1988 245 won't upshift

Car 88 245 automatic

Very slow to upshift , and shifts hard when it does.
The overdrive arrow light stays on no matter how many time I press the button.

This is my first auto car ever in 30 years of car ownership

I check the oil level with car running? I think I learned that somewhere in life.
Is this correct?

Is there a way to bypass the overdrive button?

I don't want to spend money as I have a manual that will be going in once I get a winter beater to drive around.

Yes, check the fluid level with the engine running, transmission in park. The OD light staying on is most likely a bad relay. Those are behind the glove box. IOW, you have to remove the glove box and look to the left toward the center of the dash. The relay is clipped to the metal dash structure. The kick down cable housing may have pulled out of the metal threaded end which ends up tightening the cable. That will make the transmission shift late and hard.

Yup
It was the kick down cable

Thanks so much

Cool.

It's happening regularly now. I'll look under the car and see if something is binding the cable.

Is there a common reason cable gets stuck?

The cable can get corroded inside and won't smoothly move which tends to tighten up the cable and affect the shifting.

dl242gt said:

The cable can get corroded inside and won't smoothly move which tends to tighten up the cable and affect the shifting.

Click to expand...

Can it be lubed?
I'm planning a manual swap as soon as I get a " winter beater" .

RedlineDave said:

Can it be lubed?
I'm planning a manual swap as soon as I get a " winter beater" .

Click to expand...

You can try lubing it with ATF. (Would not use other lubricants as it opens into the transmission pan.) But it can be really tricky to get the stuff in there.

Could try disconnecting it from the transmission spool, sealing it as tightly as possible into the narrow end of a funnel, and pouring some ATF into funnel to cover open end of the cable sheath. Work back and forth to coax it down in there.

Either way it's likely to be temporary at best as the rusty cables tend to snap eventually - mine did. The cable is replaceable while transmission is in car, but doing so requires dropping the transmission pan and some really fiddly work with picks and/or long needle-nose pliers to get it hooked onto the spool inside the transmission.