Trans might have taken a crap.Question?

[bbb555]

Everything went,1st,2nd,3rd and rev.Took out trans today and fuild looks good so i got the converter off and shook it from side to side and it sounds like something is broke inside? Metal to metal sound.Is this normal or did something break inside the converter? Thanks,Bill

[sp2816]

Bill,
Sorry to hear about your problems. It depends on how much of a rattle that the convertor is making. They do have some play, but not much. I once broke the impeller from the splines that drives the input shaft on a "Vega" converter, so it can happen. When it broke it sounded like a gunshot. On the Turbo400, I doubt if you broke the input shaft or the planetaries, but you can usually take the trans out of park and there is usually enough drag that you can rotate the input shaft and watch the output shaft rotate. The other thing would be a complete loss of the front pump.
Does your car have a spool, a true posi, or a limited slip rear end? I had a limited slip in a Ford 9" that broke the edge of the carrier and it would not move the car in any gear. I thought that it was the transmission at first, until I saw the driveshaft spin and the car not move. I have also seen with the limited slip rear that the axle spline strip and it would not move the car.

Bill Mitchell

[bbb555]

Well it's not going to be that simple? Thought it was going to be something simple!! OH WELL.. IT's a spool with pro gears. Tranny is a 400 coan but i don't know what's inside of it as far as good parts.It was used in this car when it was running in the 8's so maybe it's been beat on pretty hard in the past?Thanks,Bill

[us7race]

I have seen a converter break and the car wouldn't do anything as far as forward or reverse any gear. It sounded like gravel in the converter..when it was taken apart it wasn't even rebuildable from what we were told. It was a coan converter. (Although it was NOT coan who said it wasn't rebuildable).

[bbb555]

Well, it's been at coan for eight day's and I'm still waiting on a phone call!,

[bbb555]

Tranny update! Pump gone,drive clutch burnt and mostly stock part's with the exception of the 34 sprag.Wanted to know who the last person that worked on the tranny because they put the input shaft in backwards (cause of pump going out.Getting the trans freshened up along with some upgrades=aluminum forward drum(7075 billet)w300m alloy input shaft.Cost for total rebuild and upgrades=$1,300...bill

Now that the trans problem will be fixed how about the converter? A little history..it's a 72 nova which weighs 3,500 lbs,it has 486 gear,it has a pump gas 502 power plant running 10.67 on the motor with a 175 of nitrous which I still need to spray after new cam this past winter.(MAYBE 9.60'S ON THE SPRAY) The converter is a T.C.I. nitrous converter stalls between 3,600-4,000..Enough converter.bill

[cepx111]

Bill, allot of people mistakenly install the input shaft in backwards seen that booboo many times. Sometime it takes the pump out and sometimes they will run for years that way depending on the power you are throwing at it I guess? I was surprised that coan tranny didnt have any better components in it than that but then again a stock 400 is pretty stout to begin with. I had a 73 nova w/ t 400 that I ran for 8 years with the input shaft in backwards, never knew it till I took it apart to freshen it up.
I personally think a higher stall converter would work better but then again dont know if your driving this car on the street or if its a pure racer, I like the 8 inch 5500's myself. I changed a 10 inch 3500 stall on one of my old drag cars and went to a 8 inch 5500 and it picked up the car almost 3 tenths. Goodluck, Charles

[bbb555]

Thanks for the input..It's a pro-street-race but very little street time..Mostly see's the track.BILL

[Hutchtrans]

I must ask. How can we possibly get a T400 input shaft in the trans backwards? The spline is completely different on each end and press into the drum. If it were in backwards it would fall into the drum but be a bugger to get into the converter im sure.

Hutch

[bbb555]

I probably misunderstood coan! Something was in backwards for sure (according to coan) but at this point me don't know what? Got it back and it works great.