Man, I have been wrenching or racing or beating on stuff for 29 years, before I could drive on the road, the stories I have...
One time when I was about 18 I was driving the regal on an old country road, was a really long straight away with no one around, so I decided to romp on it, ran it up to over 90 MPH, and then bumped neutral with the column shifter to coast for a while, only I went one too far and bumped reverse.
Slammed me forward against the seat belt, as I was trying to get it back into neutral with the column shifter, I finally get it back and look in the rearview mirror, I see two black straight lines on the road with streaks of tire smoke coming off of them. I coast down to a stop, test forward, test reverse, start driving it. Nothing, not a damn thing was damaged. The TH400 from Hipster and the 12 bolt didn't care.
So then about 6 or 7 years later I put nitrous on that car too, sprayed around 175 HP on pump gas, cast hyper pistons, stock cast 400 crank, stock SBC rods. I had built that engine when I was 18. Sprayed it maybe 40 times over a 10 year period, plus all the NA passes which was more often. I would only spray it the last pass or two since I would get kicked out for no cage running mid 10s. Drove it home everytime! Same 12 bolt for nearly 20 years.
I did swap the trans to a 4L80E I built in my garage in about 2010. I sprayed that one too.
Then I figured, that wouldn't kill it, might as well put a 632 BBC in front of it, and spray that! That trans is still going to this day, although I can't imagine it has too many runs left at this point, its 12 years old or so with many 632 passes, and the car weighs 3700 lbs with me in it and it runs 9s on motor and just into the 8s on spray. I'm waiting for the clutches to give up the ghost. I did put a 4340 input and intermediate shaft in that trans, among other upgrades when I built it, along with the transbrake valve body.
Around 2008 or so I rebuilt a TH400 for my truck with the SBC. Did a few minor upgrades, had less than $600 in parts. 34 element sprag, rollerized output, dual feed the directs, home made shift kit, etc. Beat on it for a couple years, everything was great.
Then I put the 489 I built in. Drove it a few times, thought everything was great. But on the way home from work one day I realized it was only shifting once...? After further drive testing I realized it had no second gear, it was either 1st, or 3rd(2nd would act like 1st). Tore it apart, found the sprag rolled. Had to take it to work to measure with a micrometer, the direct drum I had purchased was .002" out of round. I replaced it with a direct drum that was in spec, and a new sprag, and I have been beating the snot out of that trans for 13 years now, sand dunes, mild towing, dirt drags, off-roading, etc. It's about to get sold when I put in another 4L80E I will build. So I guess that counts as 1 trans so far, does it even count if you can still drive it home just fine? I had to replace the direct drum, but the trans is still alive.
I do remember once when I was about 14 my father and I were offroading in the old 77 GMC 3/4 ton 4x4 he had. Mild 355 with a cam, intake, and headers. We were snow wheeling in the winter, I got out to spot because he was getting buried, so he floored it in 4WD, put in reverse, and floored it again, and it stopped moving and puked tranny fluid. Turns out the TH350 broke at the case right in front of the Tcase adaptor. I don't really count that because I only witnessed it, wasn't me that broke it. Several years later we were wheeling, he was in the same truck, I was in my 83 K10. He was trying to climb out of a steep snowy icy hill about 30 ft tall at my uncles property. On his 3rd attempt he was almost at the top, I was spotting again. He was full throttle, throwing snow, ice and some dirt all over the place. And then crunch, followed by hellacious noises in the Dana 44 with the tires doing funny motions. I pulled him out of there with my truck, and we unlocked the hubs and drove it home to investigate. The spider gears were in I swear at least 40 pieces. So what does he do, he washed them all off and welds them back in piece by piece in the axle housing! Only this time, he welds them as one solid chunk he called the Hobart locker since he wasn't using a Lincoln. It worked, for a long time like that.
So I guess my sarcastic story is 0, or maybe 1 trans so far? What do you call it when its broke but you still drove it home down the freeway? 1/2 a break?
