My brother's van got dropped off today, and I had a chance to do a brief inspection before it got to dark. It has a unknown year 727 transmission that doesn't work.The van starts up and runs fine, but when I shift it into any gear the van shudders, shakes, and a horrific noise comes form the transmission. It sounds like a boulder being dragged across a plate of steel, or nails on a chalkboard. The van will actually eventually bang itself into reverse, but all forward gears just screech away and shudder but don't engage. The transmission fluid is nice and red and not bvurnt, and it is full.

Here is my diagnosis: The transmission is shot (duh). I am guessing that the bands and/or clutches are toast, and since my brother drove it like this for awhile I don't have much hope for the gears or shafts in the tranny either.

Does that sound right?

I know very little about cars but i got a little education on tranny's and if he did drive it like that then io wouldnt even suggest TRYING and wasting your time rebuilding the tranny, just go part farth the doe to buy a new one..

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1974 Plymouth Gold Duster

I think I know what you are saying... I am going to just get a different transmission and rebuild it.

sorrry i ment put FORTH the money

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1974 Plymouth Gold Duster

I gotcha. Just being a smart ass.

Nooooooooo, really?

Not a transmission expert (They are kinda like electricity, I flip a switch, light comes on. All I need to know), but I wonder if it couldn't just be the torque converter?

I'm with you! That is why I don't mess around with stick shifts.
Could be. I don't know if the torque converter was ever replaced, but I have to pull the transmission anyway so I might as well just replace it with a rebuilt one.

Could the filter be clogged up, starving the pump of fluid?

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

Could be. I am not going to get to pulling the transmission until this weekend. I am looking forward to trying out the new transmission jack I bought. Harbor Freight was having a sale and I picked it up for $60. Wheee! No more fighting to align the transmission with one arm while balancing it on the head of the floor jack! That should cut installation time WAY down!

Bfore just installing a new rebuilt tranny, why not at least pull the pan to see if it is full of the unspeakable? Could be the converter. Money may only need to be spent on a new converter.

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ifyoubegintothinkyou'relosingcontrol...it'salreadygone

Be REALLY careful with rebuilt converters. The ones I've had experience with - the flex plate holes are drilled real close to the edge of the lugs and the threads are questionable. Had one also that the drain screw was stripped - looks like they tried to use a self tapping plug, and the threads didn't take in the converter, came out with half a turn. Thank goodness I caught that one before installing. I ended up getting one from Edge Racing - granted it was something like $300 vs <$100 parts store special, but its one purchase I deffinately did not regret making.

Thanks Pierre! I will definitely look into that. I won't have time to get into this transmission until next weekend at the earliest, but I will pull the pan and check the filter and then check the torque converter too.

Well, for anyone who cares I IFNALLY got around to pulling the transmission on my brother's van today.

The torque converted looked brand new, but when I dropped the pan on the transmission I found about 1/16 of an inch of gray mettallic sludge coating everything and a gooey grey metal-shaving soup in the pan. It looks like either the transmission shop never really rebuilt it and drop some kind of a additive in which masked the problems for awhile, or every single clutch and band just disintegrated and wound up in the pan.

Fortunately, Eric W had given me another slant six 727 for free (thanks again Eric!) so I swapped the torque converter, crossed my fingers, and bolted the free tranny up to the motor. I am happy to report that my brother's van now moves under its own power for the first time in about four years. I love it, a 1974 transmission that has never been rebuilt still works fine. Go mopar!

Eww, gross
The infamous spray-can rebuild. SCAAMCO "used to" be infamous for this kind of crapola.
Which would indicate grossly incompetent rebuilding technique or grossly inferior parts.
Yep. The Frankentrans that was built "almost right" for my '65 D'Valiant finally drove me nuts enough that when I found a '66 Valiant with a seized engine advertised at $30 (thirty), I bought it, had the trans swapped into the '65, and drove happily until I sold the '65 a good number of years later. That was an original '66 trans, early production; the governor oscillation noise TSB had never even been applied, and it made that irritating noise, but worked flawlessly.

It is sad to think that Iaccoca pìssed away Chrysler's many-decade reputation as the builder of the world's finest automatics with the A604 ProbleMatic in '89. The company never recovered.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.