I recently drive a 5 speed v6 fiero and noticed how much more power it has to my auto V6 Fiero. Long story short, my auto transmission seems to really suck. I floor it and it will max out around 3,000 maybe 4,000 if it's downhill. It's not my kickdown cable because I just adjusted that properly and made it so it would shift as late as possible. So what could this be? Governor in the tranny, spark issue, timing issue? It shifts too early and doesn't down shift either.
Throttle Valve cable adjustment - follow it exactly as the Factory Service Manual describes! Downshift is controlled by the TV cable - you do not have it adjusted properly.
The TV cable doesn't control shift points, that is the governor's job.
I am pretty sure I've adjusted it properly. Manual says to depress the button on the cable to allow it to come out and then depress the gas pedal fully. I did this to the point of getting stuck under the "butterfly intake" thing. So it's shifting as late as possible but still won't go over 4,000 unless I break the cable.
My Tach is absolutely messed up because it's the 4 cylinder tach I just did an engine swap. But I'm familiar enough with the engine to know it isn't matching up RPMS and I double checked with an RPM conversion chart and when Tach says it's at 4,000 it's really at 2,800
My Tach is absolutely messed up because it's the 4 cylinder tach I just did an engine swap. But I'm familiar enough with the engine to know it isn't matching up RPMS and I double checked with an RPM conversion chart and when Tach says it's at 4,000 it's really at 2,800.
So you're relying on a 4-cyl tach of unknown condition to indicate to you what the RPM is of your 6-cyl engine? Okay.
You also seem to have missed my earlier question...
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Originally posted by Patrick:
Can you keep it in a lower gear at a higher RPM if you select the gear manually?
[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 10-25-2025).]
I am a college student trying to fix this car on a shoe string budget a 4 cylinder tach is going to have to work for now. Manually selecting the gear doesn't work at all I don't know why. Help is appreciated
I am a college student trying to fix this car on a shoe string budget a 4 cylinder tach is going to have to work for now. Manually selecting the gear doesn't work at all I don't know why. Help is appreciated
My first thought when reading this is that you have a clogged cat, as someone just above also mentioned... but this I find really weird.
I've never had this problem before with all the Fiero's I've ever had. It has to be an issue with the cable. You should be able to manually select lower gears. I don't want to assume (it's been a while), but you can select "1" and then it only stays in 1st gear. You can select "2" and then it'll only shift from 1st to second gear (doesn't start in 2nd gear).
I would inspect the cable, and maybe get a new one if it looks damaged.
Is this your daily driver? Sorry man... I know it sucks.
Manually selecting the gear doesn't work at all I don't know why.
Sounds like this is a good place to start fixing things then, as there obviously shouldn't be any problem putting the gear selector in 1st and the transmission following suit.
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Originally posted by Will.145:
I am a college student trying to fix this car on a shoe string budget a 4 cylinder tach is going to have to work for now.
The point I was making, was not so much that it's a 4-cyl tach, but that it's an old tach that you don't know for sure is still capable of displaying the correct RPM (even for a 4-cyl engine). Many people here over the years have been fooled by an incorrectly reading tach. It's possible your engine is actually revving higher than you're being led to believe.
quote
Originally posted by Patrick:
So you're relying on a 4-cyl tach of unknown condition to indicate to you what the RPM is of your 6-cyl engine?
