Car won't go into gear until it warms up

[LadySmith]

I remember last winter this happening too. When I go out in the cold mornings to crank the car, sometimes even after warming up a while, the car won't go into gear. I mean, the little indicator thing on the dash moves to the correct gear, but I don't feel or hear it actually go into gear -- not drive, not reverse..nothing. It's as if it's in neutral. I can rev it up a couple of times and it will finally do it.

Is it anything that can actually be fixed or is it just normal cold-natured car at this age... (1995 Buick PA).

Thanks in advance!

[HotZ28]

More than likely, you have a problem with the input clutch seal in the input housing. When these seals age, they get hard and don't seal to the housing like they should. When this happens, the input clutch fluid pressure will bypass the seal and not apply the clutches. Once the fluid begins to warm up, the seal will expand enough to seal and internal pressure will stablize. Normally, it will be fine until the fluid get's cold again. A temporary fix would be to add some Lucus trans conditioner. The long-term solution is to remove the trans and replace the seals, or better yet, do a complete rebuild.

When you start the car cold, let it idle for 30 sec or longer, then put the gear selector in reverse and wait until it engages, after that you should be able to shift into drive. The warmer you can get the trans fluid before driving the car, the better it will be. BTW, after discovering this flaw, GM released a new & improved seal design. IIRC, the new seal design became standard equipment in all 96 + 4t60E’s. Most all new trans rebuild kits now have the newer design seals.