Heckeng

Thanks Robyn, that plymoth monte thing is an actual sign I found and bought that somebody had apparently screwed up! I thought it was funny so I bought it:-)

Update: Got the tranny back. It was rebuilt with a kit from Northern Auto Parts for $70 which is half price from my normal B&M kits. My builder said he had tried some of these kits and they come with more seals and it's the same name brand stuff in most other kits. The only thing I wasn't totally sure of was it did not have Red Alto and Kolene clutches and steels. One of these kits has already worked in a friends blown 70 monte that runs 10s for probably around 100 runs so far and it's still going, so it ought to be good for me. In addition, I got an ATI valve body. It's a manual/automatic valve body which keeps Drive being automatic, but first and second gear are just that, either first, or second gears. Second no longer shifts from first to second which is different. The transmission is shifting excellently, and the shift from 2 to 3 is unbelievably fast, just an interesting fact. The shift from 1 to 2 is quick, and harder than my old B&M rebuild, although since the valve body was replaced it's not a fair comparison. Finally, I'm back on the road!

I don't know what to tell ya Robyn! I hope your luck keeps up. Check out this link to the Chevelle forum, discussing th350 and th400 operations and weaknesses. Look for the long posts by Jakeshoe. Chevelle forum transmission thread

As some of you know, I had a tranny issue a couple weeks ago when I lost 3rd and then 2nd gears. Turned out to be an internal linkage problem (linkage loosened up and fell apart). I fixed that, but decided to take the tranny out anyway because it was leaking quite heavily from the pump gasket. Believe it or not, this is where the story goes down hill. I got a new gasket for the pump, a new o-ring seal also for the pump, and a new converter snout seal. Got them all in and when I installed the transmission, I had virtually no second gear. I figured something internal in addition to the linkage was the problem. It turns out that O-Riley Automotive gave me the wrong gasket ! The pump gasket was missing one hole, that's it, it was identical other than that! My transmission guy is the one who found it. He went to the parts store (Carquest) to get another gasket for another tranny he was doing and got the same wrong gasket! So, be very careful if you are in the midst of rebuilding a th350. It seems like there have been some gaskets mis-packaged by the original manufacturer! I'm sure they are reboxed gaskets all made by the same company. So, that wasted my first transmission by smoking the clutches that handle second gear. I decided to put in my old spare transmission. I took the broken one out and installed the spare only to hear it making some nasty metal on metal sounds. So, I took it out too. It turns out I broke my intermediate sprag and hardened race on that one. I don't know when that even happened! So I've had another one built and will put it in this week if I get an ATI valve body I ordered. I've done a bunch of google searching and have learned some tricks to get a th350 to last a little longer that I didn't know earlier. The biggest two are: 1. Never do a burnoff into second gear and let the tires catch traction while in second. Either keep it in first, or go all the way to third. 2. Never downshift on deceleration from third to second gear. If you are going to downshift, goose it to get the tranny into acceleration then let off to decelerate. If I had to guess, I'd say the first one probably broke my sprag/race, but who knows. My monte has been on jack stands for about 2 weeks now while I've learned all of this. I'm of losing quality cruising time. Thanks for letting me vent, even if nobody reads this

Cool, that's what I thought. But what does shifting while doing a burnoff do though, I haven't heard that one before. I'm guilty of that on occasion, although usually not with slicks!

I thought you were NOT supposed to let off suddenly in a burnoff for fear of converter damage?

Man, that is going to be sweet. Overdrive and those gears, you will love it!

Wow, that's not what I wanted to hear Don! I guess I can dream huh! When you got your th400 going, did you keep engine braking ability?

I'm with ya now, I thought you were telling me that new posts we start on this forum might be lost as well at this time. I'm good to go now that I know I that this forum is ready and we should hang out here for good. Thanks guys!

So, are we still going to be able to have a search function for old info/threads, or will it only work for the threads which have not been deleted as of that time?

Ok, so we should not post here yet? When can we post and know that our post won't disappear here? Sorry for all the questions Sam.

Are these current posts going to disappear? This one for instance? or do you just mean, we lose april to now, but any new posts will be fine.

