I had never rebuilt a transmission before but I bought a book and there wasn’t that much stuff in there- it all reminded me of a harley shovelhead and evo clutch packs. I just got done breaking in a fresh motor after a timy bit of valvetrain carnage and after tuning the idle I tried putting it in gear. Well I’ve idled and revved in every gear, let it sit in N while I checked and added fluid, made sure the axles were free to spin in N (truck is on jackstands for break in), there just is no jolt into any gear and the jacked up rear tires haven’t even threatened to spin in either direction.

Now I’m doing some reading online and I must have skipped the last chapter of that 727 book because I didn’t know to put it in N or gear so the pump can run to fill the converter and keep everything happy. “Why slam the gears at 2700 rpm” I thought. I never had a hotrod with an auto trans, I’ve just put used ones in and swapped converters before.

Everything had a nice swab of grease on it but the converter was dry. Funny because I know better- I always threw a quart in there before installing one. I just didn’t feel like making a mess and figured it’d fill up after a minute of running.

I have a deep pan and pickup and a tf2 kit installed on the trans, a cheap just above entry level 2500 stall B&M converter, and the cable shifter & lokar throttle pressure (kickdown) were properly installed. The pan had six or seven quarts in it and I put one more in after tuning my idle.

It looks like I’m going to be pulling the trans or maybe the whole driveline. What should I expect to find in there? I couldn’t have smoked the clutches because apparently there was never any line pressure The fluid on the dipstick still looks new. Maybe the converter, pump, and any seals that could be smoked from not getting oil? Any good parts sources?

Or am I jumping the gun and these symptoms could be from a mistake assembling the valve body?

Good thing I got a sense of humor! And it’s also good this is a toy I enjoy working on not my daily or business truck. I just wish I wasn’t learning so many lessons the hard way!