727 peace of mind

[Rebelrouser]

Hello B body fam, having owned the zombee for almost a year, installed new S60 rear end with P295/65-15 M/T rears fit nicely on 15x10 Cokers with 5.5"BS, front end rebuild, front disc swap and its now very nice to drive on the street with hopes to drag it in the near future. However, I recently stumbled upon a post of a 727 stock drum grenading and having some parts come through the floor and visit the driver. which led to more and more hear-say of this issue with similar results across the board, thanks A LOT internet lol. I understand what SHOULD be done, billet drum, bolt in sprag, low band applying valve body and proper 1st gear usage. However the shape of the 727 in my car is pretty much unknown, outside of it functioning well on the street and all otherwise seeming sound and shifting well, I do not know if its suitable for the track yet or even safe to launch on the street. It does have a reverse manual valve body but it doesnt apply low band (freewheels in 1st), so I will assume no other upgrades were made to it either. its a mild built 440 6 pack car, we'll call it around 475-500hp, stock stall somewhere around 2000, if the sprag is damaged, my concern is if my car and myself are at a high risk with that kind of power and low stall? as most of the info I find are of drag cars likely running much more HP and high Stalls are the ones grenading their 727s. I only will get about another month to a month and a half of driving this year so I do plan to pull the 727 over winter and take a look. Im just kind of looking for some peace of mind in the meantime if im safe to drive this on the street or if its a ticking bomb waiting to happen, thanks for reading my rant guys

1st if your valvebody does not apply the rear band then it is a candidate to explode the drum, as the sprag is all that is holding the drum in 1st. On a stock 727 in manual low the rear band is engaged to help the sprag hold the low drum, and provide engine braking in low gear. They make racing valvbodies that hold the rear drum, and some will argue but they are slightly slower have tested several.
As mentioned, if you do your burnouts in 2nd or 3rd 98% of the time you will not damage the sprag. If leaving the starting line hard, and your slicks spin and then hook hard you can break the sprag as well, that is the other 2% At a minimum a bolt in heavier duty sprag is a must. I have been racing Mopars since 1974 never broke a sprag, all my cars that were capable of less than 10 second times had the good drum in them. I have seen 8 sprags explode since 1974 from friends and other racers, some went to the hospital, all did a lot of damage to the car including engine.

 

[Black_Sheep]

I bit the bullet and purchased a TCS “Full Metal Jacket” Steel Sleeved Aluminum Front Drum. It required a '71+ wide bushing stator and a slight bevel cut on the edge of the rear drum. It's probably overkill for my combo, but I'm confident that it will stand up to any abuse it might get on the street...

The Turbo Action valve body I used has low band apply.

 

[oldkimmer]

I have that drum in mine also along with the rest of the light weight kit. Kim