visited the tranny shop for the followup....

[shadango]

....took the car yesterday for the big followup visit at the shop that rebuilt my tranny for me (it was out of the car and I installed after it was rebuilt).  Turns out all they did was take it for a ride and ask me if it leaking at all (its not).

The guy and I took it for a ride and he feels it is shifting "fine"...just need to tweak the kickdown a bit, he says, but it is OK as is....

Right now , the tranny downshifts and upshift between 2 and 3 at around 25-30 mph....and it does so really easily...too touchy IMHO....also, I can keep it in 2nd gear when accelerating up to like 60, unless I back off the gas just a hair...then it will upshift......he said that tweaking the kickdown looser will help that stuff.

The tranny shifts REALLY hard sometimes, mostly when cold or when shifting between 2 and 3 in the situation above......otherwise it shifts nice and firm....

He basically says the tranny gets a clean bill of health.

He tells me that the oscillating vibration I have is "bad" and that I am "tearing up my motor".  Meanwhile another gearhead said it wasnt that bad and just drive it....he said that the convertor is the right one and that the vibration is definately not in the tranny or converter....he thinks I need to look into the harmonic balancer...he says it has a couple dimples drilled on the face of it.....and that that means it isnt a "zero balance" dampener....but looking at dampeners in the summit catalog, the opposite seems to be true.

 

I didnt remember to mention to him that sometimes when I shift into neutral, like at a traffic light, then shift back to drive, I can feel the tranny engage, but then I step on the gas and there is a slight delay in moving....accompanied by a slight clunk or engagement.....Should I be worried about that? 

[tactransman]

Here is some info:
http://www.moparts.org/Tech/Archive/smallblock/5.html

[shadango]

Thanks Terry....Any thoughts on my last item there?, about the "clunk" ?

[tactransman]

There should be very little delay when you put it into forward. I wonder if the sealing ring grooves were worn on the input shaft and they missed it. It is a very common worn spot. If I run across a worn one here at the shop,I will post a pic of it.

[shadango]

Not what I wanted to hear......   

I guess I can always run it back in......they may try and say that my vibration is causing it....

[tactransman]

If you pull it back out to install a stall converter,have them double check it while it is out.

[shadango]

Well, not sure if/when I was going to swap out the convertor....The guy yesterday said after driving the car that the converter is right for the engine.....and suggested only a gear swap.

So my plan, in theory, was to do a gear/chunk change sometime down the road and go from there and see what happens......

I just called and asked the other guy about it (the guy who didnt drive it ) and he told me that the other guy said the tranny is "cherry".

I did say I hadnt mentioned that particular issue yesterday.....he asked if my manual linkage is "100% accurate" , and then said not to worry about it.

He kind of half heartedly said I could bring it back down "sometime" if I could duplicate it.

Kind of got the feeling like I am bugging them.......or maybe worrying for nothing.

Will this issue get worse or cause other issues?

[73Chally]

Is it still under warranty?  If not, I would take it to a different shop and get their thoughts.  Obviously these guys are going to say everything is fine since they built it.  Something is definitely not okay, the question is if it is something inside the tranny, or something to do with the way it is attached to the engine.

[Aracer]

Did the converter get replaced or flushed out? If they used a different one then it might be the weights on it. I bought a rebuilt 727/440HD with the largest converter (12") for an internally balanced forged crank and the extra weights were wrong, and caused a vibration at 40 mph, so I ground the welds to remove it leaving the normal thin balance weights.  This was 20 years ago and its still smooth, but not enough stall for drag racing so I need to use a lower gear to compensate.
        The 3.91 is still bogging before the shifts. The 4.30 is going in before I swap in a converter that cost more than the trans/combo. It's a lot easier.

[shadango]

Is it still under warranty?  If not, I would take it to a different shop and get their thoughts.  Obviously these guys are going to say everything is fine since they built it.  Something is definitely not okay, the question is if it is something inside the tranny, or something to do with the way it is attached to the engine.

Thats kind of my thinking too.   But, on the other hand maybe I am obsessing too much ....

It didn't do it at all yesterday (the delayed engagement....maybe I just need to wait an extra second longer......or it could be associated with my funky idle....since the tranny's pump works off of engine speed, right?

Aracer, the tranny was originally off of a 360 as the convertor with it had the big butterfly weight on the crank side....the convertoer I got back was a different, rebuilt one. no weights on the front.  So unless it was actually rebuilt wrong.......

Gonna give it a while and see what happens I guess....its under warranty, for a year....although I think that year started back in may when I picked it up.....

Was talking to a guy last night at a cruise with a sweet 73 Duster.....stroked 340 to a 370 something....he has a "racing" 727 he bought from TCI and loves it.....paid what I paid to have mine rebuilt and beefed up a bit.....I was all concerned about trying to deal with TCI for issues over the phone and thru the mail, shipping it back if needed.....assumed a local shop was the better way to go.

Wish I could solve the vibration issue.....I guess my next step will be to replace the balancer and see if that works....other than swapping out the converter on my own dime, not much else I can do....I got the name of the shop that rebuilt/stroked the Duster guy's motor and he loves them, so I may try them and see what they think....

I wish some of you guys lived near me.....I could really use some other Mopar guys' input on this and I know its hard to diagnose long distance.  LOL

That said, HEY! I finished installing the stereo yesterday and got rid of the shut-down issue I had (bad ground using the stock connector)....what a difference having tunes while cruising makes...   The rumble of the engine mixed with some Bob Seger.....

[Ck[FIN]]

There should be very little delay when you put it into forward. I wonder if the sealing ring grooves were worn on the input shaft and they missed it. It is a very common worn spot. If I run across a worn one here at the shop,I will post a pic of it.

Sometimes the sealing rings make grooves to stator support. Easy and fast to check if the tranny is out. This makes delay when you put N->D

[shadango]

How easy and fast is it?  In other words, is it something I can check if/when I would the tranny out?  Or would the shop have to pull it apart to check it? 

Is running the tranny with this issue (if it has it) going to break anything or is it just the delay?

[quagmire]

If your car is still running bad and idling low, you need to correct all engine concerns before diagnosing any trans issues.  That's pretty much a golden rule.  Pump output is proportional to engine RPM, so it could have an engagement affect.

[shadango]

At this point i dont think the car is running "bad".

Just has a boggy low end, which is either due to cam, rear gears or both.  The idle is lumpy and such but after hearing other cars at cruises and such and actually paying attention, mine isnt THAT bad.....definately not a real smooth idle though.....

Once you get into it, it moves real good I think...not a Hemi, but.....

The problem didnt show at all yesterday though I only tried the neutral-to-drive shift only a couple times.

[Ck[FIN]]

How easy and fast is it?  In other words, is it something I can check if/when I would the tranny out?  Or would the shop have to pull it apart to check it? 

Is running the tranny with this issue (if it has it) going to break anything or is it just the delay?

If the tranny is new, shop should fix it free.
If the delay is very long, it will burn the forward clutches. But if the delay is quite short, it can work very long time. 727 is pretty tough transmission.