92 Regal Trans modulator

[pharaoh123]

Hello everybody. I'm new, and glad to be here. I was hoping you could help. This is probably an embarassingly simple question, but what type of transmission modulator is on the 3.8 92 Regal? Electric, vacuum, mechanical?

Thanks

[Ruley73]

Your 1992 Regal is vacuum modulated. The vacuum modulator is mounted to the front of the transmission. It is fastened into place with a "fork" that has one bolt going through it. It has a vacuum hose going to it that can be traced from the intake manifold. When these go bad you'll notice harsh shifts and your car might not want to stop moving when you come to a stoplight so your engine may stall; much like not disengaging the clutch when driving a car with a manual transmission. They are fairly easy to test. Take it off and hold it upside down. If transmission fluid seeps out of the vacuum hose inlet then it is bad. A new one is easy to find and around $10-$15. The aftermarket modulators usually come with a screw that lets you adjust how smooth (or abrupt) you want the transmission to shift. They come with instructions that tell you how to do it, but it's basically trial and error - drive the car and adjust the screw accordingly.

Driving for too long with a bad vacuum modulator can cause premature transmission failure. I myself believe that the 440T4/4T60/4T60E tranmissions often go bad solely because of a bad vacuum modulator.

This is much more info than you asked for, but I hope you find this info helpful.

[pharaoh123]

Thank you very much. That's great info. While we're on the subject: as a matter of fact the trans isn't in that great of shape, which as you may have guessed is part of the reason for my question. When I come to a stop in overdrive and try to take off again, the car (most of the time) won't go anywhere. It's as if it's not down shifting. It does stall as well, and often times won't even start, though I attributed that problem to the ignition control module. Could all of this be related to the modulator?

[Ruley73]

The bad modulator can cause the no go condition at a stoplight. It can cause it to stall. When the car does stall, if it lunges forward it is probably the bad modulator. If it does not lunge forward, then you probably have another problem. Does it only stall at a stop? Is it a sudden stall or does the car run irratically before it stalls? It could be a bad ignition module, but I think it is more likely a bad Crankshaft position sensor; assuming the car does not lunge before it stalls. Remember the part about not disengaging the clutch a stop? It will act like that if the modulator is bad.

[pharaoh123]

Usually when the car does the "no go" after a stop, I shift down into overdrive to get it going again. Once in a while if I sort of "pop" the gas pedal it will give a little jerk and then I can go again. The stalling thing is more of a recent development, while the "no go" has happened for some time. When it does this, the car is still running, it's just not going anywhere.

The stalling is sudden. In fact it's such a smooth stall that you almost don't realize the engine's cut out on you...