Hi All,

I'm running into some confusion and would appreciate your input
regarding my 914 transmission. I rebuilt the transmission myself but
it exhibits a nasty resonance at around 5400 RPM which I want to get
rid of. I took the transmission to a local shop (Rennsport Systems)
but it's been over two months and they haven't started working on it
yet due to a large backlog of work. Rennsport said the rebuild would
probably cost $2K to $3K. There's a newly rebuilt 914 transmission on
Ebay for $1,850, shipping is $200 and I would have to ship back my old
transmission to them as a rebuildable core for $200 (core cost is $750
if I don't ship it back).
In short, would you grit your teeth and wait until Rennsport got
around to rebuilding the transmission or would you buy the rebuilt one
from Ebay?

The e-bay link is here at:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Porsche-914...sspagenameZWD1V

Thanks for any input you might have.
Cheers,
Tim

I'd talk to Dr Evil first. He is the man with tranny's. I don't trust some stuff I see on ebay.

Spoke

Tom at carquip (shop on ebay) is a very knowledgeable guy, I drive by there every day, and chat with him weekly. We have become friends.

I know nothing about the particular box listed on ebay, but I have seen some of his work and can say it's very good, very $$, but you get what you pay for.

If I can help, let me know.

Ferg

the noise could be from a bad bearing, or it could be the ring and pinion were not set correctly.

There are a few places that can fix this easily.
If Dr Evil is to busy, there is a guy in CT that advertises in Panorama who I have heard nothing but good things.
He knows how to set the ring and pinion correctly.

Considering your location, bring it to Gary Emory at Parts Obsolete.
He can do it, has has the tools and the knowhow.

Rich

I've been following your blog, thanks for all the work you put into it. It's interesting to see the real world issues with an electric conversion and the solutions you've found.

Anyway, if Rennsport still hasn't touched it in two months, the first thing you should do is go pick it up and tell them to forget it. Don't call ahead of time or they'll say they just started it. $3000 is absolute top dollar and the fact that you weren't moved up to top priority after agreeing to it is troubling. