727 Rebuild - Trying to Get it Running

[moparfreak]

Hi folks,

I'm continuing my efforts to get my '73 running. Over a long period of rebuilding the 727 bit by bit, I finally got it in there, and was troubleshooting a number of other issues related to the car sitting around unused for a decade. Those frustrations are documented in this thread:

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,84926.0.html

Now, I think I've resolved most of those issues based on advice from this forum. I just started it up to see if I could put it in drive and actually test out the tranny rebuild. Well, when I put it in Drive, 1st or 2nd, the car seems to take a lurch, but then won't budge, even if I give it gas. What could be causing this? When I shift into D, the engine does seem to load down the way a car should. What could be causing this issue? I'm also questioning whether this is a brake issue. As mentioned in the other thread, the pedal doesn't return, and it was suggested that I should look at the rear brakes and re-adjust. Could it be that they're out of adjustment and applying brakes when I don't want it to? I still plan to evaluate the rear brakes, but I really want to see what happened.

Should I put the rear up and try stepping through the gears that way?

Any advice would be appreciated. Here's hoping I don't have to pull the whole damn tranny out again...

Thanks,
Adam

[John_Kunkel]

If the shifter wasn't in Neutral when you made the initial startup with the fresh transmission, the converter might not be full.

Start the engine in Neutral and let it run for a minute or so and then check the trans fluid level, if the fluid level is OK and it still won't move in gear the brakes might be the problem...easy enough to check, jack it up and see if you can turn the tires by hand with the trans in Neutral.

[moparfreak]

John,

Thanks for your tip.

I couldn't go to sleep in limbo, so I just went out there and jacked the rear end up, put it in neutral. Here are the results:

RR - Wheel turned about a 10th of a revolution
LR - Completely locked up. I couldn't even budge it.

Looks like I've got some rear brake overhauling to do. This is a much better problem to have than worry about what went wrong w/ my 727 rebuild.

Thanks,
Adam