Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone
400's break intermediate sprags too.
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Yeah, my 1st 455 proved that to me. After it broke the 1st one, I ask around and somebody told me to ask a local tranny guy who had built lots of TH400's for the local racers. When I described to him what had happened, he said, yeah, it broke the int sprag.
Well hey, I was just starting out. I'd never even heard of an int sprag. He said all I needed was a GM sprag for a TH400 that came behind a 500 Caddy engine. So he put one in for me and I never had any more trouble out of that tranny.
Then I bought a TCI "Full Competition" TH400 with a reverse pattern VB, for another car. But my 455 broke it too. When it broke, the guy who was driving the car came back from a time trial and said he didn't have any 2nd gear. So I told him to just hit the ratchet shifter twice real quick and see if it would shift from 1st to 3rd.
He did and it did. It only ran a couple of tenths slower. It was a bracket race. So we just dialed in to the slower time and he won the race.
I ask the tranny guy about it and he said that just because TCI called it "full competition" did not mean they had put the HD sprag in it. He was right. He put one in it and I never had any more trouble with it.
I suspect that TCI changed their tactics a bit since those days. Anyhow, I think several of the tranny shops use to buy the Caddy sprags and repackage 'em. In recent years, they are probably made in China. I see the 34 element sprags on Ebay for anywhere from about $50 to almost $100.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw...&_sacat=171114