Wifes car was in body shop like 4 months, now seems reluctant to automatically or manually hit "drive"
50 MPH sometimes, and with 3.91s that's kind of a drag.
Sticky shuttle valve thing? All set to service with plus 4 even tho fluid looks great, cannot remember when I serviced last.
Thoughts????
thanks, C

BTT

Make sure the spring is on the kick-down linkage.

yup!
first thing I looked at.But thanks!
got 'er opened up, very little debris of any kind, fluid still red, maybe slightly darker than new,
dacron filter hardly shows any color.
Maybe even accumulator spring?

OK, valve body out...everything looks OK, whoever did the trans mods years ago took out the accumulator piston spring.No block rod. Piston moves freely...should I install a blocker rod?
Some other posts on other mopar sites said it's not good to just let the piston flop back and forth.Doubt if that's my problem, but will it hurt anything to add the block rod?
Guess I gotta gut up and clean the valve body and check for debris...this trans has worked great for a lotta years, don't understand why all of a sudden...

VB is down I would put the spring back in it .

John RR I bow to your experience but explain why?
I was just out there trying to make a blocker rod.I do not have the spring, will have to open up an old loadflite I have in the scrapheap.
Still have zero clue as to my problem.

Because there is little reason to have a shift that rattles your teeth in a street car .

And no need to bow to me , I'm not the expert on this by a long shot , just been there got bored of it .

Fair enough.
Actually, the shifts were reasonable, BUT the 1-2 shift @WOT barks the 275s every time :-)
My Wife kinda likes that....
I just know you consistently try to give good unbiased advice!
What do you think about the actual problem I am experiencing?

While you have the valve body out you can air check the clutch packs.

The missing spring only effects the 'going into gear apply'. Do you want it to go into gear hard? Yes, I agree, air test the front clutch. If that is ok, I'd look at the govenor.
Put it together, put a gauge on the gov port and go for a drive. I believe you are looking for 1 psi for each MPH.

OK, I can probably look up location of governor port, dunno if I have a gauge that goes that high, will look.
Got the VB out and apart, small kine sludge, but the "shuttle valve" behind the spring loaded TV was sticky at first, sprayed out with penetrant and is free as can be now.There was in one passage some thick goo, maybe a gram or so, but maybe that was a dead end passage?Consistency of peanut butter and gray/black.
Got an accumulator spring out of a parts loadflite, and will install in my 904 as per JohnRR's kind advice.
I still am at a loss to explain why it came on so sudden, all I can think is it didn't like sitting for 4 months and some sludgy stuff set up either in the VB or the governor assy.
Will try to air test clutch pack before I install VB.

front band toast?

Went to air check the clutch packs as per the service manual, 30 psi @ the 2nd and 3rd round port,
I hear no "thunk".
tried 40psi, still no "thunk".
Went to youtube and saw the instructor dude covering unpressured hole while pressurizing the other.Will try this.

You're listening for the "thunk" and also for the sound of escaping air. Try kicking the air pressure up to 90 psi, I never understood why they want you to air check at pressures lower than normal line presure.

Well I realized that regardless of the outcome of the air tests, I was pretty much boned, as I need to put it back together.I went ahead and did what I could, also air checked the apply pistons (OK) and adjusted the bands.Wish I knew about the higher psi before I gave in and reassembled without a definitive check...oh well!
I located an accumulator piston spring and put it in, and after a little cooler line rerouting, we will see if it's
A)better,
B)worse or
C)time for some JimBeam :-)

3)Jim Beam
No 3rd gear, actually seems worse.
Just an observation, now with the accumulator spring installed, reverse seems to be acting up and or not kicking in, but could be coincidence, or a worsening symptom of the real problem.
Used to come in solid before todays band aids.
First gear still solid but no jarring engagement like before, just firm.
Time to decide what route to take.With the Wife going for her RN, I am in charge of all things expensive, so taking into account the 318 has over a quarter inch of crank endplay,I was already planning a swap of some sort...
got lots of BB stuff ;-Thanks guys for the ideas and support!!!!Long live MOPARTS!!!!

A quarter of an inch of crank endplay ?????

Reverse is the rear band applied and the front clutch pack applied , if you had a front clutch problem before you would have had a problem with reverse. Reset the adjustment of the shift linkage ?

Did you pull all the valves out of the valve body and clean it ?