John Shephard tranny test results are in! Options

[awd4kicks]

Well I now know that the Shepard tranny will hold up to the following:

7 VHT Full-on track launches
25-40 Street launches
Full drag pulls into fifth gear once
and about....oh say 4-6 months of daily driving.
And not one launch more!

Yep, I told you guys pulling the tranny becomes second nature.

I went over to Williams house tonight in Normal to check out his intercooler. Nice guy!

We took a ride in the FWD and he let me witness it's tire churning power. It's a hell of a car for the miles. Then we took my Talon out for some AWD action. Drove out to a nice straight barren road. I laid into it fairly hard and did some tire chirping on the launch and let her eat well into forth. We turned around for another go before heading home, but started to hear a funny sound. I rolled to a stop and prepaired to launch . This time I was intent on smoking the tires. The revs go up, up, up and as they swing by 6500RPM I let her out quick the car lurches and WHAM! Falls right on it's face as the RPM's are still in a climbing mode. Whoops!

Now, no first, and in second the tranny makes a horrible clunking sound. Oh well...That's what half of racing is about. Repairs. So I'll be flat bedding the car to Washburn tomorrow and yanking the tranny out for a look see. Thinking maybe I broke a few teeth off of my beloved GVR4 first gear.

Updates soon.

Marcus

[Bannovr4]

Expensive way to test parts. What's the rundown of basic specs to what Shep did to your tranny? I imagine you're probably pretty rough on your tranny, but Kris's seems to be holding good still with all my GVR4's parts in it. You've probably spent more time at the track but this could be a good time to compare notes on TRE's parts (Kris and I's install) and Shepard's parts. Not to have a pissing contest, but mostly for the sake of comparison.

[awd4kicks]

Absolutely! I didn't expect to get the chance so soon. However, my plan was to inspect Shepards work the next time my tranny came apart, because he is rather secretive about what he does. This could either be to protect his particular mods or because he may not do anything special. But I will compare and find out. Good call.

[JMoushon]

Bum deal, Marcus. But look at the bright side: You have enough power to break sh$t. I have enough power to make sh$t laugh at me. And kick me. And sleep w/my little sister. You get the point. :x

[gvr4ever]

I had fun Marcus. Thanks for the ride. I'm sorry you had to break your tranny showing me a good launch. The rest involves cell pone woes and cops, but that story is for another time.

btw Marcus, my wife said your kids were funny

William

[Bannovr4]

Funny.. ha ha, or funny.. oh ha?
Did you drive it much after it busted or did it just shatter and stop and you're having it towed from there? if you drove it even a little bit then you may have cut up the internals of the Tranny enough to cause a lot of metal to shear from the casing and gears and possibly cloud any real mods he may have done, but if he did some grinding or replacement of parts then after a good parts bath it should come out what he did. TRE's mods are fairly obvious.

[gvr4ever]

Funny as in ha ha they had funny things to say.

He didn't really try and drive it. Just a slow take off, but no go. He must of trashed 1st. 2nd was better, but there was still some grinding. At first I thought he trashed the clutch disk, but after hearing the metal parts grinding and clunking, pretty sure it's the tranny. A ugly sound I must say. Even tho the moment comes and goes real quick like, you think to yourself, Nooooooooo!!!!. The clunk sounds is a moment frozen in time

William

[awd4kicks]

No we didn't go very far after it snaped. Maybe 10 ft. or so trying to diagnose the problem. I'll be flat bed towing it tomorrow. So the majority of the parts should be salvageable and identifiable.

BTW-Since I didn't upgrade to a 4-spider center differential, I'm wondering if that could be it? Shepard said that would be the first thing to go as my power levels went up. Only thing is, it doesn't move at all in first and it does in second...just not quietly.

Marcus

[JMoushon]

If your car is moving then your center diff is probably fine. It does sound like youkilled that first gear though. The double synchro second held up fine though. You may have to replace the synchros for the first and second gear if they are shredded in there. The TRE parts are all over the board now with prices and available upgrades last i checked. So you may have to talk to them when you find out what's actually wrong.
This is Banno BTW

[awdnot2]

Marcus,

Ouch. If I had to guess your first gear lost some teeth. I have a collection of first gears that are missing teeth. At minimum you'll need a new first gear and possibly a new input shaft. The other half of first gear is part of the input shaft.

If you need a 4 spider center diff we can hook you up with that, but I'm sure your current one is still intact.


Darryl

[natedogg]

That sucks man. These DSM transmissions can get very frustrating.

[awd4kicks]

Thanks but don't worry guys...

I've accepted the fact that you have to pay to play when it comes to DSM's breaking parts. I'll ride this as long as my patience and spare money will support the repairs.

I spent most of the weekend getting my truck back on the road so I could tow the Talon to Washburn. Borrowed a trailor and got her in the garage Saturday night. I ended up messing around with the truck more on Sunday after church and didn't start on the transmission until a little after 8PM. With so much experience :roll: I was able to drop the tranny and have it loaded in my truck in about 1.5 to 1.75 hours. I'm taking the 'mission to Josh's tonight. We will open it up and see what the problem is as well as look for Shephards upgrades if there are any.

BTW-I would like to commision the help of at least one other person when I get ready to put this thing back in to the car about a week or so from now. I've installed these transmissions by myself before and it's no fun. I think I added about 45minutes to the install last time I tried it. :x

Marcus

[natedogg]

BTW-I would like to commision the help of at least one other person when I get ready to put this thing back in to the car about a week or so from now.  I've installed these transmissions by myself before and it's no fun.  I think I added about 45minutes to the install last time I tried it. :x  

You were there for me, buddy. I'll be there for you. Just say the word.

[awd4kicks]

Well, we got the transmission apart the other day. It was definitely first gear that took the beating! My beloved GVR4 gear has bit the dust..hard. I've posted a couple pictures under my members area in my misc. folder.

We went ahead and inspected the center dif for kicks. It's all in one piece but makes a little noise and the carrier is galded. I would assume from the high RPM launches.

Anyway, I talked to a few people like John Shephard and Mark at BMtranny.com. Mark, informed me that they have tried and do not use the GVR4 first gear in Jeff hills Turbo Trix DSM anymore. They found it would break too often because of the extra leverage. He also claimed that Jeff's 60ft. times are no different with or with out the GVR4 first gear.

So I'm going to go back to the stock DSM gear in hopes that it will hold up to the abusive launches a little longer than five months. However, I will probably purchase an EPROM ECU and get the TMO rev limiter mod done to keep from hitting the rev cut in first gear.

I may also do the four spider dif to keep from having to pull the transmission again in six months. Dang those things are pricey! Darryl, do you have any good deals cooking on those puppies?

Marcus

[wortdog]

If you need any tranny internals I have a whole set of spares you can have, since the whole thing is no good as a core anyway :twisted: