1985 GSL automagic, my problem is I can't drive it! My goal was to rebuild the carb and drive it to my families shop, where I will be swapping the transmission to a TII trans. But now every time I warm the car up and put it in reverse (or Drive) it stumbles, hangs for a second, then dies.

Should I be concerned about what's happening? I've read this indicates the torque converter is bad or on it's way out. (Which is fine cause I'm switching out the whole transmission anyway) I'm just wondering what some of you guys with experience would do in my position? Should I not worry about it, swap the trans and go from there? Or should I be concerned and diagnose why it stumbles in gear BEFORE the manual conversion?

To me, it makes sense to not worry about the auto gearbox and just convert right away. But I'm afraid of misdiagnosis and something else being wrong. Or am I just a nubile and inexperienced and being paranoid?? let me know what you think!

 

I had a similar issue with an 85 GSL that had an automatic transmission. I rebuilt the carb as it needed done anyways. Turns out it did have a bad torque converter. I converted the car to a manual transmission shortly thereafter and created a thread about it here on the forum.