C6 gurus please look inside!!!

Ok so I finally tore my C6 completely down today after a failure (seems to be a sprag failure to me)and this is what I have found.

Upon dropping the pan I found ~6 chunks of aluminum about 1/8" diameter and alot of aluminum dust in the 1/4" of fluid left in the trans pan a piece about 1 1/8" diameter of the filter and a few bronze flakes. I originally thought I broke the rear planetary but today I decided to tear the trans down completely to see exactly what went wrong.

My pump gear is broken due to a piece of the aluminum getting into it but other than that everything else looks new as the day I put it together. I checked the clearances on all the clutch packs and all are within .002" of what they were on installation. I also pulled all the clutches out and inspected every single one and the steels and EVERY SINGLE one looks good as new. Both planetaries are in excellent shape with no signs of damage. All the thrust washers are in great shape as well with no signs of damage.

The converter does not rattle or sound as though anything is broken inside but I for the life of me cannot fathom where these pieces of aluminum and all the aluminum powder in the trans fluid could have come from. Also in the trans pan were a few spirals of steel like the curly Q's you get off a drill ~1/4" long very thin though ~.030".

I had been having issues with the truck seemingly slow for first ~80' it would hit the tires hard when the transbrake was released but then would not seem to start to accelerate for the aforementioned 80'. We had been thinking that perhaps the brake was hanging up or sticking but the lack of excessive wear on the clutches seems to contridict this train of thought.

Rich is not a tranny guy and honestly neither am I really, but he thinks that perhaps their is a crack in one of the fluid channels in the trans case.

Trans has a 4 clutch forward drum with stepped pressure plate with 5 Red Altos and Kolene steels@.052" clearance, direct has waveplate removed and 5 Red Altos with Kolene steels@.054" and reverse has 5 standard Raybestos clutchs with standard steels@.052", also has a Sonnax R-code billet servo with the o-ring grooves cut down per Frank's instruction, with a billet Sonnax E-lever, and a ridgid 3 inch wide Kevlar band. Valvebody was a Merkl modified Art Carr Reverse Manual TB unit on loan from Micheal Whitefield.

I have a good converter and some people think that if it is in fact the sprag that there has to be a reason why it would go out.

Serious responses only please!

Only time i had foreign junk like that in the pan was a C4,was brass dust, Trans was perfect . On cutting open the converter was the culprit, whoever built the converter used a brass spacer under a bearing

As for yours i'd be interested to hear where all that came from

It left similar with last combo and that was completely different, different converter no transbrake smaller HP...

Really beginning to make me wonder about perhaps a case issue, does that make sense???

post a pic
Frank

Was good talking to you Frank I will get them pics tomorrow after work for you.

Same problem years ago, shreded convertor. Had Paul Yerger go through this one and do it spragless. I love it, seems to be very predictable and consistent.

Well I kinda forewent the forum and talked to Frank on the phone about an hour ago. It's definitely the sprag in the converter. There is a high pressure bleed from the converter and pump into the pan and this is most definitely the route the debris took. Both Rich and Frank say that Andre at Edge is a great guy so sure the converter will be fixed right and will go back in this spring.