I've got a '95 LS Blazer, 4.3, 165K miles. I bought it a month or so ago. Maybe the cleanest little 15 yo Blazer you've ever seen. It had some ignition issues that I got ironed out and have been happily driving it since.

I've recently discovered that the trans won't downshift when you press the pedal to the floor. I drive like the old man that I am these days and rarely floor it anyway but I needed a little accelleration the other day and I didn't get it. It downshifts fine when stopping, always starts out in low and it seems to, what we used to call "short shift" when taking off. Since I discovered the problem I've experimented a little and find that from a stop with a full throttle takeoff the trans makes the 1-2 shift nicely at about 20 mph and 2-3 at about 45. OD shifts in when I back off the gas a little. Once it's made its shift, there's no getting back to the lower gear without manually shifting it unless you come to a stop. If you manually shift the gears, it runs great and pulls hard. It kind of sucks trying to get up to 70mph on a short entrance ramp on the interstate in 3rd gear.

I know just enough about ATs to be dangerous but don't some of them have kind of a default setting for shifts based on line pressure? Do the solenoids control downshifts also?

All in all, I guess I could live with it and just grab a handful of shift lever if I get in a bind.

I searched the forum for my problem but the closest one to my problem was closed after two posts.

The only thing that I've done that might mean anything is replacing the TPS. But still, I haven't tested it. When it was having it's drivability problems it was replaced more or less because it was relatively cheap and certainly couldn't hurt.

 

Do you have any engine braking when you manually drop it down a gear or two?

 

Yes it does. Both 1 and 2.