727 Shift question?

Kim and Trailbest are exactly right. When you pull the shifter down in low it applies the rear band (it doesn't apply in drive) and there's 2 springs in the rear servo that opperate that rear band and they counteract each other when releasing slowing the release (I'm not sure why Ma Mopar did it that way unless it made it shift softer to make the Ralph Nader wusses happy). Anyway, all you need to do is stack some washers like the other guys said and it'll eliminate the 1-2 shift overlap.

Incidentally that's what's actually happening. When you manually shift it from 1st to 2nd it's staying in 1st gear for a second or 2 while it's already in 2nd gear. I'm sure you know being in 2 gears at once doesn't work good and is extrmely detrimental to a trans.

BTW: I'm surprised the B&M stage 3 kit didn't have a spacer to put in the servo to keep that from happening. I wonder if the rebuilder missed that step?

Also to get the servo out you need to

1. drop the pan

2. back the rear band adjuster screw all the way out

3. use a long thin blade screwdriver to reach up in there to compress the band so you can remove the band strut (thin 1"x1-1/4" steel spacer) which will allow the servo actuator to drop out of the way

4. Then compress the servo a little and remove the outer snap ring that holds it in

5. Remove and disassemble it and do the mod shown above which entails stacking the washers to basically make the servo solid and eliminate the action of the inner spring.