Torque Converter acting stupid

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

My entire knowledge of torque converters comes from the Wikipedia and talking to my brother, but apparently the one on my car ('91 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera) is pretty much gone.

It functions properly for about 20min of driving, but after that it will stick in the locked position even when slowing down. This forces the car to stall when approaching a stop, or when shifting into gear from a stop. This will continue until the car has been parked for a few hours. Recently I simply disconnected the TCC connector that feeds into the bell housing, so that should prevent future seizures at the expense of mileage.

Since I have little experience in this area, could this be fixed by grabbing a new torque converter, or am I looking at digging further into the transmission to replace solenoids or other stuffs? I just really don't want to have to rebuild the transmission.

 

[lhaolpa]

Maybe an automatic transmission shop could help. Sometimes it's as simple as changing fluid,filter and adjusting the bands.I'm not sure about your particular model,make,but I've had a few that I thought were gone,but I found an honest shop who simply did a service on it and it ran like new.The bands wear and periodically need to be adjusted.The problem is that most shops just tell you that the transmission is shot,and swap out one that fits and charge a fortune for a rebuild. lha

 

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

Thanks, Iha! Unfortunately I am a fair distance from any reputable mechanic, so I pretty much get to do everything myself. I did change the fluid and filter when I first noticed this, though it no effect on the issue (figures). Apparently, the TCC solenoid is relatively easy to access: just open the bell housing and there it should be... Hopefully I will be able to change it without pulling the engine out! Here's hoping that I don't do anything stupid (frustrated).