bikemobile
New Member
The front converter seal in my 1963 Dodge 880 is leaking intermittently from the front seal on the converter. Shop advises a rebuild or replace. Its a pushbutton 727. Who sells these units? summit? Jasper?
Need 727 replacement.
- Thread starter bikemobile
- Start date
Does the trans work well? If so, just find another shop and just change the front seal... If that is where it's leaking. Too many times they see a drip and never check other places, like the shift cable seals or the small seal for the throttle linkage (wrongly called "kickdown" often)
I'll give the same reason I just typed on another thread for why you don't want to swap for a rebuilt unit... Rather have that one rebuilt if you think it's needed.
First is you are going to have trouble getting the right trans. You have a cable shifted trans with a rear pump. There's not a lot out there.
Second reason is this, and it may be more important. Anything you buy is someone else's discard. They needed a rebuild for one reason or another and swapped in their core. Sounds good until you realize that the rebuilders had to not only rebuild, but solve whatever problem was there. Rebuilding a 727 isn't that hard... I've done them myself. Finding a problem and curing it is much harder... and even harder when the rebuilder never drove the car and is really flying blind. So you might get a good trans... or maybe someone else's crap that is going to give you nightmares... and your core trans, the one that worked, is gone.
Your trans works... That's big... It's just tired, not broken. If you want it rebuilt, great... Find a good trans shop (BTW, a good trans shop doesn't have AAMCO over the door) and get it rebuilt.
I'll give the same reason I just typed on another thread for why you don't want to swap for a rebuilt unit... Rather have that one rebuilt if you think it's needed.
First is you are going to have trouble getting the right trans. You have a cable shifted trans with a rear pump. There's not a lot out there.
Second reason is this, and it may be more important. Anything you buy is someone else's discard. They needed a rebuild for one reason or another and swapped in their core. Sounds good until you realize that the rebuilders had to not only rebuild, but solve whatever problem was there. Rebuilding a 727 isn't that hard... I've done them myself. Finding a problem and curing it is much harder... and even harder when the rebuilder never drove the car and is really flying blind. So you might get a good trans... or maybe someone else's crap that is going to give you nightmares... and your core trans, the one that worked, is gone.
Your trans works... That's big... It's just tired, not broken. If you want it rebuilt, great... Find a good trans shop (BTW, a good trans shop doesn't have AAMCO over the door) and get it rebuilt.
bikemobile
New Member
I have an independent transmission guy 2 hours away who is a great rebuilder. I set him up to go through it. I'm going to have it totally rebuilt since I want this thing to be top notch indefinitely. I read the early 727's are special so I know the wrong one will show up in a crate. Thank you for the info
I agree with all the above. I actually have one (1964) for sale on another site. I will be listing it on here shortly. I saved it out of a junk yard. They were about to pull the motor and crush the car, so I have no idea if it is good or not. I would never trust a used trans unless I new the car it came out of anyway. So, in my book, any used trans with unknown history, would need a rebuild anyway.
mrfury68
Senior Member
Sound advice. Since you already know a good rebuilder you will be way ahead of the game. I'm sure you will be happy with the results.
Just Carbs
Well-Known Member
Don't open it up to rebuild it if it's working good and the fluid is good.
Do have it resealed and continue to run it.
You probably don't drive it enough to ware it out anyway.
But do get a known good unit for a spare if you can.
I'm not going to get into whether the guy doing the work is any good or not. It doesn't matter. It can come back working, but not working exactly the same. And/or mistakes can be made that show up way down the road.
Do have it resealed and continue to run it.
You probably don't drive it enough to ware it out anyway.
But do get a known good unit for a spare if you can.
I'm not going to get into whether the guy doing the work is any good or not. It doesn't matter. It can come back working, but not working exactly the same. And/or mistakes can be made that show up way down the road.
I suspect that we ALL want everything about our cars to be as "top notch" as possible, nothing wrong with that. BUT in our quest for such, sometimes the results are less than stellar, by observation. I have also observed that many automatic transmission people have their own little tricks and such to "make things better", nothing wrong with that, usually, as long as they will be warrantying their work. Which helped determine my "OEM quality or better" parts for rebuild orientation.
In our modern world, many of the older shop owners who did great work (and some not quite so great) have gone into retirement or another place. Which NOW means that the good shops that are left, are usually a ways from us. Just the way things are. For more modern vehicles, the 'mass rebuilders" and a few others have upped their capacity to do "crate things", a more generic product of sorts, usually geared toward high-performance than normal drivers. As you get somebody else's interpretation of what you really want, rather than just a normal OEM-level rebuild (which has already lasted a long time, usually). So rebuilding what you have, possibly with some HD frictions for better longevity, CAN be a better way to do things.
Enjoy!
CBODY67
In our modern world, many of the older shop owners who did great work (and some not quite so great) have gone into retirement or another place. Which NOW means that the good shops that are left, are usually a ways from us. Just the way things are. For more modern vehicles, the 'mass rebuilders" and a few others have upped their capacity to do "crate things", a more generic product of sorts, usually geared toward high-performance than normal drivers. As you get somebody else's interpretation of what you really want, rather than just a normal OEM-level rebuild (which has already lasted a long time, usually). So rebuilding what you have, possibly with some HD frictions for better longevity, CAN be a better way to do things.
Enjoy!
CBODY67
fury fan
Senior Member
In my experience, if the fluid is decent and there isn't excessive clutch material (dark) or metal in the pan, it's likely a good trans to use.
How much is excessive? Experience and hunch answers that.
Could it have started slipping on some shifts or some other malady and was quickly pulled, and pan/fluid look good but is on it's last legs? Of course. But most times it won't go down that way, people will drive it until it stops pulling.
Just saying that to dispel that you should automatically rebuild a used trans. (automatically - get it???)
How much is excessive? Experience and hunch answers that.
Could it have started slipping on some shifts or some other malady and was quickly pulled, and pan/fluid look good but is on it's last legs? Of course. But most times it won't go down that way, people will drive it until it stops pulling.
Just saying that to dispel that you should automatically rebuild a used trans. (automatically - get it???)
Haha! Nice pun! I do agree that fluid, filter, and pan residue are all good indicators of trans condition. But still, unless I knew the vehicle it came out of was moving & shifting well, I'm rebuilding it. Trans bench presses are not my idea of fun so I will avoid multiple sets of high or low reps as much as possible.
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