Is my stock 727 in dire straights ??

[Oz Sport Fury]

Hmmmm....so I decided to replace the leaking pan gasket on the 400/727 Newports Auto, have it a service while apart and found all this debris in the pan and quite a bit in the filter pick up also. The engine is almost stock and has very tall 2.76:1 gears so it's not a race car by any means, it drives and shifts fine, has a cooler also. The old oil was still red and didn't smell burnt.

Looking at what we found inside, is this box in trouble and will it fail at some time in the future?

Or will it soldier on for a while yet?

The previous owner has fitted a cable kickdown that works ok, the box does hang on the 2-3 up change until you roll off it a bit, it will also down change as you slow for a corner or roundabout, not sure if that's a good or bad thing, none of my other 727 cars so this...its actually pretty nice feature as it's like a modern car ....not sure if the line pressure is to high/low with the kickdown arm?

Cheers!!

 

[Lefty71]

The junk you are seeing in the pan is normal wear and tear.... you are just looking at the friction material off the clutches. The trans does a good job of using up the available clearances until the friction material is gone. This is part of the reason you set the clearances in the clutches properly to begin with (very important). It will likely soldier on as you say for a while longer under normal use, but If I were you, I would plan to do a rebuild with new seals, frictions and steels sooner as opposed to later.... you don't want to risk damage to any of the hard parts inside that could be damaged if you actually smoke the clutches. (plus pay for a tow lol). I used to have a dump truck that failed too frequently..... always pissed me off every time I had to pay $400 for a tow when that money could have gone towards improving the truck.

 

[furious70]

The way the kickdown is adjusted is how I set mine, no issues there regarding premature wear.

 

[Toolmanmike]

Normal sludge in the pan. It's good for another 100,000 miles.

 

[Oz Sport Fury]

Many thanks for the honest advice guys really appreciate it!

Cheers!

 

[66 Monaco 500 365]

It wouldn't hurt to drain the converter and put in as much new ATF as possible (if the converter has a drain plug)
My $0.02

 

[thrashingcows]

I wouldn't worry about anything in the transmission, looks like it's been a while since it was serviced so maybe once it has a new filter and fluid run it for a year then change the fluid/filter again and you should be good! The 727 is a ridiculously strong transmission and will keep going when abused and neglected when others would fail.

I bought a 87 Dodge ram years ago and got it home and was doing my complete fluid change and service, when I drained the transmission the fluid smelled horrible and was similar to chunky thick chocolate milk! It had no drain on the torque converter so I did the service then ran it for 3 months, another service and ran that for 6 months then one final service and by then the fluid was nice and clean and I ran and worked that truck for years with no issues!