Automatic transmission won't shift

[LostNotForgotton]

I'm not much of a transmission guy so when an issue arises I usually have a shop do it or just swap it out. My question is actually on behalf of my brother who also owns a Fiero, an 86 SE (v6) auto. He is on a tight budget and doesn't want to have a shop charge hime for something that might have been easily fixed had we known what to look for. A few months ago he calls saying that he thinks his transmission was going out and needed a new one. I was finally able to make it over to his house last weekend and check it out. I'm not totally sold that he needs a new transmission because his problem is that his transmission just won't shift out of first while driving. Even when you manually try to shift it into second it still won't shift. Goes between Park, Reverse & drive just fine. I was even able to spin the wheels from a standstill so it seems healthy. It just won't shift into second gear no matter what we try. Could this be a shift solenoid, a TV cable issue, a leaking vacuum line somewhere? Just wanted to pick the brains of anyone who might be familiar with transmission.  Any suggestions?

[Fierofool]

The automatic is kind of foreign to me, but I do know there are no vacuum lines to the transmission.  It works on pressure.  I would look at adjusting the TV cable first. 

If you start in 2nd or Drive, does it work properly?  I don't know for sure, but the plastic shaft inside the shift lever might have something to do with it.  Sometimes they give problems with getting them to come out of Park, or shifting any gear that require pressing the lockout button. 

[TopNotch]

How's the fluid level? Is the fluid brown, or does it smell "burnt"?
How many miles are on the transmission? Did you ever change the fluid and filter?
 

[LostNotForgotton]

Hmmm I didn't try starting it out in second. I only tried driving it in drive and then manually shifted it to second while I was already moving. I'll have to try that and see what happens. I don't think it has anything to do with the shift cable because it moves between park, reverse, drive, 2 & 1 just fine. I think it's more on the transmission side somewhere.

The fluid level was a little low according to my brother. How how I don't know so I'm not sure how much he added. The transmission looks ok when I checked it but that was after he added some. The fluid levels are good but nothing has changed. Despite my advise he hasn't ever had the transmission fluid flushed and changed since he's owned it which has been 3 years. So who knows how long it's been since it was last serviced. I think the car has about 12x,xxx miles.

I'll probably try and take another look at it this weekend and mess with it. If I can't figure it out I'll probably just tell him that he'll have to have a shop look at it.

[Fierofool]

Have you found the problem and solution, yet?

[LostNotForgotton]

I haven't been able to get my schedule and my brothers schedule to line up so that we could look at his car again. I am however meeting up with him this weekend but he's helping me pick up a 3800sc engine for a future Fiero engine swap and another 4.9 engine to replace the blown one in my Diablo kit. So this weekend isn't going to work for looking at his car, next weekend is his kids birthday party, the weekend after that we're all going to the Philly Auto Show and the weekend after that I'm taking my Fiero to Team O'Neil Rally School in NH for a winter driving course...and yes I'm bringing like 3 or 4 car cameras. I wanna snow drift my Fiero like this guy

So hopefully maybe sometime in mid to late Feb I'll have a free weekend to stop back over and check out his transmission again.

[GTRS Fiero]

When my transmission did this, it was the valve body in the transmission.  Whatever it is, it was internal to the transmission, which had to be pulled.

In this case, I'd pull the filter on the side of the transmission, and see how it looks.  An hour's work isn't so bad, if that gives you a better idea of the problem.