3rd gear mysteriously disappeared on me during a WOT upshift the day before Thanksgiving...this is the THIRD time in a little over a year that a gear has shattered on me, and this time I didn't even miss a shift..it just wasn't there when I let the clutch out.

I've come to the conclusion that it has to be the re-build job as the same tranny shop has fixed the trans both times before. and I had the car for 2 years BEFORE this all with no problems.

BTW - I'm not using nitrous anymore, and haven't since May (before the last re-build)

I wouldn't say I "beat" on the car either. Some days I got WOT and shift hard a couple times. Some days I don't even get over 4 grand. The latter is more of the norm. The car has only been to the drag strip ONCE since the last re-build.

I really hate this trans.

 

What clutch and flywheel are you using?

 

interesting ... the houdini gear

 

ACT and Stock

 

ding ding ding! another one bites the dust.
my recommendation is to stay away from the ACT.. it's just too hard on the weak Max tranny. I've replaced my tranny twice also, so I know your pain. I'm using a LuK heavy duty clutch currently. I've got about 8 months and 15,000 miles on it already and it's still great. much smoother engagement than the ACT and less pedal effort, yet it's still got the same clamping force as the ACT, so it'll handle the same power.

(AND it's got a warranty.....)

 

How muchy?

 

It was $250 when I bought a reman tranny from them also, so I don't know what "retail" price is. it's bound to be less than the ACT, simply due to the name you're buying.. and maybe the cost of the yellow paint too...

 

Join the club my car is also sitting on jackstands cause it blew 3rd gear. I'm getting the tranny fixed and then loosin the car.

 

Are you guys using the ACT street disc or the stage II or whatever?

 

street disk


but his tranny was fcked before his ACT..

 

doesn't the tranny shop have any sort of warranty, or do they blame the problem on your way of driving??

 

actually the first time that the trans went out was AFTER my ACT was installed.

Maybe it is the clutch....hmmm......

Nadir_s - trans shop has a warranty...but it doesn't cover blown gears...only bearings and assembly issues (leaks etc.)

 

hmmm maybe I have hit the head on the nail. It seems those with ACT clutches are experiencing problems. And I have an auto

 

yea....SLOWmatic

 

how many people apart from Brian have had problems with ACT street clutches?

 

Sprint, I think I'm in this boat. Although my tranny was replaced due to an accident, reports from the rebuild shop say it hadn't leaked enough fluid to be in any form of danger, and the case was in excellent condition. The shop said they can't see how the accident was involved with it, nor could they see how excessive power or aggressive driving could have done this due to the fact that every gear was just totally shredded, and I didn't drive it much after it blew (just rolled it to a stop to get towed). At any rate, I think the ACT may be a culprit, as this happened 10K after I installed the ACT. I should be getting the car back tonight, hopefully I won't have to buy a new clutch. Which clutch is the alternative, I've heard the stillen/centerforce is absolute junk.

 

Doesn't Eric Wong have an ACT too?

What I see here is three Maximas with confirmed gear failures and they're all using ACT clutches. One Maxima is SC'd, one use to run nitrous, and one has a "madd" driver. I think it's quite possible that the extreme grab of the ACT and regular WOT usage could be causing these failures. I guess we should start a "gear failure with the ACT street clutch" thread just to see if others have experienced similar failures.

What kind of failures were people seeing with the puck-style clutches? It's possible the ACT street clutch could cause the same kind of failures, it might just take longer to break.


Dave

 

If the ACT clutch is indeed causing these gear failures, then I would imagine that ANY upgraded clutch would cause problems as well. The ACT is about as smooth as you're going to get for a clutch with a ~40% increase in clamp rate.

FWIW, I have over 50K miles on my ACT and have no problems. Engaging any gear pretty much sucks (not smooth), but it never was on the stock clutch/tranny either.

 

Is this available for 4th Gens? And I don't see how can it have the best of both worlds..(smooth engagement yet hard powerfull shifts)

 

who are the 3?

i know of Brian .. and Eric.. and i don't know if Eric had his clutch when he blew thrid gear the first time.. that and the fact how can you use Eric as a valid resource when he did burn outs on pillows and egg trays

 

I dunno how you can say maybe the power of the ACT is too much, and then come back with a "heavy duty clutch" that has the "same clamping force/handles same power" as an ACT. Maybe I'm missing the point though. I really haven't seen a whole lot of shattered gears on the .org. Little clutch issues in general have been prevalent all the way from OEM to ACT, but they're clutch and not tranny.

The three examples are somewhat of extreme cases, at least with what led to original tranny problems. Any other probs could be somewhat related to the quality of the rebuild, esp w/eric doing his own tranny work. I think there's too many happy ACT owners, or at the least, ACT/aftermarket clutch owners that haven't blown gears over extended periods of time to call the tranny out as a big problem.
If it is, it might be a combo of extreme driving tactics and a once-in-a-while bad tranny.

 

yeah but the thing i don't get is.. *knock on wood* my tranny is still fine..

i redline every gear .. every chance i get.. sometimes i don't warm the car up.. i shift so hard my shift console is broken in two.. i race all the time.. i beat on my tranny so bad.. and i have an ACT clutch.. and i don't see the problems Eric or Brian have..

 

Jaime(JAY25)has an ACT clutch on his SC 4th gen. His seem to be holding up pretty good. And he definitely run his car hard that's for sure.

 

I've also blown my tranny "because" of the ACT. it blew 3rd gear (surprise), and the aftermath of that broke the shift fork and caused it to cross-shift into 2nd and 4th.. so when it was all said and done, gears 2,3, and 4 were all dog food. had to replace the entire tranny- no rebuild possible here, according to the shop.

anyway, the LuK clutch is designed differently.. it's still got the same clamping force as the ACT, but the spring relief and other parts of the clutch are designed for a little softer engagement- which means less severe shocks on the tranny- which means the thing will supposedly last longer.

