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After putting my 327 w/ultramatic back in the car (qualified yay, but for the following problem), I noticed that the thing is stuck in park, e.g. I think the parking pawl is engaged. The transmission was sitting vertical, resting on wood blocks on the bellhousing, for about 5 months. I don't remember anything wrong before, but I did take the tail housing off and the pan off, and cleaned that stuff up and put a new bearing and seal in the tailhousing, along with cleaning up the exterior of the transmission and painting it.

Does it require hydraulic pressure to get the parking pawl disengaged? Or is there something wrong, something didn't get engaged correctly when I re-installed the tailshaft housing, perhaps.

Is there maybe something I can do without taking the transmission out? Maybe I can just take the tailshaft housing off in the car?

Thanks in advance. You guys are the best.

The parking lock is completely mechanical and can be seen with the pan off. I rather think that something went awry with the tailshaft work and the unit is jammed up. Support the engine with a jack, and just loosen the tailshaft bolts and see if it doesn't get better.

You are sure the parking brake is off and isn't fooling you?

Thanks, Ross. I haven't hooked up the driveshaft yet - figured out the thing was stuck in park because I couldn't turn it do align the driveshaft. I'll do what you say, maybe take the pan off if it comes to that.

I was able to get the tailshaft housing + shaft completely off by careful jacking and positioning of the transmission. Nothing seemed wrong there. The spring came out too, as it should. The tailshaft spins freely in the housing. But the rear shaft (inside the tranmission) doesn't want to turn.

I took the pan off and checked the parking pawl, I could see it move.

I have 3 clues.

1) I don't remember any issues when I first serviced the tailshaft housing, I put it back on and everything seemed good. I don't remember it being frozen.

2) Now with the tailshaft off, I cannot take the parking gear off. The shaft is slightly low in the housing, it looks like, as if it is being pulled down.

3) The shaft doesn't "clunk" or anything, like might happen if the parking pawl was engaged. It feels tightly locked - like might happen if two or more of the bands are engaged (e.g. low and reverse, or low and high).

I wonder if storing the transmission in the vertical condition for such a long time could have done something.

I guess my next job would be to take the control assembly out. I may try to jack the parking gear up a little, see if I can free things that way.

(I tried to take the driveshaft off, that was a BAD IDEA as the rear u-joint is going to take quite an effort to get apart, I was able to barely budge the cups, I think I will just try to push them back)

Not a trans or ultramatic guy, but did you actuate the shift lever(take out of park) to neutral, or just try to move the shaft?

If the fluid didn't leak out all over sitting, I don't suppose that had any effect. That's how a trans shop might store them to save space. I prefer them horizontal so the fluid stays submerging the parts it normally does. My Cad trans sat(horizontal) for more than a year after rebuild and it was a bit sluggish shifting starting off but after a little exercise and it was ok.

I actually moved the lever on the transmission. I have the pan off, I can see the parking pawl move. I don't think the parking pawl is engaged, unless of course I move the lever on the transmission to the park position.

I am now thinking there is something I did wrong with the bell housing, when I took that off to replace the output shaft seal, or something I did wrong when I took off the screen to clean it.

It's going to take some thinking. At least I didn't try to turn the engine on yet, so I haven't done any permanent damage to anything.

Well, it looks like the two options I have are:

1) Take off the control valve assembly. Not sure I am going to find anything there, since I didn't mess with it in the first place.

2) Take the transmission off, and remove the bellhousing. Something makes me think there is something wrong there. I think I can get the transmission off having lowered the engine quite a lot (taking the tailshaft off really helps). We will see...

All I can think of is that the bands have shifted out of position and have gotten jammed. Very odd that the parking gear appears off center as that shaft runs through the middle of the rear pump and is supported and centered by a substantial bushing.

Thank you. I may try to take the control valve assembly off and see if I can see anything. I need to look and see if I can make the "little tabs of metal" to keep the struts from falling down, as in:

Ultramatic Band Struts discussion

Good news!

I made some metal "fingers" out of those brackets you can buy at the hardware store (the kind with holes in it every so often) to hold up the levers so the band struts won't fall out, and took off the valve body.

Yay! there was something weird about one of the levers, it was jammed up and the thing was stuck in reverse. i freed that up and now all the shafts turn freely, and I can manually shift them by pushing on the levers.

So things are good, I think. I am going to do some more double-checking before I put everything back together. The proper order I think is:

1) Tailshaft housing

Check everything is still happy

2) valve body

Thanks everyone!