Vannin' Home Forums Dodge How To (Dodge) A727 Transmission Rebuild

Any of ya'll ever done a rebuild on a 727? Did you run into anything you couldn't do or any crazy problems?

We've just discovered shavings in our pan - they appear aluminum given their avoidance of the magnet.

Tell me your stories. I am deciding on doing it myself or paying someone.

Hello Nicole, Ahoy!

I believe it is Reed? On here who has rebuilt the Chrysler 727, I believe for his Brother, mebe? You could search his posts, or mine I believe. Or 727 Automatic transmisions on here? He talked about it alot. Said enthusiastically it is highly doable. IDK. I'm not that brave. lol.

Anyway. He says to get a transmission rebuild manual for the 727. Swears by it. Ebay, Automotive books, manuals, and literature in Ebay motors. Precision Transmission on YouTube amusingly tears down failed "Professionally'" rebuilt transmissions on his channel all the time, and is a wealth of information on what not to do for sure. lol.

Reed claims it is not difficult. But aluminum instead of friction material? IDK. The case is aluminum. I had a Matterhorn of friction material in my A 500, still reluctantly functioning. lol. The pan from the A518 in my B350 campervan was clean. I didn't adjust the bands, I went as far as I was willing to go. The pan in the A500 was missing a magnet, so I put one in the pan. The A500 shudders slightly upon throttle off idle from a stop, and is reluctant to shift into gear when Texas winter cold, but otherwise functions normally. 147K. I'd be a little reluctant too.

The 727 is basically the same unit, but without the overdrive unit on the rear in place of a normal 3 speed tailshaft. Good to hear from you, and Good Wrenching!

Hey, Wedgy. Thanks for replying! I think Ram mentioned Reed, as well. I'll do a search or try to contact him directly.

With all of the videos we have watched and information we have read it sure seems like it is a very doable project for us considering other things that we have done. But the aluminum does give us pause for the same reason you mentioned... the case.

While there are many other aluminum pieces inside this unit a mechanic friend pointed out that even he would not know how to properly assess the condition of the case.

We are at 203,000 miles (as far as we know). The odometer had 17,000 on it when we got it and we assumed it was 117. She has given us a lot of good life and experiences considering all we have done thus far is fluid and filter changes. We have not touched the bands at all for fear of trying to fix something that isn't broken but it is clear now that something is indeed broken. The pan has been clean up until now so we have been happily fortunate considering the remote locations that we often find ourselves in.

I wish ours was just friction material. That is one reason that I put the magnet to the pile of shavings. I thought that maybe we could just fluid and filter it and keep on going for a bit. Would your shudder and reluctant gear shifting be a torque converter issue? Not all of them had torque converters like ours but in reading about symptoms that one sticks out.

Our symptoms were extremely difficult to identify a cause and very inconsistent / erratic. There would be a clunk that made you think you just dropped everything on the road and then driving just fine as if nothing is wrong. Then nothing for a day then a random grind that sounded like surely nothing could be left and then nothing again the next day. Everyone says 'Oh, is it slipping?' Nope. Not once. Just these weird random symptoms that had us checking everything from differential to u joints to driveshaft to motor mounts to throttle linkage, etc. before we finally said let's just drop the pan.

Thanks for checking in!

Happy trails.