Of course, all this is from the shop who uses LuK clutches exclusively... BUT.. they also build trannies for some of the high HP cars in the area.. a 12sec VW Corrado SC, 600+ HP supra, tons of Mustangs and Camaros, etc etc. you could assume they know what they're doing...

 

Ive got a luk clutch and its really no different from stock, it was a bit tstiffer for the first few hundred miles but I think any new clutch would be

 

Hmm I guess I am the madd driver (and Im sure it doesnt stand for mothers against drunk driving)

Anyway, I think we are forgetting one variable as well. The Quaife differential. Both me and brian have quaife differetials.

Infact none of my tranny problems (besides the busted differential bearings) happened until after the ACT. And, everytime I blew the tranny, I was on BFGoodrich GForce TA tires 225 50 16 stockers which I'm sure provided mad front/back grip instead of the 235 40 17 Pilots on Momo Arrows. The first time I blew 2nd gear I missed the shift. HOWEVER the 2 times I blew 3rd gear I was driving normal and the car just blew the gear like brian described. The 2nd time 3rd gear went, this was after the guts were cryogenically tempered. It is obvious that the car cant take what I'm putting to it, so I think I'm gonna return it back to stock and quit racing it. It would not surprise me if nissan stuffed a sentra's transmission in our car.

What perplexes me is that mardigrasmax (who's car I've ridden in personally) has a metal/pucked clutch, quaife diffy, place racing mounts AND supercharged yet he has not blown his transmission.

 

For the record my third gear was the one that was just absolutely FRIED and most likely caused the damage to the other gears.

 

I don't know, my car, with an ACT setup, sees plenty of abuse. It's endured numerous full throttle launches at the autocrosses and endured several hundred miles of driving on roadcourses. I've yet to have any issues with it other than I hate getting stuck in traffic with it.

I think Eric has an interesting point about the Quaife units as well. They may very well be putting much more stress on the transmission and greatly contribute to the failures.

 

My first gear failure was WITHOUT the quaife, I ended up getting a quaife since the trans was being re-built anyway.

All three failures were after the install of the ACT clutch. Actually about 4 months after the install, I had my first failure.

I've driven one other car with an ACT (DashingMax's) and it's Supercharged....his ACT didn't seem to have the "rip you head back" grab into each gear that mine has...who knows...maybe all ACTs aren't created equal

 

OH NO! I am so nervous now!
I have the quaife, UR fw, and ACT street HDMM clutch.
It was all installed about March/April 2002 and has been over 10k miles I think. I have not had any problems yet knock on wood. This makes me nervous though! I had my bearing and shims re done at this time. They also fixed one other thing they saw in my tranny, but I do not remember what.

I do have an extended bumper to bumper warrenty until like 102k miles.
I am currently around 86k miles. If my 3rd gear breaks, will the dealer know and see that I have a ACT clutch, UR fw, and the quiafe? Then try to blame it on that and not fix it under warrenty?

 

Brian may be onto something here. That's the one thing that always sticks out in my mind about his car, how it gives me whiplash when he shifts. It grabs so hard you think there's something wrong for a second or two.

 

did you have an ACT Clutch?

 

I've been running ACT clutch, Aluminum Flywheel, and STS for about 13k now. I'm a very aggressive drive love to race. Redline every chance i get. Dump the clutch and spin the tires alot. I've snapped exhaust studs, and i think i just snapped a tranny mount.
I've ran at the track quite abit and i've ran Drag radials at the track as well
dumping the clutch at 5k rpm's with drag radials sends you flying out of the hole.


but amazingly i have no tranny problems what so ever
-knock on wood-
Thank god but it's been great
the ACT chatters and is ruff as hell.
When i shift hard it wheel hops my car so bad i've scared the hell out of my passangers before. And it slams you into your seat.
It's great
hope to god i have no problems though

 

Dave i did a couple tests today..

I rode the clutch slowly in first gear from start off.. and i got 0 chatter.. i even tried 2nd Gear a couple times .. no chatter..

all you guys with chatter from your ACT clutch.. i urge you to change yoru motor mounts now

 

Sorry to hear that man, i had the same thing happen to my car once. I was shifting into 3rd pretty hard and bam the fu*king 3rd gear blew up. Im running the same setup as you (act with stock fly). Its been doing fine since i got it rebuilt but i really havent driven it hard since that. I hope everything works out for you man.

 

When i ride my clutch my ACT doesn't chatter that bad.
you have bad engine mounts sprint?
i thought mine were ok.
My engine doesn't bounce around or anything

 

yup

 

i had bad motor mounts and i was getting chatter.. i just replaced my motor mounts and i don't have any chatter now..

 

I thinnk the problems are more common on DSM Eclipse. My friend had some problem with shifting from 1st to 2nd, it would make a grinding noise. So most times he would shift 1st to 3rd no problem with no grinding, and 3rd to 2nd with no grinding. He was told to open up his shifter area and look at the bushings/springs. It is not fully resolved, but the mechanic was able to alleviate the grinding noise, not sure what he exactly did.



- ßaller

 

I had bad chatter with my ACT and Fidanza flywheel...I got all new mounts but the right engine mount and reinforced them with poly and now Im gettin less but still alittle bit...Mostly if I'm moving slowly or parking if I let the engine go down too low it chatters...unlike the stock clutch all it will do is bog alittle bit and its hard to make the stock one do that...as for chatter Im gettin less...I even get it sometimes through a turn if I downshift into 2nd around the turn..chatters as it engages

I think my clutch is f'd up

-Matt