47RE only moves in 2nd and Drive. If you put it in 1st it acts like it's locked up and the engine doesn't want to rev. Put it in reverse and it does the same with the exception that it bumps forward for a second. Almost acts like it's in 1st and reverse at the same time. 2nd and drive will move the truck but don't feel right either. Any thoughts on what it might be? Can someone point me in a general direction. Thanks guys! -Trent

Update: Dropped the pan tonite. There was no large debris found in the pan, just your typical small shavings which I'm not entirely worried about just yet. Fluid still looked good but smelled a bit hot, I assume from starting out in 2nd on the drive home which was about 4 miles. The rear band adjustment seemed OK, the front band was pretty loose though. I've got both bands adjusted per the ATSG manual but I'm not convinced there isn't more to my problem. Unless I'm not understanding it correctly, I don't beleive that a loose front band would cause my issue. I'm thinking there's more to it so I'm hesitant to button it up and try it until I have more information. What do you guys think? -Trent

Is it a manual valve body ?? It sounds like a problem with the rear low/reverse band. In first and reverse the L/R band applies unless its a manual valve body with no 1st gear L/R band. But in 1st even without the L/R band it should still move if the overrunning clutch (sprag) is good. May also have a problem in the overdrive unit as all power goes through the Direct clutches in the overdive unit in all gears other then overdrive. If the pan is still off I would drop the valve body and air test it. Ron

Ron,
I think an air test is going to be my next step. I spoke with my local transmission parts guy this morning and his thoughts were that the direct clutches were welded or stuck due to a mechanical failure. He recommended I do an air test on it to confirm though so I'll give it a shot tonite. He also mentioned that if they were constantly engaged, it could cause premature wear of the front band. To be fair though, he also thought that I may have it set to tight at 1 3/4 - 1 7/8 turns out and recommended it be closer to 2 - 2 1/2 turns out. In either case, with less than 30,000 miles on it since it was replaced, it was loose enough that I could put my finger in between the kickdown lever and the servo prior to adjustment so there is definitely something going on there. What a bummer. I'll let you know what I find this evening. Otherwise if you've got any other thoughts, feel free to let me know. I appreciate the help.
-Trent

P.S. To answer your question, this is a stock valve body...

Today I came home and dropped the valve body to air test the direct clutch pack and front and rear band apply. All seemed to move well with no issues. The only thing that was suspect was when air testing the rear clutch pack, I had a substantial amount of fluid come out of the ports for the converter inlet and outlet. Seemed odd to me but I'm not an expert by any means.

At this point I'm running out of ideas so I'm hoping you guys can help. I rebuilt this transmission about 25,000 miles ago when the overdrive unit came apart due to the infamous broken snap ring that plagues these transmissions. No other problems were noted other than a loose front band that I replaced while performing the rebuild.

So what do you guys think? I'm thinking I'll have to drop the transmission again but want to cover the basics and make sure I'm not missing something before jumping in again. Any help is appreciated. Thanks guys! -Trent

I had a reverse servo cock in the bore and made mine do similar, applied the band all the time. But is sounds like if you air tested it yours must have worked OK