A piece of roll bar foam on the drag link works perfect. Slide it on and lower the motor. Won't even scratch the paint on the pan.
Doug

I run a stock 727 with a Turbo Action manual valve body and T/A rebuild kit. I start my burnout in second,shift to third if needed and let off the gas as the car starts to come out of the water. I've never had a trans explode or come apart. My current trans was built 20 years ago. All I do is adjust the bands once a year and replace fluid/filter with Type F.

We have used the 727 since 1977 and have never had a problem.

Pulling the tranny in a big block a-body with headers - you need a case of beer a good friend, a tranny jack - lots of band-aids and when you are done you will say to yourself never again and pull the engine next time you do it!

by the way the 800 lb harbor freight tranny jack is one smart investment!

So that's the trick. been removing/installing mine all by myself, no jack. Do have one of those Harbor freight jacks now, that I bought to do a heavy truck trans. May use that this time.

Aint that the truth! That's why I was unsure of how to drop the trans with a motor plate, as I've always just pulled the motor/trans at the same time, but in those cars I had headers that came apart easily and were completely out of the way. With this car, beer and band-aids for sure.

For this summer I'm just gonna put a Lofgren blanket on it and run it. If I want to pursue racing this car more, next winter it will get upgrades.

That is what I use with a plate across the opening to keep the trans flat.Sorry I use the ATV jack.

For those that feel it is not worth pulling the trans to change the sprag, what would you do if the trans was already out of the car? Would you go to the trouble of having the 727 disassembled to change this?

Not to highjack, but I have been facing the question of changing the sprag. I had to pull my trans so the front pump bushing can be changed. It was a pain to do this by myself (e-body, bb, tti headers), and while it is out I am considering changing to a stronger sprag, since I really don't want to do this job twice. Unfortunately I am having a little bit of trouble getting a recommendation for a shop in my local area (Raleigh NC) that could handle this, and am now reconsidering whether to go down this path.

Thanks for your thoughts.

If my trans was out I would put a good Sprag in it.
A good drum(and/or ultrabell), good Sprag, and a blanket are normally the 3 most important things to do.

I've always had a bolt-in Sprag in my race cars and some kind of blanket or carbon fiber cover, but I've never had an aftermarket drum in my 21 years of racing.

Eddyville June of 2013, front drum exploded and a friend just about lost his foot. He had a "shield". What was left of it looked like a yellow ball of yarn. It did NOTHING!. I would love to see or hear of a shield that actually worked, because I doubt they do. It would just seem the physics of it can't work.

I put a blanket on mine two days later. I have seen numerous drums explode, and it is spectacular. 13 second truck in St. Louis sent a guy to the hospital in 2014 that left a fist size chunk stuck in the windshield.

Don't take it lightly, matter how fast you are.


BTW, the friend above, now has protection AND a 1/4 plate steel over the trans hump for the floor extending well past the gas pedal.

I always thought the 1/4" steel plate welded to the floor was a great idea.

Might work for the driver but not for those outside the car. A friend of mine blew up a clutch-flight years ago and it tore up the blanket so bad it looked like tiger hair fiberglass body filler. It hit a guy in the head that was sitting in the stands. Another guy saw the blood and passed out. Quite a day at Norwalk

Just think of what would have happened if he didn't have a blanket.

ya what sport440 said lol. I did the one in my 73 big block dart a few times by my self.

sport440. I bought one of the Harbor freight trans jacks. the only I don't like about it. is when you have a trans etc on it. The adjusters are hard to turn.

here is the one I got.

http://www.harborfreight.com/automotive-...jack-60234.html

I had a CSR carbon fiber shield on mine when the front drum exploded in 2008. If it wasn't there, I'm pretty sure I'd have lost parts of my right foot. It was mangled up, but it did it's job. The explosion forced it up into the floorpan, pushing the floor up against the back of the brake pedal and breaking it loose at the firewall seam. Broke the throttle pedal assembly and it felt like someone hit my right foot w/ a hammer...but NOTHING came through the floor. I don't have any pics on this computer, but it was a mess. The bellhousing bolts only held on small pieces of the bellhousing to the block and the tailshaft housing was there...there was nothing else left of the aluminum trans case, pan, or valvebody. All that was swept up off the track from the starting line to about the 60 foot. Crawl under the car and you could see the clutches hanging off the shaft just behind the converter. The cooler lines were just hanging down still connected to the fittings w/ a small section of trans case attached, lol. HUGE mess, but would have been devastating w/o that shield.

Bob, I had a trans explode on me when my car was running the 11.0 index when we were racing at Dragway 42 at the Mid Ohio show. The blanket saved my foot as the explosion moved my foot from the gas pedal as it beat against the floor. Got a steel billet drum before next outing! Damaged the floor, tunnel and had a fire and torched the firewall.


Steel Billet drum, bolt in sprag and blanket or shield to be safe.

If you put in a bolt in sprag and you put in anything other than the super or ultimate sprag it's a total waste of money because it's not going to stop what is your fear of the sprag rollers rolling over.