Ouch man.

Update for my car:
I was lucky enough to talk to a dealer who wanted to help me out and i received a new transmission and complete clutch assembly under warranty.

 

I can top yours lmao, looks like my diff went bad and knocked a hole in the bell housing, fluid drained into the bell housing destroying what was left of my clutch & flywheel, and with no fluid the gears in the tranny started to wear into each other until they locked and shattered all the other gears, looked like metal confetti when i opened it up, pics will follow upon completion of tear down.

l8r,
PD

 

I'm on my 3rd transmission in a year and a half. This time it went out crusing on the expressway. Wouldn't go in any gears after it popped out, so I had to jam them to get to a parking lot. Once there, it locked up and wouldn't move at all, just would stall the car. Why isn't there a differential option? My first one exploded, and took out the bellhousing with it.

 

I am on my second, it was my first pass on my fresh(250 in town miles) hypersingle.. I went to slam third and popped the clutch, it went BANG.. Leaving me without second and third..

 

no problem on me yet. 2300 miles

 

Another one bites the dust for me.

 

none yet other than i need a damn new clutch lol

 

I got a junkyard of F35's in my garage. I got the overhaul manual.. maybe this winter I'll get one of the bellhousings welded back together, tear into it, and get all the internals cryotreated.

Hell.. maybe I'll put a 4t65e in.

Hopefully this new one I bought will last 10,000 miles after detuning the car to 32 lbs per minute.

 

i lost 6th gear. ****

 

Was that on the Quaife 6 speed conversion?

 

maybe you should take a driving course instead?

 

I have 40,000 miles, learned stick on my car, and shift without the clutch daily while having 20+ dragstrip passes not to mention excessive stop and go traffic jam driving AND dumping it in 2nd and 3rd on a much constant basis.



Never had an issue, knock on wood.

 

Lol my driving isn't the problem. Drag radials and a clutch that doesn't give is some of the problem, but the biggest problem is that it was designed for a 175hp car in 1984. I have never driven a "performance car" with a transmission as docile as these.

 

junk i tell ya. pure junk

 

any fwd car will have issues, and the more slop you have in the front end the worse it gets. i've completely sheered a set of axles and disintegrated a clutch with a shitload more power than you can get with your current mods and had zero trans problems

not saying they couldn't be beefed up, and if you get it cryo'd, get it isotropically finished too. it doesn't cost that much extra and makes gears alot stronger. just had my bike gearbox done like that, damn gears come back to me looking like a mirror

 

Ive dragged race for 7 years, starting with a FWD car.. and this is the only one that I have had problems with. I've gone through other transmissions too.. but was making more power than what I currently have the car tuned to. I too sheared the splines off my driverside halfshaft into my hub with during the first launch with the BFG D/R. My mistake was I still shifted into 2nd gear. As I said I haven't torn into the transmission yet, but it feels like either a bent shift fork or a broken syncro. I am leaning with the syncro as I continued to drive the car like that until it eventually locked up. I'm guessing a syncro tooth finally let loose and wedged itself somewhere.

That one I can attribute to me, but my first transmission that went out happened when the differential grenaded. Something that shouldn't happen unless one of those cheap make-shift spring loaded lsd units were installed. I am attributing that to ****-poor engineering / quality control on GM's part. Especially since I only had KDW 2's on at the time. I could also see it happening with wheelhop.. but I have poly mounts and an ingalls damper.. and really only see wheelhop when the DR's aren't inflated properly for how I'm driving. I only had the car tuned at 22 psi and 35 lbs/min at that time. A good transmission should hold more than that IMO.

Also.. I think someone would be hardpressed to find another car where so many transmissions go out at the 30k mark. I personally know of 2 others besides mine in my area that have gone out around this mile marker.

 

i actually selected 1st-5th lol. I had reverse but nothing else. I believe it started to fail when i was in upstate NY taking pics in snow. Couldnt get up a lil hill with my 17s on and i almost redlined it in 1st then shifted to 2nd and i guess it caught dry pavement and make a weird noise. Didnt think anything of it then about 2 miles from home it wouldnt come out of 5th. Pulled over, put in neutral shut of car and had first for about 100ft then had 2nd for about 100ft then third was a no go then 4th for about half mile and didnt have enough speed for 5th but i made it about half mile to my dealership lol. I had pics of the trans gears, they were ALL stripped!!

 

Im still on the stock Motor tranny clutch and axles with over 400whp i dont see why you guys are having so many problems........

 

lol my trans took over 500+whp and never skipped a beat with 48,xxx miles on it, now mezz's ss/tc on the other hand exploded on a 3rd gear roll (not even on a shift, a throttle tip in roll).

 

I had some tranny problems this season, mainly 3rd gear. Ripped all the teeth off of both gears. I have our new prototype tranny in the car now and it shifts buttery smooth. I will say I abuse the tranny but not at bumpy intersections or on poor roads in general. I would guess a lot of the case breaking comes from wheel hop and people not using their heads when going WOT. Everyone always asks what we are doing for wheel hop, and I can't say much besides running our mounts and not beating on the car when the road sucks. I understand that broken pc's from gears can break your case, but that should go with out saying. I would like to start selling our trannys but have a few more details to smooth out. It sounds like people need a solution.

 

what exactly are you guys doing to the tranny to beef it up?

 

I deff got future interest in built tranny

 

Detuning our engines.

 

What are you asking for it? IF you're serious.

Earlier in this thread they talk about Cryogenic treating. The trans is completely disassembled, dipped into liquid nitrogen (-321 deg F) and media bead blasted then reassembled with the new GM parts that are not reuseable. This process is used in race cars up to and including Formula 1 and compared to other options it's not all that expensive. I got a price a couple years ago of $.50/# of treated parts in my LS1 powered Fiero using the stock 5sp. That was for the cryo only plus dissambly and reassembly, unless you can do that yourself. But without a press and assembly fixtures the job would be difficult to impossible for the DIYer. The blasting would probably be quite a bit more than that.

But the other option that comes to mind is the Quaife (the company that makes our LSD) 6 speed conversion. TTR markets this package. But that will cost you more than $5000 with the new GM parts required and labor. While you have it apart you might as well have it cryo"d too. You're playing a high stakes game unless you think you can win some money racing professionally.

An unknown upgrade for the F35 is the new 6 speed automatic that will be used on the LNF powered Buick Regal. The engine is only rated 220 HP but weighs 3600+ # so the trans must be pretty stout. Automatics GENERALLY are easier to improve on so I'm sure somebody will be making parts for them when there are enough of them on the road to make it worth their while.

Another more difficult and expensive option, is the 4T65 E-HD trans used in the big, high HP, heavy cars. It CAN be done but there would be a WHOLE LOT of expensive, custom parts required.

Actually. Judging from the many multiple failures some of you are having, especially the same part failure, somebody MIGHT be doing something wrong here. Not being new to speed shifting (65 years old and playing with fast cars most of them) but being new to NLS and launch control I have missed, probably, more than my share of shifts in the process of getting it right with no problems YET. In fact the transmission seems to feel like it has loosened up a tad allowing better shifts. Again, it MIGHT just be wishful thinking.

Just saying

 

In a way it makes sense that the 2nd gear is the one going out. It's such a huge ratio change from first that I'm sure it's not as easy on the synchros, even when you're just DDing it. That and if you've ever NLS'd to 2nd, it's downright violent. Did it once... never again.

Regardless of what I think it may be though, look at that trend. It's 2x more likely to go out than any other gear.