tranny and torque question

[blueapplesoda]

I took my car to the track last weekend for the first time with my e30. I have an automatic. Today I got up to drive to a friends house and my tranny, while in gear, will only rev to 2200ish rpm and then slips to a free rev until it comes back to 2200 again and catches. Is my tranny toast? Cause if it is, I now have an excuse to prematurely trash this horrific transmision and drop my 5spd in, which I was orignally planning to do in the summer.

Oh and do automatics usually have a lack of low rpm torque? (it's ok after 3500rpm, though) because my donor 5 spd 325 is quick and jumpy but my auto is just soooo laggy. I also have a 4.10 lsd in the auto and a 3.73 lsd in the 5spd donor, so i would think the 4.10 would do something....

[Digitalwave]

Autos are only 4 speeds and have very high inertial drag. A 5 speed will always be faster, feel faster, and feel more "jumpy."

Try changing the tranny fluid and the filter first, and if that doesn't help it, then its not worth fixing the auto if you are ready to do the swap now anyways.

[blueapplesoda]

ok....another question. I dont have an airbag...will it matter if i used a pedal box from an airbag equiped e30?

[Digitalwave]

Yeah, the 2 pedal boxes are different. Its a lot easier to use the one made for your car.

[nando]

when you take off with an auto, you get a jump for the first 500rpm or so, but after that what you are experiencing is tranny slip. the stall rate of the E30 torque convertor is pretty low so it's pretty hard to launch it with any decency. if I do a brake stand the engine will only rev to about 2k or so.. not enough to get past the slippage part (somewhere between 1500-3000rpms). The 4.10 is to make up for the torque that your auto is using up at lower speeds - it won't make the car faster really (I'd leave it in for your 5 speed tho!).

do you have an airbag pedal box? I have a non-airbag pedal box that I can't use, and I need an airbag one. want to trade?

[blueapplesoda]

Ok, I haven't thoroughly checked out my pedal box, but I know it was different because it had a plastic clutch pedal, rather than a metal clutch one (which was on my 87is). I know that the springs were in different places for the srs and non srs, but since i don't have access to either pedal boxes at the moment, is the pedal difference any way to determine if it was for an airbag car?

[Digitalwave]

Non-airbag pedal boxes only really have the rear mount for the brake booster. The airbag ones are much larger and L-shaped, with an upper support.