'll give this one a bit of a long post but , try to not go overboard

I was talked into using a 904 with my Valiant build , I spoke to a couple people , couple never called back , this was covid time so, caused some issues for sure finding people and parts .. Well, I picked the wrong guy

It took forever, no problem, not in big rush, still have many parts to buy .. then took another forever .. well, now I'm getting just a little upset cause, well ,, he surely won't let me owe him several thousand dollars interest free I bet , i could look back but, it was easily 6 months

I bought convertor from him too . finally got the box , dig thru the packing peanuts and no convertor?

Call him , yeah , they are behind, and we are waiting for it .. ( now, why didn't you order that in the previous 6 plus months I have been waiting ? ) oh well, again, not the worlds biggest problem but annoying and no bother to even call just lets me find out and call him .

took another couple months to get that ( convertor)

so, get it home and unbox it .. nothing in Speedo hole , call him say .. [censored] ? oh , I'll send you plug .. yep, did and charged me for too , shipping too .. I still just shake my head and move on ..

well, finally we get enough parts and we put car together and try to make wheel go around, they go in reverse for a moment, then nothing and it starts dripping fluids out like soaker hose

We fiddle with it a bit trying to figure what went wrong , called him ( builder ) and as expected the conversation went poorly , he said send it back .. well, I guess I'm pretty leery at this point and tried to ask a couple other questions and he hung up on me

Well , that's just not the way to treat customers I say , maybe I'm wrong --guess anyone can make a mistake

anyway , I took it to local well respected. transmission shop , I felt that even if I had to pay another person to do it right , at least I would be able to speak in person the builder and be treated decent

The sprag was installed backwards , which caused the snap ring on the clutch back to fail, broke the pivot arm on the servo and seized the pump bushing to convertor hub ..

Should of listened to my little voice before I bought from this guy ( bought other transmissions from him , and the dealings were never great but, at least the parts then did work .. well, expect the last 727 , it needed to have leaks corrected at home )


My stuff will be fixed but, sure takes the happiness of hearing it run away

I had a bad experience buying a used trans on here....Guys wife shipped it with no insurance for some reason. Showed up in pieces. I was out $2300...

Those are expensive, and I will only do those thru local places now. PS....

Why a 904? 727 with a JW bell works on both small blocks and Big blocks....Makes them far more versatile.

oh this one wasn't used .. if it was I'd understand .. this is a well known builder / parts seller

Did you pay for shipping? Did you specify how much insurance you wanted on it? Is or was anything in writing. I do a lot of shipping and some customers like to roll the dice and save a few bucks.

Dang, Big, that's the trifecta of crappy customer service - maybe the quadfecta.
Curious who the guy was, but that could get problematic to post...

If I were to guess, this is one of the builders people heap praise on and highly recommend despite having no actual business dealings with!

One even has his own You-tube channel that is an absolute beating to watch.

John Cope

Nail head smashed.

"Why a 904? 727 with a JW bell works on both small blocks and Big blocks....Makes them far more versatile."


glutton for punishment

I had a feeling it was going there but my experience was different , though it was a decade ago .

W/r/t "could get problematic to post"
In America we enjoy something that does not exist in many countries: the truth is an absolute defense.
Reciting your own experience is not libel unless you knew it was false.
How would he prove damage to his business?

I bought couple others from him ,1st one in 2008 went fine, no problems , 2nd one I had to wait a awhile to get , told him that was ok, think it was around 2-3 months , 3rd one was a bit of a problem , we had to take a bunch of bolts out and seal them but, it works good ..

then this cluster ..

He recently said he doesn't build complete transmissions anymore. Parts only.

Aha. I suspect some of these guys don't actually build the assemblies themselves, and/or don't do sufficient QC, and the product suffers as a result.
Cope did a 904 for my drag car a dozen or so years back. Received it with a park rod that was the wrong one.
After I got the correct one & swapped it in, the trans worked great and still does.
I chalked it up to parts-mixing and forgave it, but it mystified me nonetheless.

EVERYONE HAS A "BAD DAY"

I had a bad one from B&M, but this was back about 1970. Through that experience, I was forced to learn to build my own. While I felt their build wasn't bad, I sure felt their 'warranty' in my wallet! Nonetheless, I learned that building T-flites was actually pretty easy and it gave me a few extra duckets now and then when I would run across somebody that needed one freshened or built for their race car. Making the tools took a bit of time but the actual building is a piece of cake! When I quit racing stock, I quit using 727s. Now it's Jerico DR4 and nothing else. If it ain't got the thiird pedal, I don't even look at it!

knew it immediately when you said "hung up on me".

A few years ago I bought all the parts to put together a 904.
First couple times I called he was nice and helpful.Didn't try to over sell me just what I needed.
He seem like the type who was patient answering a bunch of questions all day.
TF have got to be one of the easier trannys to build. You really don't need any special tools.

Simple mopar math 904>727 now go sit in the corner!