70 L78 Nova T400 Question

[Bill Pritchard]

OK, time for the oddball item of the day.

Back in the day, I had a good friend who had a 70 Nova SS with the L78 and Turbo 400 trans. He bought it new. It had bucket seats and console, so it had the little curved T-handle shifter in the console. When the shifter was pulled all the way down into low gear and the accelerator was floored, the engine would wind up to 6800 - 7000 RPM and the trans would shift itself into 2nd gear, without touching the shifter. The shift handle would move itself into 2nd gear at the same time [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] We used to call it "Houdini" due to this strange trait. Didn't do it going from 2nd into high gear. It did this many, many times to the amazement of all.

Anyone else ever hear of anything similar?

[JoeG]

Bill Pritchard,
It was a factory fail-safe in the M40 to shift out if you exceeded tolerant engine rpm limits---The reason I say this is because, during a run, back when, both cars were side by side headers open, couldn't hear my engine revs--I was just watching my hood-tach --car was approaching 6600rpm's so I thought[really around 7000rpm's], and then shifted to 2nd by itself--after having trans. checked out it was determined the hood-mounted tach was giving a false rpm reading of 400rpm's ,had the hood mounted tach fixed, installed a Sun 802 the problem was solved.---JoeG'---MY handle did not move, but I had a tight grip on it.--

[jus4funn68]

I had a 67 Impala small block with a T400. The first time I really let the rpm's climb, it changed from first to second unassisted, with the shifter still in first. The shifter didnt move but it did change. That was the first car I ever has that would spin the tires in second gear!! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/[/img] Kevin
------------------------------------------------------------
68SS Camaro L-78

[moparts]

I have heard of this before.....way back in tech school.....we all thought the kid was crazy.....but his did shift by itself....and the handle did move.....never did find out how it did it....th400 transmissions will 1-2 shift if the gov. pressure gets high enough.....you can adjust this with a kit.....possible manual linkage with body torque made this happen????????.....or just bad motor mounts........or private malone.........

[Mr70]

Bill
In 1981 in High school,I had a friend who had a 1970 Pontiac GTO convertible.His car had the TH400 trans. and did the exact same thing.
We used to say his car was haunted.... [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Bill Pritchard]

Thanks to all for the replies! Sounds like it was not a completely unique thing. Sure was neat to see, though.

[CamarosRus]

I had what was probably a very low production # option....ordered NEW a 70' Z-28 with COLUMN shifted Turbo-400. It would also shift 1-2 automatically, but I would then tap shifter into the 2nd position...AND then manually shift into 3rd.......Chuck S

[Chevy454]

In my opinion, it's DARN HARD to beat a column shifted car. I was beside myself when I saw Dan Jensen's collection, which is centered around low production, column shifted automatic GM A-bodies! Way cool, and very sedate looking! Hmmm...dad's Camaro still has the auto column, and he's leaving next week for several days...! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif[/img]