transmission flush?

[cvbox1990]

Actually the extra trans I had I was in process of installing it(as I figured it would be easier to drop pan and change levers with it mounted in the car)so I lined it up and had all tc nuts on and all bellhousing to engine bolts started went to tighten the bolts with a ratchet and POP! The whole bellhosing sheared off the bottom left bolt holes,like half the damn bellhousing broke off,needless to say I was pissed.So I went and got another used one from a trusted junkyard installed it,went through the motions changed filter put new fluid in it,warmed it up cycled through gears and could feel reverse grabbing but drive felt slow to engage,fluid level was good so did a road test only to find that it felt mushy and wont shift out of first.adjusted tv,linkage,tryed again same thing I did get it to grab in drive so I romped the piss out of it only to find when I let off to try and make it shift it goes back to nuetral.what am I missing?fluid is also looking burnt now.tcc solenoid failure?governor?I might add I picked up a bad ass trans and Stahl converter today but don't want to install it yet incase it is computer related.Ideas?

[His Royal Ghostliness]

What car are we talking about here? 1990 Crown Vic, as suggested by your username? If so there is not such thing as a TCC solenoid in that transmission, nor any connection between the engine computer and the transmission as a whole. The trans you have (or should have) is the AOD model, it's a fully-mechanical transmission, zero electronic controls. All she needs is the shifter linkage and the TV cable adjusted properly, and she should run to the best of her ability based on her condition.

I don't know why your replacement transmission is acting up, the burnt fluid tells me she's slipping pretty bad internally, which would jive with the "driving a stick with the clutch half in" feeling you described. Keep in mind TV pressure set too low will fry a transmission, but it will not prevent it from upshifting out of 1st, so I don't think that's your problem. On the other hand the filter does have two ports thru which fluid is sucked into the valve body, one is the round "leg" with the rubber o-ring that you insert into the VB, and the other is a square port with a flat gasket (often made of cork) that gets sandwiched between the filter and the VB - that second gasket, the square one, is very easy to mis-position or even forget entirely, and it will cause drivability issues if that is indeed the case.

[VicCrownVic]

That sucks about the bellhousing cracking.
Dad did that once when we were swapping a trans from my '88 Country Squire into my '89 MGM. He was tightening up the bolts connecting the bellhousing and engine block when all of a sudden... crack. He determined afterward that the torque converter must not have been fully seated/all the way back. I think he said he had to turn or wiggle it a little before it would go all the way back. It wasn't enough of a difference to be obvious, but enough to cause a problem.

As far as the problems, see HRG's post. The only electrical connections on an AOD in a Box Panther would be the Neutral Safety Switch and the VSS (depending on year and/or options), and neither of those are necessary for the operation of the transmission.

Did you check the fluid level again after driving it?