'59 Plymouth Forum

Hi I was wondering if any of you may be able to help me. I have a 59 belvedere and when It goes into 3rd gear it starts to cough and splutter. ATF is at the correct level,its clear and looks like brand new fluid. No leeks from gearbox. Engine runs perfect can only put it down to a trans problem. Can anyone help?
Cheers Lee

Lee; When you say cough and sputter do you mean from the carb,or do you mean tranny slippage.Could be starving for fuel when under A load(3rd gear)How is it when the gas is mashed from stand still? How is it up A hill? Does it shift (kick down) ok going down the highway? How is the engine timing? Mark M

When car is just on tick over its fine. When you rev the engine its fine. Fine in 1st and 2nd and reverse just loses power in top gear. Also doesn't seem to kick down when you are in 3rd.

It sounds more like a fuel or ignition problem to me, from what you described. Try this- With your foot firmly on the brake, press the accelerator pedal down, and see if the engine sputters, or if it tries to overcome the brake, If it sputters or acts like it's starving for fuel, it is not the transmission. A failed torque converter will cause a major loss in power, but would also be noticeable in any gear.

---John

Cheers Big M will try but as I said engine runs fine under pressure. With the car in gear and on the brake she wants to pull away in forward and reverse. Actually seems to have more power in reverse!!! She has had a full body off resto new engine and gearbox. She has only just done a 900 miles on new engine and box. Other people I have spoke to have said does the transmission have any vacuum hoses on it? This is my first Plymouth and first push button auto that seems to confuse me and my mates. All hoses running to box are fine is there anything behind the dash that I should be looking at?? Cheers everyone I am sure with your knowledge I will get to the bottom of this problem.

Lee; There is no hose to the tranny,the kick down is at the pedal/carb linkage,is it hooked up, and adjusted properly? If you are new to the car get A 1958 shop manual and the 1959 suplement manual,it has alot of info in it.As far as going into 3rd I dont know what to tell you,check the clutch bands? Find out who did the rebuild. Mark M

55 survivor wrote: If you are new to the car get A 1958 shop manual and the 1959 suplement manual,it has alot of info in it.

Lee, you can find both of those manuals online here: https://59plymouth.net/59gallery/index.php?cat=40

Dan

Cheers for the advice guys. Have got a manual on order from the States at the mo. Waiting for it to arrive in the mean time my poor car is missing out on the dying days of summer shows.

Bad distributor? Maybe a wobbly shaft throws off the spark at high speed? Throwing wild guesses here.
Your car has the 3-speed Torqueflite, yes? If you put it in 2 does it still sputter? Obviously not a good idea to go too fast in second...

Lots of food for thought. Not working this weekend so hopefully with all your help and advice might get to the bottom of it. Big thankyou to everyone.

Lee, Hopefully I understand what you mean. The torque converter failure would also mean the vehicle would be really laboring to launch. but would be only slightly noticeable at gear changes. I would suspect that the kickdown or second gear band is too tight or hanging/not fully releasing. Again the trouble shooting section of the online service manual would be a great help in repairs.

Thanks for all your help and advice chaps. Went back to basics and thought I would start there before splashing out loads of money. Took the carb off and removed in line fuel filter. Replaced filter and stripped down carb and cleaned it all up. Put it all back together and she is running sweet again. The only thing I did notice was the choke seemed to be a bit stiff so quite possible that it was not releasing and causing the problem. Can't understand why the car was fine in 1st and 2nd though ??? Anyway thanks for all your advice and help just glad she is running again. Thanks to everyone.

As I understand it, engine RPMs are lower in 3rd than in 1st or 2nd, similar to idle, the difference is the engine is under load, so a sticky choke and/or clogged fuel line would cut power.
Glad it's fixed!

So am I Roger started to think it was going to cost me a lot of cash.