I'd like to get some people's opinions on what to do with my transfer case. I'm almost positive the ring and pinion is still good at this point. I have only been to the track twice (on my old clutch) and came out of the hole pretty cautiously due to the fact that I'm paranoid of braking something. It makes a slight whine noise, but nothing like the death whine I've heard on these forums and it hasn't gotten any louder in the past year and a half.

The car is an '03 with TBE, boost controller, open filter, and a tune by Dynoflash (<-didn't know any better at the time!). It has a spec stage 3 six puck (sprung hub) on the car, but this was after the track. I haven't launched the car since the clutch was on it, as I'm sure the TCase wouldn't last very long. The clutch grabs instantly and there is about a millimeter of room to slip it.

1. Should I proactively replace my transfer case and save the $1,200 for my in tact ring and pinion now? I have the money now, but would wait till next year.

2. How much will it cost to swap out the old transfer case for the new one (labor only). I have done basic work on the Evo, but this is out of my league (despite what alot of people think about the ease of this job.) I would probably take it to AMS, as they are about 20 minutes from me. For parts, I would go with shep and have researched the prices for his parts.

3. Would the stage 2 tcase from shep be pretty stout for my application. I plan to keep the clutch and eventually go to a FP green + supporting mods and about 400 awhp. It won't be a drag car, but I'd like to go to 2 to 3 times a year with my buddies and not have to worry about aggressive launches. Also, it would see occassional street launches.

3. Would the car even hold up for one harsh launch on this clutch on teh stock transfer case?

 

 

if you can afford to upgrade the tcase now, do it and throw in a lsd while you are at it.

the tcase will hold up to launching, however you still have to launch correctly. anything will break if you just start dumping the clutch at 7k rpm

idk how much the swap would cost, cause i did it myself, its really not that hard if you have some muscle.

I have a TRE stg2 tcase on my car right now and the lsd made a world of difference

 

the whining he is describing is probably just transmission noise, he said it has been there for a year and a half now, and its not loud

if you have the death whine, you KNOW you have the death whine

 

Thats what I though too. I had a whine one day out of nowhere which I thought was just some slight windnoise. It didn't not get worse until almost 2 years later and thats when I finally knew it was the tcase.

 

I would go with the Shep Stage 2 w/ Helical LSD. You probably don't need the Quaife LSD unless you're really into serious competition. This will get you the upgraded spider gears and the LSD that came in 03-04 RS's. It also uses bigger bolts. Like the other guys said, as with any transfer case, they're not indestructable. One guy I know blew up a Stage 3 tcase after a short time.

 

Thanks guys. Any way to tell if you're tcase is shot without taking it out? I doubt mine is, but I really can't be sure.

 

if it whines in 1st gear until 20mph its normal