I a 350 trans. that drives in neutral, reverse and so on. It feels like it has a load on it in park as well. I'm not much of a tranny guy. About all I do is shift kit them and go. I thought I would turn the tranny guys onto this and hear what they have to say. It's in a 78 z-28. I thought I've seen every way to kill a 350 trans. until now. I have everything to do a 4 speed swap(manual) just sitting around and have been thinking of going that way but not sure my shoulder can take banging gears anymore. Goals for this car is a good street car that can run mid 12's for 2500.00. So I don't have alot to spend on a trans. Thanks for posting.

Sounds like internal leakage in the valve body/transfer plate or cracked case. If you have put a shift kit in, I would definately check the valve body/transfer plate first. Running a pressure test first however will help alot to narrow it down.

I haven't touched the thing. I did think about the leakage that you talked about and thought it might be just in the valve body but who nows. The guy I got the car from told me the trans lost 2nd gear awhile back. It had reverse,neutral, 1st and drive. I thought that was odd as 350's have either worked good lost drive or lost reverse for me and had never seen one drop 2nd gear with everything else ok. I guess something got worse. One thing about it is the dang thing doesn't get better with time like a nice bottle of wine . Do you think I should try looking at the valve body or do you think it's a done deal. I have a few good glides left from projects past but thought the camaro in stock trim would be abit too heavy for it and would have et. to the car. What does everone else think?

if the tranny fluid doesn`t smell burned and isn`t dark, i`d say check the valve body and make sure one of the valves isn`t stuck, and check the body for damage. if it is burned and dark, then i`d say it`s a done deal, it`s cooked. no 2nd gear could have also been in the valve body, as well as possible bad seals or clutches, if the valve body is okay, then i`d have it built and have the case carefully inspected also. what leads me to believe it`s a valve body problem is that it`s always in drive regardless of the shifter indication.

If it lost second a while back and fixed itself the problem may be a broken intermediate race or the rollers may be binding caused by a distorted race. You could drop the pan and find metal chunks and you'll know this is the problem.
Could also be a stuck forward clutch. What ever the case may be you should just tear it down one step at a time until you find it. Take the pan off, then the valve body, then pull the trans and tear into it. It could also be a stuck stator in the converter.

HEY RACER 56: Sumitt Racing sells a valve body upgrade kit by TRANSCO that comes with all new springs and valves a simple video for about $ 60.00. Put one in my 350 and made big improvement. GOOD LUCK Dave Shank

I go in for surgery in the morning for a complete shoulder replacement. I will take a look at the trans when I get to feeling abit better. Not looking forward to haveing my bone sawed off and a steel rod put in it's place but could be worse I guess. Wish me luck. Ryan