So I was under my car today figuring out how I'm gonna hang a new intermediate pipe, and muffler (catless manifold back exhaust) and... I found there are no bolts in the transmission mount where it should bolt to the tailshaft. In fact, the transmission sits too far back for the bolts to even go in. Now, seeing as the transmission is far too clean to be original, though dirty enough to have lived in the car for a decade or so, it's likely they where too lazy to find a mount that fits, and simply shoved it in there.

With that said, are there mounts with oval bolt holes so they can fit transmissions that sit at varying distances? Or is there another solution to this issue?

As for the leak, I found transmission fluid has been dripping from the speedometer cable, and was leaking from the pan until I snugged the bolts a quarter or half turn each. Should I be worried about this? The levels are fine, I checked them hot today. Bright red, and full, so the leak is minor, or was, I tightened things down.

And, so the problems continue to be found, and in this case before they become big ones hopefully. This could explain the car hesitating to go into gear and the occasional feeling that the transmission is lurching between gears. Don't ya' just love cars bought for three digits?

 

I'm no expert for sure and I'm doing my first Olds resto. Having said that; can you move the crossmember back and drill new holes in the frame? I'm having similar symptoms (it sounds like), trans takes a second to kick into gear and feels "funny" when shifting. Had a look and my mount is complete mush. Apparently years of oil leaking on to it.
As for the speedo cable; if it's like my Cutlass it has two seals. One around the main speedo housing, a large O-ring, and one inside the housing, around the speedo shaft; a small rubber seal with a spring holding it tight.
Not sure this was any help but I feel your pain.

 

Yeah, figure out why the mount is not aligned. All TH350 transmissions have the same dimension from bellhousing face to mount bolt holes. All TH350 trans mounts have the bolt holes in the same place - top and bottom bolts are aligned. There was no mismatch from the factory, you figure out what got changed and return it to stock.

How far off is the alignment? Most likely, the problem is that they tightened the crossmember bolts before getting all the bolts started, so loosen everything up. You'll likely find there is enough slop in the various parts to get the bolts started in the trans. You might need to jack up under the trans slightly to offload the crossmember and mount.

 

I got the mount sorted out, but the drip is still there, it has not lost any amount of fluid that will register on the dip stick however. The bolts had fallen out of the mount, not sure why, but again, I sorted that out. I think it's still firmly bolted in there.

 

Just a quick update on the issue, the carburetor has a barbed stud for vacuum to the transmission on the back near a hard line I assume is fuel, I haven't really looked, the barb end is broken off, so the hose won't stay on, found this out when I got a new hose to try to fix the issue. So I'm going to T vacuum off the distributor advance, I'll post if that works tomorrow, going to do that after I change the oil.

 

Seems to have worked great, the vacuum hose down at the bottom of the hard line leading to the modulator was... Well... I think it has been on the car since people wore shiny clothes the color of my car...

Anyway, with all that sorted, now the carburetor is showing its self even more, probably doesn't help the temperature has dropped from a steady 80F to steady 50-60F in just a week.

So basically the simple fix was, shove a soft rubber cap over the short stub that should be a vacuum barb for the transmission, cut the distributor advance vacuum line near the distributor, hook up a T, hook up the hard line for the transmission, replace the lower soft line connecting the hard line too the transmission, and, presto, my transmission shifts like butter. Low speed shifts, wide open throttle shifts, doesn't matter if it's a down or up shift the thing shifts so much better. Now all that's left is to get another intake, carb, distributor, alignment, tires, and a new exhaust system, might grab some Camaro alloys out of the junkyard, the late 80's early 90's five spoke RS alloys.

I'm sort of learning as I go, my mechanical experience is limited, but I'm good at trouble shooting when I have an understanding of how the systems work together.

 

Just realized I posted these int he wrong thread, oops, either way, some issues solved.