'85 Tempo only goes 25 Mph

[Bigpineguy Retired]

This is my mother-in-laws car, she is the org. owner, and hasn't driven it for years now, My brother in law has it parked at his house, and told me that he will bring it here, and if I can fix it, I can drive it around town here... He said that it will shift through the gears, but overdrive isn't working correctly, and it will only do 25 mph as top speed :tehe:

I did some searching, and it seems like the Torque Converter could be bad, trying to find a how to on replacing it, and also would like to make sure that's what it is...

BPG~

[stman]

If it is the transmission, it might be as simple as a vacuum line loose or stopped up. Since the car has been sitting up, I would check the fuel filters too.

[fifties]

This is my mother-in-laws car, she is the org. owner, and hasn't driven it for years now, My brother in law has it parked at his house, and told me that he will bring it here, and if I can fix it, I can drive it around town here... He said that it will shift through the gears, but overdrive isn't working correctly, and it will only do 25 mph as top speed :tehe:

I did some searching, and it seems like the Torque Converter could be bad, trying to find a how to on replacing it, and also would like to make sure that's what it is...

BPG~
Look on the bright side...No more speeding tickets!

[oak]

Before replacing anything I would also check into catalyltic converter. One that is stopped up can idle fine and seem to run up in rpms for a second, but will fall on it's face kind of like it's running out of fuel.

[stman]

Look on the bright side...No more speeding tickets!

How many times would you get pulled over with the thought that it was a DUI though? And there is always at least one out there that would write a ticket for impeding traffic/driving too slow. :D

[justeric1agn]

pine i don't think its the torque converter.if its shifting thru the gears and only overdrive doesn't work its probably a switch or whatever makes the overdrive come on in a tempo.you won't need overdrive to drive it around town anyway. it could be several things you need to get it home and run a code on it.you can google the code when you get one. go to autozone or somewhere to heave the codes read

on an 85 you can probably just use a junmper wire to read codes when you get car home run thread again or bump it to top.


Lack of acceleration,chugging,hesitating,bogging etc. could be caused by one of the following below.

Inspect and test all the following listed below and get back with some results

Oxygen sensor.
Catalytic converter.
Fuel injectors dirty/sticking.
Mass airflow sensor/Airflow meter.
Throttle position sensor.
Manifold absolute pressure sensor.
EGR Valve
Fuel pressure regulator leaking or defective fuel pump.
False air leakage.
Fuel contamination.
Foul/defective spark plugs.
Open spark plug wires.
Ignition coil/Coil packs defective.
Incorrect ignition timing.
Cap and rotor.

[rickw]

Overdrive usually won't kick in until 50 mph on most cars...:)

[clarkie]

I would check for bad gas or Carb issues with car sitting so long ..injectors or jets plugged..i am no mechanic ..but was and still am a gear head...

[justeric1agn]

pm you a link where you can download a free book on it. i only see 89 in this list but some of them just say ford temo may cover it. ricky is right it won't go into overdrive if it won't run but 25. i didn't know rules on downloads and live links so i pm'd you

[Bigpineguy Retired]

ok.....took me all of 5 minutes to fix once the car was here...lol.. vacuum advance wasn't connected to Transmission , hooked it up, and problem solved....lol...that was too easy...

running just fine now, and it's a super,super clean car . Like I said , it's My Mother-in-law's car and she bought it brand new...
thanks for the pm Eric , You are always helpful..

BPG~

[no-one]

ok.....took me all of 5 minutes to fix once the car was here...lol.. vacuum advance wasn't connected to Transmission , hooked it up, and problem solved....lol...that was too easy...

running just fine now, and it's a super,super clean car . Like I said , it's My Mother-in-law's car and she bought it brand new...
thanks for the pm Eric , You are always helpful..

BPG~

interesting cause the transmission in the tempo(atx) doesnt use vacuum for anything glad u fixed it tho :thumbsup: