1990 lumina stalls

My 1990 Lumina has developed a stalling problem. It starts and runs fine, but then will shudder and stall when slowing and gearing down. It feels like it is lugging and in too high a gear, then stalls. It will restart, but stalls again as soon as put into gear. After a while it will start up and run normally, until it decides to do it again! We thought it was a vacuum leak - found one and fixed it but the problem continued. Then we disconnected a wire with a blue plug that goes into the right front of the engine. That stopped the stalling, but it won't go into passing gear now. Is that some electronic modulator that is faulty?

you have what is known as a sticking tcc(torque convertor clutch) this is meant to lock the convertor in overdrive. check out the link below


http://autorepair.about.com/library/weekly/aa011703a.htm

you have what is known as a sticking tcc(torque convertor clutch) this is meant to lock the convertor in overdrive. check out the link below


http://autorepair.about.com/library/weekly/aa011703a.htm

Thank you so much for your reply. I was wondering, why does the van run ok (apart from no passing gear) with the wire that runs into the forward right side of the transmission disconnected? Is that some sort of sensor? Could it be causing the tcc to stick? I just want to be sure before going ahead with the replacement of the tcc solenoid as it looks like an expensive job timewise.

i was going to mention that wire before but you had already found it. that wire actuates the lock up clutch. i've yet to change one of those but they sure do look fun