IROC86CAM

hope someone can help me, husband had open heart surgery so I'm the mechanic now. My 86 camaro won't disengage the lock-up once it engages. I looked for the solenoid as in the tech page but I see nothing like the pict on my brake pedal. What I see is 2 white plastic connectors and 1 of them has a long plastic threaded end on it with a purple, green and red wire coming out of the connector end. What is this? My car was built on 6/27/86 and has some parts from the 87 model year in it. I got my brake lights working right now, but it still stays locked up. Checked th connection to ECM, wire is good and into the correct pin. Any thoughts? Another question, new speedo installed, could they have messed something up?

Fullsizewagon

The lock-up solenoid is inside the tranny - which has a connector for it coming out of the drivers side of the tranny.
If the lockup waits until you hit 4th gear and 45 mph, and then sticks on all the way down including 2nd, bogging the engine, then I guess the solenoid is what needs to be changed.
What you refer to as connectors are actually the brake pedal switches themselves. One of them is used for the brake lights, and the other is used to interrupt power to the lockup solenoid. This is a safety feature to make sure the engine doesn't stall if you slam the brakes locking the wheels.
Try to touch the brake pedal with your left foot as you drive with the lockup engaged. It should make the lockup release.
If the lockup always engages as soon as you hit 2nd even on cold starts, but releases with the brake test, then check for a short to ground in one of the wires that goes from the ECM to the tranny.

IROC86CAM

Thanks for the input. To answer your question, it locks up when it should, but it will not unlock even after the car is shut down. Sometimes it just releases on its own, other times after several starts it releases. A friend suggested the cruise control may be the problem. Just as an after note, I am waiting for a purge canister filter, mine is completely plugged. Runs perfect until convertor won't release and you try to slow down or stop. Unplugged the connection on the canister and idle smoothed out, goes into reverse as it normally does, but then stalls. Checked everywhere for vacuum leaks, repaired all. Any thoughts?

Fullsizewagon

These trannies are supposed to have a hydraulic circuit that never allows lockup in 1st or reverse.. Mine can stick and then release on it's own will, but it has never killed the engine in 1st or reverse.
I'd suggest that the fault is inside the tranny, and to try to replace the lockup solenoid first and see if it makes the problem go away. It involves dropping the pan and working under the dripping internals but apart from the inconvenience it should not be too difficult to do. It's held with one bolt only.
I've read that it's a relatively common occurrence that these solenoids sticks but have yet to replace mine, and I don't know if there could be any more trouble spots in the tranny than that. Looking at the hydraulic diagram there's a sliding valve between the solenoid and the converter, but I have never seen anyone mentioning having to service that and I have not gotten any answers about that valve on this board.
Cruise controls may engage on their own but that's a different matter and they always disengage upon braking. Vacuum problems can affect the running and throttling properties of the engine, but won't affect the tranny in any way either.