I had one of his vb' maybe 10yrs ago with same issue. He said he fixed the issue causing that, but i bought an A&A trans break from him in exchange. I now have another of his vb's with the same flare up issue. Anyone else have this issue with there John Cope vb?

I had that problem, turned out to be worn/slipping clutch pack in the rear.
It started first at the top of second gear.

Ok. No issues in any other gear. Just a slit second flare up when pulled into 3rd.

Might not be the VB, servo/front clutch configuration plays a big part in flare up.

Ok. Using billet servos front and rear. Just raybestos clutches with steels in a full metal jacket drum. Followed 727specialists with assembly.

A friend bought a complete trans built from specs of the car, did everything how Cope told him. Was no good from the first day. Hi gear is smoked now less than 20 runs in the 11's with a light car. Had better days.

High gear clutch questions. Could have a torn clutch seal. The outer seal can be tricky. How many frictions? What clearance? How many springs? Is the feed orifice restricted? How many springs in the KD servo? How do the rings look on the stator support? How do the ring lands look in the stator support? How do the pump gears. pump bore, stator support look? A lot of reasons to smoke a clutch. When its right they will go a long time. I personally have over 400 passes on the clutches in my 9.0 @ 3340lb car.
Doug

Hey Dave we had a very good transmission in my black Duster from John that was in the car when I bought it. When I switched to a powerglide we put it in my sons Duster and although we have freshens it a couple of times is still going good. It had a crazy issue that we caught while running it on the jack stands once. The wheels would stop when shifted into third gear. I called my buddy and we took that fancy ratio (I think 1.5 or something) shifter lever and switched it back to stock and all is well. I think it’s still on my junk stand if you need a picture of what I am talking about. Let me know

Was the shifter adjusted correctly ?

If not that will smoke one .

I use a 4.2 lever. Is that what you mean? Im not sure what bands are or are not applied in 3rd gear. A 5.0 lever is what ya dont want. That lever controls 2nd gear i know.

I will check that adjustment as well.

Ya that’s probably it. I haven’t touched a Mopar transmission in over 20 years except helping him install it. I know we took the trick one out and installed the stock one and all is well. Just something I happened to think about

Yes shifter was adjusted correctly. Cape admitted to a VB problem when asked.

Hi gear has the front and rear clutch applied. No bands for hi gear.

Try to loosen the band a 1/2 turn

I see. Looks like could be alot of things. The front drum was bought from 727specialists as a complete fullmetaljacket built unit, so i'm sure every thing is correct and the billet servos were bought new from the sales section of this site and i believe the kick down servo had 1 spring. what ever comes with it. I do know that the last time i had this issue the Cope vb was the cause. I'll check the easy stuff first. Oh, one other thing, it only flares up at WOT high RPM. Thanks guys

If I remember correctly(and i'm getting kind of old) Cope wants 15 springs in the clutch pack, 2 servo springs and a 4.2 lever. All three of these along with clutch pack clearance and band adjustment affect the timing of releasing 2nd gear and applying 3rd. The loaded drum and servo spring that you bought from other sources may be a mismatch with your vb. Not all valve bodies work the same. You may need to change or add springs to get the overlap correct. You really should call Cope and ask.

Call his shop, let him know what it is doing and ask him what to look for. We had an issue and called him after spending a good bit of time checking everything. He walked us through what he wanted us to look at and sent us what we needed on his dime to make it right.

I just have to look up all the specs first so i can answer his questions accurately. Gonna call 727 specialist first since most of his parts are in this trans.

This is the right answer. When I was running 3 speeds, we would tune the springs to get the right shift at 7000RPM WOT. The type of band construction also has an effect. It's trial and error. More spring pressure = slower apply & faster release. When it's right, it will have noticeable overlap at low RPM on the stands.

First thing I would have done...