turbo 350 no foward gear

[bowser14]

79 chevy 1/2 ton. tranny just quit going into any foward gear. reverse still working fine. any ideas?

[mr_mushroom]

shift cable came loose?
check your fluid levels and all.
really i'm just guessing.

when did this happen? what were the circumstances between when it worked and when it didn't?
that information will help a bit.

[silicon212]

Originally Posted by bowser14

79 chevy 1/2 ton. tranny just quit going into any foward gear. reverse still working fine. any ideas?

Let me see here, it works fine in reverse but all forward motion is gone. You can rule out a torque converter or front pump issue. A front pump issue will show its teeth in reverse before any other gear.

Check the fluid. If it's brown, black, murky, looks like metallic paint or smells strong (even if it's red or orange-red), or any combination of the above, my first guess would be forward clutch. This is the typical TH350 failure where it works in reverse but not forward. The forward clutch engages in all 3 forward gears (hence forward clutch).

I don't know how else to describe it, but good fluid will be orange-red to bright red in color, clear and with a sweet crayon smell.