727 issues again.

[mopar0166]

After a show I felt slipping in first gear and later found reverse would not engage quickly.  After a couple f bombs i checked the fluid which didnt look awful.  I then drained the fluid which then looked much worse, dropped pan and removed filter to see what I could find.   None of which was encouraging.  

My car is a 69 with 440.  Trans was rebuilt about two years ago and the quality of work was excellent.  This is now the second big block transmission to go like this.     Any ideas.   Pic included of what I pulled from pan.  

[green69rt]

Is that clutch material?  What fluid are you running?  How hard are you beating on the tranny, racing?  When you had the rebuild done did they use Teflon clutches and bands or do you know?  That does not look like Teflon but hard to tell from the picture.

[mopar0166]

No racing or crazy f&f driving.  Just normal street driving with a built 440 engine. I'm not sure what clutched but they might have been Teflon. I haven't identified what the pic is yet but it seemed like plastic toe material if that helps.

Maybe going to a 4 speed way earlier then I want

[mopar0166]

Kinda thinking it was a Teflon seal.   If I remember right I was recommended to upgrade to those from steel.   I'd have to pull my records from 2 years ago.

[mopar0166]

I doubt I'll build a third time but why is there premature failure?  The 440 has power but not crazy power.   It's not a race car nor has it ever been raced.    I do like to shift it manually sometimes. But I can't really think of anything that would just destroy a transmission like this.

What do you guys think?   Is a 4 speed a better idea to invest in this round?