BB 727 No 1st gear, 2nd and reverse ok

Beautiful fall day here in Conn.

Was heading to the bank this morning to make some deposits. Fired up my 69 coronet, let it warm up a few mins, put it in Neutral to fill up the converter(drains from sitting, it's normal) I backed out of the garage, turned around in my driveway, as I approached the top of my driveway to enter onto the main road and waiting for traffic to clear, it kept stalling(Not usual).

After the 3rd stall and restart, the traffic cleared and I went to pull out of my driveway. As I hit the accelerator, I got nothing but a whine followed by a little squirlly sounding racket from underneath...

Hmmm I rolled back down the driveway where it was level, applied Reverse - It's working. Applied 1st - Nobody's home. Applied 2nd - took off no problem, no noise.

Little routine info: 496/4 clutch 727, Cheetah Manual Rev. Pattern VB, Mopar Hi-stall(166K) converter, Deep pan, No leaks, plenty of fluid(Nice Red color, not brown or burnt smelling)

Last time I drove it was a few weeks ago with the new 3:73's in the rear, all gears shifted/worked flawlessly as normal.

I regularly do Foolish things but i'm no fool, As much as I did consider it, I didn't take it around the block to see if I had both 2nd AND 3rd, but i'm confident in telling you, yes I still have 2nd And reverse, with no noise.

Boy i'm glad it's fall and not spring. Any thoughts?

You have a failed overrunning clutch (sprag), it's used in 1st gear only.

The "squirlly sounding racket" is the sprag elements rattling around, avoid driving it to prevent damage to the case.

Roger-that to JK's post ...and to add ....

If there is no further damage past that sprag .. it is a EZ and cheap fix. ANY sprag from ANY 727(core trans.they very-rarely are damaged) is a simple drop-in .....

B U T .. the trans HAS TO come-out.

Quote:

---

B U T .. the trans HAS TO come-out.

---

and the sprag is at the bottom of the pile