Hey guys, I was just curious if any of you have ever broken a standard sprag and drum. I have talked to ATI, and they claim that this is the most common break on a th-350 and they claim that if the transmission is in good shape, and you replace the sprag race ($40) and upgrade to a 36 element sprag and drum assy ($260) that a th-350 should be good for around 900hp. I'm just curious to hear any experience you might have! (and I wanted to get a current thread up on the new board!)

Ok, this is really a generic post, just trying to get the new forum to show some up to date posts instead of ones from March! But, since I'm here, here goes. . . What type of engine would be better for the street? Race? The same displacement engine, but one having a longer stroke with a smaller bore, and the other having a smaller stroke, with a larger bore?

I'm still laughing over that one! Jaylene, you aren't a teacher by chance are you?

I believe the larger ones shift softer due to them engaging more slowly. I have no idea about the stripes though. Hopefully somebody else knows about them!

That would be a conversation I'd probably pay to see!

I'm just teasing ya Don, didn't mean to get you too stirred up! I know we all appreciate your opinions on the forum, you should let them out more often!

Tell us how ya really feel Don!

On the positive side, you two will have a great and unbelievable story to tell at all of your car club gatherings You WILL eventually be able to laugh at this again. As another side note, good job deciding to have the transmission shop install the last one to eliminate you from the equation. That will mean alot to you guys by B&M not being able to just blame you guys on your installation techniques! very nice.

You can get different lengths of tail shafts. As long as you get the same one as the B&M that you cut your driveshaft to, you'll be fine. I am sure that the one you got is the most common as well. If I were the speed shop, I'd give you half of the installation/removal cost back just to be nice, and I'd try and coax B&M into repaying you for your fluid and the other half of the installation/removal cost. Driveshaft cost is something you can still reuse with no problems, so I'd say you're stuck with that. Measure the length of the tailshaft, and that will give you the info you need to find another transmnission. Also, when looking at th-400 transmissions, make sure you ask about keeping the ability to engine brake! Many aftermarket transmissions do not have that ability and you will want it.

un-friggen believable! I say tell 'em you're done with B&M. Get your money back and check into ATI Transmissions which are not much more than B&Ms or find a local shop that can build you one that will stay together. I'm just going on ATI's reputation, I have not used one of their transmissions. I do have one of their converters and it seemed very quality when I installed it.

That is excellent that he had the transmission cooler put on, that will definitely help. In general, the higher the stall the more heat it will produce when not operating above that stall speed. If you have really high gears (highway type gears), your rpms will tend to stay low, which can keep the cruising rpms below the rated stall speed, and the converter is inefficient at those speeds and creates lots of heat. Hopefully this is not the issue at all, and B&M just gave you guys some bad parts.

Regardless of the mail order issue, they paid $1000 for a transmission from a large name company that had a decent reputation. It should work, the first one should have worked for that matter. As long as it is nothing that you have like it cooking itself because of too tall of gears with a high stall converter or something like that, it should be a done deal. If this proves to be non-user error and B&M doesn't step up, I will never buy another item from them again, including their shift kits which have worked well for me in the past. I won't support that kind of business. If on the other hand, it is user error, that's not good and B&M should get the credit for not producing a bad product. Jaylene, try to find out your rear end gear ratio. If you are running a 3000rpm stall with 2.73 gears, that can generate LOTS of heat and cook your transmission. Hopefully you have 3.31 to 3.73 or so. You would definitely want to find out what part broke etc when it is disassembled as well. It sounds like your clutch packs are not being fully applied, which could mean a warped or leaky valve body, or low fluid pressure from the pump which could be a pump issue or a spring problem in the pump. I'm not a transmission guru, so I'm not 100%, but I'm sure we have some transmission guys on the forum that will chime in!

That is unbelievable. I've always had good luck with B&M, and have heard good things about their transmissions. Very strange. I have a 454 with somewhere around 450-500hp, and probably around 500-550 lbft and I've always run th350s and never had bad luck. I have a knowledgable transmission mechanic friend who builds them with just a few hardened parts and they've been fine. B&M owes you guys MAJOR apologies and a new super-ultra-whamodime tranny that they KNOW will work. That is rediculous. For some background on your combo, What is your rear gear? Do you have the vacuum modulator hooked up? What is your torque converter rated at?