Jay

So yeah since a bunch of people on FB wanted to see what's up here are pics.

We drove up to Jackie's parent's house in Chicago just fine. Got settled in and the next day met up with some Chicago VR-4 peeps. Well, her differential decided it had it's last launch and sent steel parts flying out of the aluminum case. We were a mile from her parents house when it happened and limped the car home leaving a snail trail of gearbox oil.

Luckily this happened on the first day and we could take a step back and consider our options.

Option 1 (Cheap): Buy a transmission from a junkyard. Unknown mileage, unknown seals, unknown if we could get home on it or not. As-is means no recourse to the business.

Option 2 (Expensive): Buy a transmission from KORMEX transmissions and get a warranty, customer service, a freshly rebuilt transmission, and peace of mind.

I bit the bullet on Monday went with option 2. I paid $1,150 for the trans and $300 for expedited shipping to get it to Chicago on Thursday. (We have to be at work this coming Monday morning).

So, I push her car into her parents garage and begin removal of the transmission with a roadside toolkit. It made me really miss my tool collection back home. After 6-7 hours spent over Monday-Wednesday I got the old one out. Man, not having my tools really sucked.

Then on Thursday morning (today) I see Santa Claus driving the big brown truck. The box gets dropped off and UPS managed not to crack the case in shipping. So I take it out and inspect it and one of the helicoils is messed up (not a big deal) but there's a hole in the bellhousing!

@#$^)($#&@$#(&#)(@&$)MOTHERFUCKER

So now I'm taking pictures and calling KORMEX and demanding them to refund a fair amount. I did not pay $1,450 for a transmission with a hole in it. Once I get done sending pics I can THEN figure out how to repair the new trans (JB Weld) and install it with this 12 piece Fisher-Price tool kit.

So, there's my once a year vacation so far. We wanted to stop in Indianapolis on the way back to Virginia Beach to go to the 2010 3000GT/Stealth Nationals and by god we'll be there tomorrow. It's going to be a LATE night.

Pics:

OLD







NEW

Jay

So now I want to be wrenching but I'm waiting by the phone before I begin.

coryface

yeeeah. that's not a good spot for a hole.

Rich

Oh, this would be too easy....lol

<3 Cory muffin



That sucks Jay.

coryface

Went there just for you, Richie Rich. Wasn't expecting you to pass up the opportunity.

RandomTask

Looks like a fun vaca.

Fiziks

Insert Mitsu reliability joke here.

Wasn't the silver VR4 putting down gobs of power on the same stock diff, the same one your gonna use on the V8 build?

Jay

no no no... that's the Getrag rear diff I was talking about. No one has broken one, and the AMS EVO uses one in the rear of thier drag car and they haven't broken it. But, I don't think I'm going to use that rear again with the silver car.

With Jackie's car starting life as an N/A, and getting the twin turbo conversion (minus the AWD conversion) her transmission isn't the beefy Getrag with the beefy front diff, and, well... they break.

jrod

good luck with it all. at least you have a story to reminisce

SMOKEYBEAR

Wrenching on your car out of town always sucks. At least you are not on the Cape Hatteras point doing it in the sand. I had to rebuild my front drive shaft out there twice now. U-joints in the sand are not fun.