Auto tranny explination
 

Maybe someone can explain this to me.

If im driving along at 50mph Im cruising at 2000rpm. But if I touch the gas lightly the car will jump to 2500rpm, while still keeping the same speed. This is not the 3rd gear becuase if I clip the od off buttom the rpms jump again to 3500rpm.

Whats going on at this wierd rpm between gear thing. Im pretty sure its not the torque converter becuase it happens regardless of the speed at. hitting the gass lightly just adds some 500rpm in top gear. At decent speeds it will do this wired thing where the car will drop 500rpm if I ride the gas lighly, opposed to if I've let off completly.

Whats happening here? Is this where the car engages two gears so that shifts are smoother, but it just happens to hold it there.

Ummm...operation of your torque convertor is not dependant on the vehicles speed....it works based on the load placed on it....

Sounds normal to me though...

if you blip the gas the rpms will rise slightly, but you wont go any faster ,that's what you are saying ??? If you give it that little bit though and hold it...you will start going a bit faster....there is always a bit of a lag between revs and acceleration with a slush box, that's how torque convertors work

Also, we have lock-up converters. It could be that your just feeling the converter lock-unlock. It'll do that a lot under slight load, ie going up a slight grade, it allows rpms to go up some without actually dropping a gear.

it sounds to me like the "load engagament point"....when you're just crusing the rpms are settled a little lower but if you have to give it a little gas they jump up 500+rpms with very little pedal effort....

of course I'm no ATX fwd expert. My only atx experience comes from rwd mustangs.

Regardless of rpm too.
It will happed up at 70 when the crusing rpm is down at 3k or 80 where its at 3500. But it wont do it in any other gear.

I always thought our torque convertes locked up at some 2500rpm. So even if its locked it can unlock regardless of the rpm?

I can't remember where I learned this, so I can't vouch 100% for its accuracy, but it's my uinderstanding that the lock-up is controlled by the ecu, and is basically load oriented. Don't confuse the lock-up with the "stall speed" of the converter-two different things. I remember in the early days a lot of people mistakenly wondered if it was actually a 5 speed auto because they were feeling the converter engage/disengage. It happens a good bit when you're on a hilly road in cruise control.

I guess I did confuse the lock up with the stall speed. I always thought they were the same thing. Interesting.

Thanks. Ill have to look up the diffrences now.

Yeah,(little late to post this but,) My 92 does the same thing at 45 Mph, the littlest addition of gas drops it 500 RPMS.

mine jumps a lil too, but I dont get on it much anyways

if you have probs and dont touch the gas...then you can worry =)

My RWD Monte Carlo had a lock-down torque converter with the exact description as Zero describes.
I thought I had an extra overdrive gear until I found out what was really happening.