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I just experienced something strange with my car so I thought I'd put it up here in case someone else ever comes looking for a solution to a similar problem.
My transmission was acting sort of like it didn't have any fluid - didn't seem to want to shift to the next gear. It would start out in 1st, I was certain of that, but it just didn't seem to want to shift up to 2nd - let alone 3rd or OD.
It was exceptionally cold out and I figured maybe some ice formed around the linkage or there was ice in my trans filter or something weird like that, and figured everything would be fine once I got it warmed up.
So I drove it slow for a while to see if I could warm the trans up and get rid of the problem but nothing seemed to be happening. I did notice however that if I drove the car really hard (mine has a turbo which means it was especially pertinent to wait till the oil was warm to do this) as it with my foot on the floor, it was working a lot better than if I was babying it. Actually if I drove it hard it would shift when I thought it should and everything worked great. It shifted harder than normal and it still wouldn't drop into OD but it was working better.
I spoke with my dad (who drives the same car) and he said he had a similar problem once and his problem was that his kick-down cable had snapped/broken. The kickdown cable connects to the same rotary control that the throttle cable does on top of the intake (that's what it looks like in my B230FT anyway).
When I went to look at my kickdown cable (it's the one in the middle - not the throttle which is easy to identify, and not the Cruise Control, which is hooked up to a vaccuum diaphram; the other one that just dissapears into oblivion along the drive train under the firewall) the cable was all still in place and everything (ie: hadn't jumped out of it's groove in the rotary, was still in it's bracket on the intake) but it was pulled down underneath the rotary, and hooked around a bolt on the intake right underneath the rotary throttle control.
It only took a second to pry it out (be careful not to snap any of the fibres of the cable - if it frays it might not slide back into the rubber sheathing) and everything has worked fine since. The cable was being pulled tight constantly and my transmission thought I had my foot on the floor, and that's why it was shifting so strangely.
I don't know how that cable got way down there to get caught on that bolt but it sure caused me some greif, and probably some significant wear on my transmission.
If you're having problems with your transmission shifting I'd look at this cable right away (after you check your fluid - both the 2xxs and the 7xxs have a tendancy to lose a bit of fluid when they get up in the miles). If it's frayed or rusted you'd better look at doing something to fix it.
Also it's a real pain in the arse to fix/replace/reset because it's easy to have it not quite right. There may be a method for setting this up in an easy or surefire way (as in, get it right everytime) but I sure don't know of one (we had to change one once and it was awful: adjust, test drive, adjust, test drive, repeat cycle 50 zillion times and end up settling for "not quite right but close")
I'm thinking about coating mine (the entire throttle rotary control) in Fluid Film to keep the water off it and the lubrication up to snuff. Anyone know if this is a good idea?
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