally, what would you have us do?  Continue to be dependent on the Middle East and their oil?  Or develop home grown solutions?  As an aside, because of the Etoh push and other factors, farmers are enjoying one of the most optimistic periods in US history.


Can ethanol completely replace oil? with current technology NO, but as a part of the answer, Yes.

Oh and how to increase the mileage from Etoh,  bump the compression a bunch and its efficiency will increase and make it closer to gas....
Doug

i have been thinking about  fuel economy....


current engines are running at fuel mixtures to feed the cat... too lean and it does not heat enough to work... too rich and it melts....

ethanol is a great idea to reduce fuel imports...  except it reduces fuel economy.... so we are burning more fuel per mile with the 10%+ blends...

the makes the refiners more money ... the goverment more money in collected taxes per mile driven... and we get to pay both...

somebody is going to have to come up wiith an electricly heated or microwave heated cat....  something that does not require a constant amount of unburned hydrocarbons to heat... it is probably not possable now that i think about it as you have to create enough electricity to power it... so i guess we are just stuck.,.....until someone has a brainstorm...

Guys I gotta disagree with a lot of the crud being spouted by the liberal media about ethanol being bad...
First I work in the industry (Univ. of Ill Extension) and have studied many of the projections and outright non truths about ethanol.
First:
There is a net sum gain when ethanol is brewed from corn.  If you use figures from the way ethanol was distilled in 1900 then it takes about 5 quarts of ethanol to get 4....That is simply not true today.  The exact net gain depends greatly on the process.  but in most cases it borders on a 2:1 ratio,  very competitive with oil.

Second:
I just read a study about the mileage that is derived from etoh/gas mixtures.  contrary to popular belief there is a net gain in mpg in etoh/gas mixtures up to E-30 mixes in non-flex fueled autos.  this is mostly due to etoh being an oxidizer that promotes more complete combustion of the mix.  Above E-30 the lower energy content of Etoh comes into play and mileage suffers.

Third.
Ethanol production will cause the planet to warm significantly.......What are these guys smoking?   Etoh is produced from carbon that is easily accessible on the surface of the planet.  And every bit of it has been and will be again released once the source plant dies.  FACT!  Petroleum is large quantities of hydrocarbons that are sequestered deep within the earth that aren't released until they are pumped up and burned....HOW CAN ANYBODY SUGGEST WITH A STRAIGHT FACE THAT BURNING A SEQUESTERED CARBON SOURCE IS BETTER THAN RUNNING A CIRCUITOUS SOURCE SUCH AS PLANT MATERIAL??
What happens when corn, sugar, switchgrass, miscanthus, or whatever is harvested? it is replanted and the successive crop removes the Carbon that was released.  Simplistic? yes, but it works,  Reference everyother life cycle on the earth.

Can ethanol completely replace oil? with current technology NO, but as a part of the answer, Yes.

Oh and how to increase the mileage from Etoh,  bump the compression a bunch and its efficiency will increase and make it closer to gas....
Doug

i have been thinking about  fuel economy....


current engines are running at fuel mixtures to feed the cat... too lean and it does not heat enough to work... too rich and it melts....

ethanol is a great idea to reduce fuel imports...  except it reduces fuel economy.... so we are burning more fuel per mile with the 10%+ blends...

the makes the refiners more money ... the goverment more money in collected taxes per mile driven... and we get to pay both...

somebody is going to have to come up wiith an electricly heated or microwave heated cat....  something that does not require a constant amount of unburned hydrocarbons to heat... it is probably not possable now that i think about it as you have to create enough electricity to power it... so i guess we are just stuck.,.....until someone has a brainstorm...