Little background for those that may not have been around for years. I had a trans race built before building the motor. Have had lots of issues that shouldn't happen and perservered through them to a degree. This trans had a noise and bang start after being out a record five times in one summer. I pulled the plug on that trans (I'll refer to it as #1) and built myself another, myself. It was my first rebuilding experience and I learned a lot. After a lot of pounding that trans had an odd feeling, which is what led me to pull the entire drivetrain and put my Bonneville back to stock. Let'* call that trans #2 which I'll dig into after #1 is all set.

Popped the side cover off built trans #1, found what the noise and possible harsh shifting was caused by.


Those little metal blobs were screws that held the reluctor to the 7/8" gear. Yes, this is an issue I've had in this trans 3 times before. The bushing is eaten in half and parts missing.


Channel plate is a bit dug up ...




Found part of the bushing in the 4th piston assembly


The lube scoop is wearing pretty sparkles


Another piece of the bushing halfway down the casing.


I shut the trans down after two bang starts and some noise. The noise was the reluctor. I noticed in pulling out the input/3rd clutch housing that the input clutches are very sloppy with tons of play. When this trans was last rebuilt it was done twice because the input piston seal was bad, the worn out clutches have me wondering if I was that hard on it and they wore or if they weren't replaced when they were worn from the seal being bad. And the 7/8" chain is stretched to within the acceptable spec of 1/8" to the casing when you push on it. It'* close and not worth trying to save.

Hmm, almost looks like the thrust washer came apart and then caused all the other problems. Is it possible it was out of place when put together? Or the bolts holding the reluctor wheel on came out and ripped it apart.

Man I wish I had the space to keep a spare trans that I could just dig into.

Even though I don't know what half of that is, very interesting pictures Bill.

That reluctor issue has happened 4 times in this transmission. This was a gear set from Intense (as were two others before it) and the screws backed out then chewed things up. The bushing was still partially there. Two of the screws came out. On the previous ones the same thing occurred. Then there was one reluctor that a hack put in from a stock trans. That failed quickly because a stock reluctor with 3 pins in drilled out and egged out holes was never going to hold up.

The official count is
3 Intense reluctors 0
1 Stock reluctor that didn't have a chance 0
Transmission 4

Makes me wonder a couple of things, I know the engine would rev very quickly and probably give this thing whiplash, but did the threadlocker get eaten by the trans fluid? Might have to do an experiment to see if there'* an issue. I know the last builder and I ensured this had thread locker on these screws.

Maybe you should thread lock the screws with a stronger locktite or epoxy them in??

Bill and I talked about locktite, but thought it might break down in the trans fluid. Wonder if a dab of JBweld would work. Just enough to hold the threads.

We use locktite all the time. The fluid is not really going to get on the threads anyway.
I'd do it in a second.

There you go Bill, use Loctite.

I used Locktite Cyanoacrylates in commercial applications many times and never had an issue with solvents. Heat is your enemy with it, though I dont see a tranny hitting 400+ needed to soften it. If you really want "tight", switch to one of their Hysol two part epoxys. Even better solvent resistance and they say takes thermal shock.

Here'* the rub, these were loctited....each of the 4 times.
Talked to Dave at TEP yesterday, he has a good amount of experience with these being screwed down and his gear sets don't come with screwed down reluctors. He mentioned that these don't always sit flush, there'* a lot of vibration etc and he thinks that may factor into it. Being that I don't plan on this trans going back into a car behind the same motor, my plans are to pick up a new reluctor and the V8 chains. Most guys are using them well into the low to mid 12'*. The car I'd put the trans into won't be a track car, it might go 1-2 times in it'* life and that'* all.

Last night I cleaned up the valve body a bit while waiting for a buddy. Looks good so far and the valves appear to be ok. Time to start sourcing the chains, and probably get some different steels/new input clutches to fix the slop in the input housing clutch stack.