Chevy Sprint: Tranny shifting irregular!

Hi 'yall! Good little forum here.

I just got an 88 Chevy Sprint beater (cousin to the Firefly/Swift/Metro) with the 1.0 3 banger 48hp lawn mower express.

Drove it a thousand miles already, awesome 55 mpg.

The 3-speed auto tranny will "sometimes" shift perfectly from first to second at its normal speed (20 mph) and at other times you have to rev the hell out of the motor and "then" it will shift at about 30-35 mph to second and since that's about where third kicks in it skips quickly on into third.

Normal second to third is perfect, and kickdowns on W.O.T. are perfect.

Fluid, filter and gasket all changed and new, levels double-checked O.K.

I've read a lot of the posts here, and the only clue I think is "could" be the Vehicle Speed Sensor sticking or a bad solenoid....any other ideas???? ;-)

my sister had the same problem with her 94 geo metro i dont remember what we did to fix but but it was pretty much just checking the connections and making sure everything was snug... also it always helped her to rev and then let off the gas to get it to shift when it was messing up

Your tranny oil and filter are probably nasty. Put in a new filter, and have the fluid flushed.

I had a similar experience with my 92 Metro. All we did was adjust the engine idle (it was too low) at the throttle body and it started shifting normally again. Also you may consider checking your throttle valve cable for proper adjustment.

What and where is the "throttle valve cable"? What does it do?

The throttle valve cable is part of the accelerator cable assembly (it's also called the "drop down" cable). It splits off from the accelerator cable and goes down across the top of the transmission near the shift linkage. It is responsible for kicking the engine down to the next lowest gear when you press the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor. If it's too tight, it may cause the transmission to hang in one gear for too long.