turbo action converter / transmission issues

[1968_Charger]

i just installed a cheetah full manual valve body in a new 727. ive reinstalled it in the car and i realized that i did not remove the accumulator spring as it says to do in the instructions.   will this affect anything bad, im not sure exactly what it does, so any help would be appreciated. id rather not remove the valve body again if i dont have to.
thanks

[RD]

the accumulator piston is their to cushion the 1-2 shift... if you left it in there, it will do its job and that is what "you" most likely did not want to happen when you installed your MVB.  Did you put in a blocker rod?

[1968_Charger]

no i didnt install a blocker rod, unless it is on the valve body itself, i dont even know what that is. so leaving that spring in wont affect anything other than the 1-2 shift? as long as it wont do any damage ill just leave it in there for now. i dont feel like taking it apart again if i dont have to right now. so its safe for it to be in there?

[RD]

yes its safe, your 1-2 shift will not be as firm "comparatively".. but you will probably not even notice any difference to be honest.  with that being said, if you do take it out and put in a blocker rod, you will see the 1-2 shift become stiffer very noticeably.

[1968_Charger]

great! thanks alot   

[1968_Charger]

now ive go a new problem.    if i put the car in gear it doesnt want to move. i have to rev up pretty good to get it to move at a crawl. trans has plenty of fluid, its got a turbo action 2800-3000 stall converter. ive tried letting it pump up in neutral but it doesnt do any good. what could be the problem? i know the valve body is good because i swapped it from my last transmission. tranny is supposed to be rebuilt by a guy i trust. and it looked very clean inside. could it be a bad torque converter?

[RD]

check your linkage to ensure that each gear is set and not caught in between two positions.

[1968_Charger]

i have a b&m cable shifted megashifter. ill double check but it seemed to be gooing into gear.  anything else it could be?

[1968_Charger]

cable was working in all gears properly. its so bad that im afraid to try to get it moving. its like i have to force to to go. almost like the whole transmission is slipping in any gear. what could it be?

[RD]

1st and foremost, is this a fresh rebuild or did you just put a manual valve body in it and call it good?

i would check the pressure of your front and rear servo in first gear (and governor port in neutral).  if they do not spec, then you have a fluid transfer issue, i.e. your pump is not working at all or not well enough, your valve body is not working properly, or your torque converter has issues.

it is impossible for me to determine which is which at this point.  you have to get some hard numbers on the ports to your front, rear, and governor ports regarding fluid pressure in neutral, first, and reverse to begin the next step in diagnosis.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

do you have a deep pan in there and forgot to put in the spacer?  just a question, but it needed to be asked.

[John_Kunkel]

First, the outer accumulator spring has nothing to do with any upshift, the belief that it "cushions" the 1-2 shift is one of the oldest myths in the Mopar world; the accumulator DOES cushion the 1-2 shift but it does it hydraulically, the spring has nothing to do with it. The spring serves a purpose and it's wise to leave it in place unless the piston is blocked. The only accumulator mod that will firm upshifts is to block the piston.

No action from a new transmission is often the result of a failed pump, improper converter installation will break the pump drive tangs. If the dipstick shows an overfull fluid level and the fluid level doesn't change after a short run in Neutral the pump has most likely failed.

[1968_Charger]

in response to both comments:

i dont have a deep pan.

the transmission had a thorough rebuild and then i swapped my valve body from my smallblock trans to the bb one. transmission looked like new inside, and was run in another car for a little while with no problems then taken out  for a 4 speed swap.

i made sure i put the converter on the pump good when i installed it. and after the car runs in neutral the fluid level does change.

i dont have any way to test the pressure right now. ill see if i can get the stuff from my fiend to do that.

any other advise?

[1968_Charger]

ok i tried driving it down the road and it seemed that once i got it the stall range 2800-3000 then it drove like normal. so im thinking its just the converter. that being said, its a turbo action 2800-3000 stall. part number 17801 which should have been a good street converter that should drive as normal under partial throttle. do you guys think that maybe the converter was bad or is this just the way that converter is made?

[RD]

some OE converters stalled at 2800 and still performed without the issues you are claiming.  i did own a 28-3000 tci converter when i used to drag race and my problem was that it would NOT stall anywhere near 2800 rpms.. it was more of a OE 18-2000 converter rather than a stall converter.  so, with that being said, I cannot state if this is a common issue with tci converters or not. 

just a suggestion, you may want to re-title your thread with something about tci converters to get opinions from those who have bought and used them.

[1968_Charger]

well i switched back to the torque converter hat was in the car originally. its seems to be working better but still seems a little sluggish

[1968_Charger]

well that converter lasted about a half mile down the road then the trans got worse than ever. i think something in the trans is shot. gonna pull it out and try another one.

[RD]

well that converter lasted about a half mile down the road then the trans got worse than ever. i think something in the trans is shot. gonna pull it out and try another one.

sorry to hear man.  check the front pump on it.

[Manifold]

well that converter lasted about a half mile down the road then the trans got worse than ever. i think something in the trans is shot. gonna pull it out and try another one.

sorry to hear man.  check the front pump on it.

Don't underestimate this advice. I had a BB 727 rebuilt/upgrade at one time and didn't get 1/4 mile from the hobby shop (after I installed the tranny) before it wouldn't move on its own. Talked with the rebuilder who was sure it wasn't anything he did, but agreed to look at it again. Turns out he forgot to torque down the pump bolts. He was rebuilding it on the side and routinely would be pulled away for other issues. He had installed the bolts, got pulled away, and when he returned assumed he had torqued them. After he torqued the bolts, the trans never gave me another problem.