Absolutely. I'm trying to think of how to describe it, but think of it this way, ... Well, first of all, the governor valve sits in a housing in the middle of the output shaft. That's the shaft that drives the final drive gear and differential. I put together a simple line drawing that might help. On the left drawing, the red governor valve starts out just slightly off-center. As the shaft spins, centrifugal force flings the valve out to the side against spring pressure where it is shown. Think of it as a spring-loaded pressure relief valve, but as it moves, it takes more pressure to unseat the relief valve so fluid pressure increases as the valve gets flung out harder at higher speeds. That pressurized fluid flows to one end of a shift valve. Line pressure, which increases as the gas pedal is pressed further, is applied to the other end of the shift valve. Those two forces determine when the shift valve moves. If you accelerate harder with the gas pedal pushed real far, that high throttle pressure holds the shift valve in the "1" position. When road speed gets high enough, the governor pressure gets high enough to force the shift valve to move. That valve opens the passage to send fluid to the next clutch pack and it bleeds fluid pressure from the previous clutch pack. That fluid going to the new clutch pack has to push on a spring-loaded piston first to fill up an "accumulator". Since it takes time for that to happen, the fluid pressure to the clutch pack gradually rises as the accumulator fills. That softens the engagement of the clutch pack. Removing that spring and piston removes that cushion. That's what they do with automatics used for racing. Under hard throttle it will chirp the tires when it shifts. For the rest of us that would be very uncomfortable. Anyhow, if you could imagine the governor valve and the throttle valve welded solid midway in their bores, the up-shift to second gear would not necessarily occur at the same speed as the down-shift when you were slowing down. Enough difference in fluid pressure has to build up before a shift valve will be convinced to move. That could be as little as a pound of pressure, or, if there is a little varnish or debris causing the valve to stick, it could take a few pounds of pressure difference. Also, because of that varnish and because the governor valve is fighting spring pressure, it might be quite happy to move one way but reluctant to move back the other way. The governor valve causes the applied pressure to go up or down in relation to road speed, so that pressure is variable. All it takes for the governor valve to stick is a little varnish on it or the bore. Governor pressure is supposed to be 0 psi at 0 mph, but if the valve sticks, you might find 2 - 3 pounds. That, to the shift valve, means the car is moving, and it might appear to be moving fast enough to stay in second gear. After you move the shift lever to manual "low" or "1", the shift valve is forced back to the first gear position. It may need to see 10 pounds of governor pressure before it will up-shift again so even though the governor valve is sticking at 3 pounds, it isn't high enough to cause an up-shift until you really do start moving.
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Wednesday, February 24th, 2021 AT 2:21 PM