I would get a fresh reaction shaft support, new seal and gasket set, clutch kit, completely take the unit down and wash and further inspect each and every parts. Most of what i can see is good - ignore the planetary finishes you mention - the geartrain rotating parts are separated by thrust washers - as long as the seat for each thrust washer is nice and flat you are good to go. Those reaction shaft support to front clutch drum seal rings rotate in the support and stay pretty much in place in the front drum. The top ring in your picture should have wear on the top of the seal (as pictured) and the bottom ring should have its wear on the bottom of the seal ring as pictured. Fluid pressure is coming in the support through the hole between the two seal rings trying to separate the seals on its way to the front clutch drum. My guess is if you measure those two seal rings for wear the bottom one is much narrower. By the looks of that front thrust washer worn thin and with a step someone forgot to check input shaft end play on the last rebuild. If the clutch disc fell out of location in either the front or rear clutch you would find a clutch disc with bent teeth. Whatever cooler you are using - get it professionally flushed or replace it, or install an inline cooler filter for a while to get the cooler clean. The stuff in the system will pass through the sump filter and screw things up again. You can't get things too clean.

ok bringing this back, finished the rebuild, 1st and second are there, but when it shifts to 3rd it acts like its in neutral, and slips with almost no engagement, and rather then smoke check the trans or my feet, i just shift it back to second and drive back to the house ( i am only driving down the service road near the house, no open street yets). Now i have double checked the fluid, its to the top of the fill line in neutral and warm, so were good there, I actually thought about adding an additional quart just to see the what if, but i don't know this crap is frustrating as hell. I am wondering should there be some freedom of movement of the bands both front and rear, ie not touching the drum all the way around ? i am getting ready to drop the pan and swap a known good valve body from my 904 that was behind my boosted slant with a TF-2 kit, now the reason i ask the question is when i pulled the valve body off, i noticed the bands were kinda loose, but that car never missed a shift, and held like a champ behind 22lbs of boosted slanted goodness. so should there be a bit of free play ?

Also its weird some times when i put it in reverse, the best way i can describe it is rubbing your fingers on a ballon, you know that weird squeaaak sound it makes ? yea kinda sounds like that, but its only for an instant once its put in reverse, so another reason i think it might be something with the bands

I really hope its just a valve body issue, if its internal and i got to pull it again and it requires more $$$$ to fix, then i will drive it with 2 gears till tax return and swap it to a 6-spd T-56 and be done with it,


-Mike

Mother truckin valve body swapped it from the 904, and I have all the gears, no slipping noticed, $hit I think I fixed it woooo hoooo

Sounds like you may have done something incorrectly when the valve body was modified with the TF2 kit. I would suggest disassembling it carefully and go over the TF2 instructions very closely again. The TF2 instructions are a bit cryptic and hard to follow but the diagrams are pretty good. Otherwise a good shop manual would show the valve orientations. Pay particular attention to the 11/32" and 3/8" check balls as show in the attached diagram. If you get them mixed up, the symptom is no third gear.

No 3rd gear and a balky Reverse points to a fault in the front clutch. Did you air check it before installing the VB?

I air checked the clutch pack set up before I installed it in the case and I also checked it once the transmission was put back together minus the valve body and I heard an audible thunk both times with very very minimal air escaping and I was that 35 psi. I'll tear down the valve body in a bit, and see if I can find the culprit. I don't know if it's of any relevance but the 904 valve body did not have part throttle kickdown like the other 727 valve body

Had same problem in my buddy's trans. Took trans apart and could see nothing wrong, all new stuff. Then took apart vb and found rust and old black fluid and grit. The man who rebuilt it never cleaned the vb, just stuck it in. I did put anouther vb in and same thing again, was going to pull trans apart again but I'll check the vb first. Thanks for the help, by the way, the part throttle kick down had the rust in it, locked up, reason for the other vb.