727 Torque Flight trans problems

The other day after I got back from a short drive I pulled in the garage and put the trans in neutral and noticed that the car still wanted to move a little. Put the brake on and let the brake off and still wanted to move. Put her in park and it stopped moving. Ok heres the real kicker, I got in it yesterday and fired her up, let it warm up with the trans in neutral, put in reverse backed out of the garage, put in drive and she barely moved, major slipping, also in 2nd and 1st! Reverse is fine, but in drive, 2nd, and 1st she barely moves even when reving it up to about 1800-2000. I don't even have 50 miles on the trans since the rebuild. The trans was rebuilt and a Trans-go shift improver kit was also put in. I have a J&W 3400 stall converter. I also have a Gear Vendors overdrive unit on the car. One more thing, when I drove it this past weekend I kinda got on it a little bit and done about a 10 foot burnout and noticed something strange after I let up it didn't want to shift out of first until I lifted all the way out of the throttle then she shifted up the 2nd then drive. Trans fluid level is full. Any suggestions?


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Sounds like the sprague wasn't holding good enough and first/reverse clutches fried together. I see a lot of that with '80 up Jeeps, which is why I manually shift to first gear. Other possibility is the band may have fried enough to not be gripping now.
Oooh! Just ahd a REAL bad thought! Someone may have installed the Sprague backwards so first gear wasn't getting any help from it. Most of the time when first/reverse clutches jam, reverse is what gets weak!

The overunning clutch is pinned in the case and is never removed unless it is damaged. Therefore it should not be backwards.
Other possibilities:

• Overdrive unit is toast.
• cross leak in valve body
• valve body modifications [holes] sloppy

There is no overdrive in a 727, but the over running clutch, aka one way sprague has been removed and installed incorrectly by several shops in the past (usually when they bang the case and knock everything out but don't know which way it goes!) Messed up valve body is possible, but I just recalled another wild one. I had a Dodge van that went forwards just fine (drove it that way a long time) but in reverse it felt like the brakes were locked on.
Turned out to be the bearing in the tailstock had lost it's cage, which slid down over the rollers and locked it from rolling

fairly simple deal.....

the forward clutch pack has problems.

Since it backs up fine ( reverse) that indicates the direct clutch and rear band are working (hold power)... pump pressure is OK to operate the trans at this point.

In manual 1 gear selection on the shifter....... that over rides the rear roller clutch (sprag). So , if the sprag is in back wards or left completely out... the vehicle should move forward in manual 1 gear IF the forward clutch is working correctly, because the rear band will be applied in manual 1 gear position on the shifter.

If the vehicle wants to move forward in neutral or acts like it is in gear while in 'park' , the forward clutch may have welded/stuck it's self together for some reason.

__________________
At the Bonneville Salt Flats, first gear is known as 130 mph.

Crosley....you hit the nail on the head. The fwd clutch pack is toast. I will be dropping the trans off today at a Mopar performance shop to let them go through it again.