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QUESTION 1 Mike, My friend bought a '67 Chevelle SS drag car with a big block and a turbo 400. When he got it, it had an ear missing from the top of the case. He only ran the car six times at the track, running in the mid 10's. He gave up the track and took the big Holley off and put a 6- 71 blower on it for looks and to use as a street rod. It has 18-inch tires and 5.38 gears. It has a real small converter in it. Here is the problem. He loves burnouts and broke the trans inside pretty bad. He had a race shop fix it and put a good bellhousing on it. Since then he put maybe one day on the street and twisted the case completely apart. Next trans job lasted one week and exploded the case. He ran out of money and had a guy put a shift kit in a good trans so he could just cruise the car. Guess what > Bigfoot twisted the driveshaft in half and cracked this transs too. Do you have any ideas of what can be wrong besides the size of his foot? Danny Dear Danny, The 400 cases all of us use are GM.O.E.M. cases. We usually don't know where they have been before we use them. The cases can be fractured and you might not be able to see it. Solid trans mounts can contribute to broken cases. When we mount the trans solid, we make it a loaded member of the frame, so when the frame flexes, so does the trans case. We usually like to use a poly mount to give some flex. There are some stronger parts available. Also for the GM TH-475 motor home case and the aftermarket ultrabell. Mike Stewart QUESTION 2 Dear Mike, Afriend of mine bought a new powerglide from JW along with a new custom converter. The car runs 5.20 ont eh eighth-mile. The problem is, he can't rev the engine past 3,500 rpms while using the transbrake because it will jump forward. I took the tranny apart and everything isOK. It has the correct band adjustment. Could it be the transbrake is bad? I changed solenoids; no luck. Thanks. Bob Bob, When a powerglide brake will not hold and the car moves forward, there are a couple of things we need to check out. We either don't have enough surface area in the reverse clutch pack to hold the torque, or not enough fluid pressure to hold the reverse clutch pack. It also could be a valve body problem. It would take some professional work to check it out. Mike Stewart QUESTION 3 Hi Mike, I just built a T-350 with 5 clutches in the low/reverse, 5 clutches in the direct drum. I left the wave plate out of the forward drum and was able to get 6 clutches in there. I know leaving out the wave plate causes harsh engagement, but if it will make the tranny stronger, it was worth it. It's going a a '63 Nova that weighs 3150 lbs. And has a BBC with 925 horsepower. I used Blue clutches and Kolene steels, extreme duty Coan outer sprag race, Wider Direct drum busing, etc. What do you think? Gary Dear Gary, Normally, your high stall torque converter will give you all the cushion you need. If we were using a low stall or stock torque converter, we would need the cushion steel in the forward pack. Mike Stewart QUESTION 4 Mike, I have one of your glides that I'm about to use in a tube chassis Willys about 2500 lbs, 900 hp N/A and up to 600 more on the bottle. I don't know exactly what stage of performance it was built to handle. I bough it used from a racer who bought it from you a few (4-6?) years ago It wasn't used much. I am short on room for a shield and was wondering if the guts would go into a JW case without much trouble. Keith Christenson Keith, That is a good glide, but here at the shop we call it a 6-year-old time capsule. Those parts are good, but the transmissions we sell are constantly evolving into stronger, more durable units. All those parts will fill a J.W. or Dedenbear powerglide case. Mike Stewart
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