Expert: Roger J.M. Warrington - 2/1/2005

Question
This may not be your department, but I thought you might have an idea or two. I have an 87 buick lesabre with a tranny gremlin. When the car is in gear it acts as though it is a manual tranny and needs to be clutched. It will not idle in gear and clanks and sputters at low speed. When it is in park and you wrap it up tight( I was a bit mad ) and I mean real tight it lunges backward about 4 ft. I have a bit of auto experience and my conclusion is that the tourque converter is fubar. About six months ago I unplugged the torque converter due to the fact that it kept dying when you stopped after highway driving. This is a trick I have used several times and it has worked pretty good. This particular problem doesn't seem to improve or dicline with the torque converter pluged in or not. Well, what do you think. Thanks for your time in advance! And how can it move when its in park?

Answer
Hea Derek;
          Wow that stinks, did you try to adj. the shift linkadge ? that could be off?. and did you change the ATF and screen ? also the truqe conv,. could be bad. but it sounds as that tranny is  shot, do you have a place where you can get a used tranny or somthing, but I would first change all the tranny fluids and convertor fluid also must come out, and a new tranny screen/filter. and check if the linkadge is messed up as if a bushing is worn out or gone it will do what you are telling me.
good luck
roger