Ok so I have my Evo 8 and I seem to be having some bad luck with breaking drivetrain components

Last night it started a howling / whining noise - if it were coming from the rear in a rear drive car I would say crown wheel and pinion - however its coming out the front area above road speeds of 80mph - ie fourth and fifth etc - I was driving like a loon in the rain, launching, sliding and getting lots of opposite lock going - but I even had my boost turned to 15psi so its not boosting - normally shes up at 27+ psi with proper fuel

I have searched and found lots of people - saying - tcase blown - but what exactly breaks to cause this howl ? and the transfer case itself is intact so its inside that I presume

What type of repair am I in for ? the howl is pretty soft at the moment and a few cranks on the volume knob will cover it....

I had her on a lift a few hours ago and if shes in second gear idling along and I pull the handbrake up it locks the rear wheels and the front continue turning - someone suggested this was a method of testing tcase - however thinking of it logically this just tests the handbrake out - I can turn the front wheels and the opposite wheel turns the opposite direction - exactly as expected, turning the rear wheels does not do this but then my evo 8 has super ayc so I wouldnt expect it.

What do I check ? do I get the tcase out - is it definetly the tcase ? what fails ? I have seen pics of spider gears broken - but then I presume the car wouldnt run ?
the car still runs although I can feel there is more front wheel bias than before
Help !!!!

I will give teamrip a call on Monday but am hoping to get some clues today over the weekend from the gurus here
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I did post this in "advanced" a week ago but there isnt much traffic in there

 

Not much sometimes! Here is a pic of my ring gear taken out of a working t-case. At first look it was ok, but as soon as Jon from TRE magnafluxed it the cracks lit up light a Griswald x-mas tree. If you look you can see the larger crack near the root of the gear around 7 o-clock, and you can also see some gear compation on a few of the teeth around 9 o-clock. Thats all it takes to trash a $2500 t-case.

 

Here is what "let go" on my Transfer Case.

 

ok so it looks like the howl is caused by the ring and pinion mesh going out - and this is probably due to nature of the transfer case, where the BIG gear drives a small gear - the sideloads on this must be immense - no wonder shimming does wonders before the damage is done - I wonder what effect shimming does after the ring / pinion gets damaged

Those splines look nasty !!

 

Shimming won't help if the gear is cracked and damaged. With mine what looked like hardly anything to the naked eye was a $2000 bill to fix it. On mne if you look close you can see how the gear teeth were compacted from the pinon gear and a hard launch.

 

$2000 ...
...wonder how bad my case looks?

 

Is there anyone besides TRE and Shep in the US that builds beefed up TC's and transmissions for the Evo? I looked but, wasn't finding much.

Also what sources are there for parts. I looked at Richmond gear, Precision gear, and Gear motive but, had no luck with them. I haven't tried Dana yet. The only set I found was the 4.11 set from HKS Kansai but, I have a feeling you're paying mostly for the JDM aspect of that gear set.

If there was enough interest I know some people at Richmond gear and could probably get them to work on a bulletproof gear set for the Evo. I've been debating calling them anyway.

 

Why would you need anyone else? Almost every fast Evo/DSM in the country runs one of these two trannies!

And their prices are fair. You can buy a new stock (unmodified) Trans or TC from either of them for the same or less than most dealers charge. And they don't rape you on the mod prices either.

I'm not hating, I guess I just don't see why you would want to go elsewhere.

 

If anyone has a broken t-case laying around PM me. I am looking for a part for 03-04 t-case.

 

Because it never hurts to have options. With all the places near me that build race car transmissions I was hoping someone like Jericho or Tex would get into rebuilding them. Even if I could just get the parts there are guys I work with that could do the rebuild for me which, keeps me from having to ship it either half or all the way across the country adding more down time.

Nothing against TRE or Shep. I just prefer to keep my business as close to local as possible that's all. It makes it much easier if there is ever a problem and it's just nice to actually know the people doing the work.

I'm sure TRE and Shep do great work but, I've also heard stories (which may or may not be the situation all the time) of them being backed up because they are the only two that do this kind of work. Quick turnaround is a big thing for me since, the car is my daily driver.

 

What do the rally guys use ?
surely the Group N rallycars use an upgraded gearset maybe someone like ricardo etc make upgraded crown wheel and pinions ? does anyone know ?

 

I found a dealer for these guys in MD. It looks like they do gearbox stuff mostly. I'm not seeing anything regarding the TC.

http://www.ppgearbox.com.au/html/products.htm

 

I may be wrong Hylt, but when you pull up the hand brake it opens the center diff, thus locking the rear wheels and allowing the fronts to continue to rotate.

I've had all my car on a lift, if I turn the rear wheels (not sure if they spin in the opposite direction like the fronts do) but if I turn the rears all 4 wheels rotate, and from what i read only your rears turn, is this correct?

Would this not be related to your prevoius problem with the reverse shaft in the g/b? .... if you know what i'm saying?

Mike

 

I didnt carry on checking as I realised it wasnt spline damage or something like that - the damn stealers dont do parts of these things - its the entire thing or nothing !!!

 

Are you serious?!! how much? did you manage to get hold of that guy in Pretorisa for the gearboxes?

Why not get a biult one from shep?

Mike