Slams into gear problem solved "for the moment"

[tmea]

Everyone:

Thanks for your posts. I have fixed the problem but probably only for a little while. It functions perfectly. There were actually two problems, one of which you may not have considered before:

    - Tear in the diaphragm was overwhelmingly the biggest cause of this problem. I fixed this with contact cement. Volkenstein has a picture of it on his post. I hope it lasts for a while but I'm skeptical. I still need another one if any of you have one to sell...

    - Incorrect vacum hose type. When I received the car the vacum hoses were rotten. I replaced them with standard 1/4" heater hose. This also contributed to "slamming into gear". When vacum was applied the hose would flatten out (especially when hot) but not close. Once vacum was releived (hand off the shift knob) the hose would rapidly expand. This has the effect of instantly adding more volume to the total vacum space. Replacing the standard heater hose with the wire wound OEM vacum hose made a difference in shifting smoothness.

I have not seen this as a contributing cause to slamming into gear in other posts so I thought I'd pass along my experience.

Tom