I have a problem that I've never had happen before. When it is cold out and the truck sits for a long time it wants to shudder when I let off the gas or when shifting into 2nd. The shudder/loss of power can happen for a second or a min or so. I say transmission because if I put it in neutral the motor will rev normally. After a few mins of driving around or if I let it set and warm up some it doesn't do it. The transmission was rebuilt about 2 years ago by a reputable shop here. They also installed a shift kit at the time. I checked and adjusted the tv cable and it helped with the shifting but not the shudder. The fluid is at the right level and color, it doesn't smell burnt or anything else. Has anyone else had this kind of thing happen?

 

Check u-joints first.

 

How cold are we talking about? This is the only preceding condition for when the shudder happens?

 

Like under 50. If it's above that it still does it but barely. It's more noticeable under 50.

 

I would re-torque the front band (assuming your truck's tranny is similar to my '96 5.2L) just to eliminate that as a possibility. I think my Hayne's manual says to do so every 2 yrs/24k miles.

Just for informational purposes, have you tried shifting the gears manually to see if it still acts the same?

 

That would require doing the pan wouldn't it. I'm at work on my phone right now so I can't look up all the stickies.

 

On mine, I adjusted it from the outside, without dropping the pan. It was on the driver's side of the tranny. I disconnected the TV cable spring to get to it better with my inch-pound torque wrench. I also used a sharpie to mark the stud to help me count the number of turns to back off after reaching the proper torque. Perhaps someone else can help you with the specific torques & turns.

 

Also, how comfortable are you with your TV cable adjustment? Are you certain that the cable wasn't under any tension when you re-attached it to the throttle body stud. IMO, my Hayne’s instructions for adjustment aren’t as clear as they could be. When adjusting, I can see how one could mistakenly think that the cable’s adjustment button is pressed in far enough even though it’s not. If the button isn’t pushed in far enough, you can actually be moving the throttle valve inside the transmission when you pull on the cable instead of adjusting the effective length of the cable. I had trouble holding in the button w/ my thumb. I found it much easier to use a large allen wrench in my palm to squeeze & hold the button in while I used needle-nose pliers to adjust the cable sheathing nose in or out to get the cable end where it needed to be. I didn’t pull on the cable end at all.

Also, in my case I luckily found that my old TV cable had a kink in it just behind the sheathing nose (up at the TB end).

 

Pretty confident in my adjusting it. I had to adjust the one on my old Jeep ZJ before as well. I may have to invest in an inch pound torque wrench.

 

Have you read the plenum sticky? Could very well be the o2 and cat are toast.