+1 What should I look out for?

 

Yes. We don't rebuild boxes in house, but have a network of authorized installers all over the country. In addition to our LSDs, we offer gears, forks, bearing plates, side covers, etc. etc. When the time comes, we can send you to one of our dealers for service. You can look at a list of them on our website. We only work with the best of the best in the business.

And for the real serious track junkie our true sequential conversion will be to market in less than six months. We just finished the design work and have it all in Solidworks now. We'll be prototyping it over the next few months and sending it off to a super secret testing partner to work out the bugs. It's going to allow the conversion of a synchronized street box to full sequential function for about what it costs the Cup Car guys to service their factory sequential gearbox.

 

No, no catastrophic failure. Generally what happens initially is they have shifting problems late in a session at the track when the gearbox has gotten really hot. As the wear gets worse then it starts to have shifting problems more frequently and under less stressed conditions. The key is to just be aware of it and service it before something binds badly and causing something catastrophic.

And it's very important IMO to NOT cut corners. B-grade rebuilders will offer to refresh your gearbox with nothing more than synchros. This is to be avoided, especially if you are using this shifter. You'll want to do the full monty and replace the syncrhos, the engagement dog teeth and the slider/hub assembly. Those three components all interact with each other and if one is worn out then the other two are also likely showing wear. Give me a few minutes and I'll post an example of a gear I currently have in from a customer for dog teeth replacement...

 

OK,
Here's a 3rd gear with a worn out dog teeth. You often see discussions about dog teeth being worn out when the tips of the dogs get bashed. But if you look at this gear, that hasn't been the case. The driver of this car has taken good care of his shifting and not had many instances of grinding.

But where it is showing all the wear is up on the cone area right where the synchro rides. If you took this gear and just installed a new synchro and put it back in, it would be out of spec. It wouldn't have enough friction because of the existing wear to that area.
Here's a brand new gear for comparison:

Usually most of the wear occurs on 3rd and 4th, and you can sometimes get away with just synchros out in 5th and 6th. However, the real money gear is 2nd. Here's a new 2nd:

See how much smaller those engagement teeth are? 2nd uses a 3 piece synchro assembly with a floating detached cone ring. If you miss more than one or two 2nd gear shifts, those tender little teeth get dinged and then you have the 2nd gear pop out that you hear about.

And to add insult to injury, those teeth are not replaceable. They are EB welded onto the gear and replacement compromises the gear. And Porsche won't sell you just an idler gear. The opposing gear is attached to your mainshaft, which means 2nd gear repairs require a new mainshaft, first and 2nd all at the same time. Big $$$

Here's why we won't repair 2nd gears. We used to send them out to a very well known repair facility. And then this started happening to the gears they had fixed:

I in no way blame the facility. I blame the process. What we believe has happened is the EB welding to install the new dog ring has compromised the heat treat on the gear. If you look carefully it tears cleanly where the welds are. It tears rough between the welds. This is because of the damage the welding did to the gear itself. It costs the customer more to completely replace, but when something like this comes apart in the gearbox it's definitely in the class of what we call catastrophic. We consider more money up front better insurance for you than to have to go back and rebuild your gearbox a second time when this happens.

 

great post matt... really nice

 

x2! Great post, and thank you. Can you give an estimate of the rebuild cost?

 

Sorry I was slow to get back to this. Usually a rebuild on a gt3 gearbox is around $3500, once it's on the bench. So figure additional labor to remove and reinstall. If you do it at the same time as other major work like a clutch, or repair the leaky engine coolant fittings while you're in there, there can be some saving.

A real major gearbox service and overhaul gets you up to around $5000. If you've got to do 2nd gear/mainshaft repairs then that's going to tack another $2500 onto the ticket. And that's just stock stuff.

Usually throwing in a handful of our short ratio gears while it's apart can quickly add thousands to the price. It's not uncommon to break 5 figures on a serious build.

Lastly, if you haven't seen the LSD Buster thread it's worth finding and reading. That's a must do upgrade for the GT3 gearbox, can be done with the box in the car, and isn't something you should put off too long if you have the cash. We're talking a second or two a lap for getting a working LSD in the car.

 

Wow! I always read enlightening information from Matt

 

I am pulling the trigger! I just made a deal with my friend that I bought the car from. He had the shifter in it prior to selling it to me. I guess he initially thought he might use it in one of his other Porsches, but I convinced him that it belongs in it's rightful place. The price is right, so it's on! Now I just have to wait for the installation. It will probably be several weeks before the shop and I can get it done, but I will post an update.

 

Hi,
I know this is the Porsche area, but I am real interested in this setup for my car. Would you, or any of the vendors in this thread know, or be able to point me to someone who does, if this is available for a Dodge Viper Tremec TR6060. I'm not wanting to drop the approx 27k+ that an Emco DV46 costs. I'm starting to track my 09 quite alot, and this seems the way to go.

Thanks

 

Thank you very much! I am going to take the car to the same shop/same guy that did the original installation. He has had it in and out of the car already, and some successful racing with it as well. Piper Motorsport, in Sterling, VA.

 

Despite any short Comings on trans ware, this is a great product and what it improves and prevents for that matter, is worth it in my option.

Plus the Colonel likes the way it fits.






-Troy

 

Very cool. It is a small world. I know they are big advocates of your shifter.

 

I was thinking, has anyone with this shifter ever had an electrical/wiring failure causing the shifter to stop working? It occurred to me that since the sequential shifter uses electrical current to actuate servos, and consequently an additional system to effect shifting, that you have one more link in the chain of potential failures. Has this ever happened?

 

My understanding it will still work / can be forced even if there is a electrical failure.

I'm sure someone else will chime in to confirm.

-Troy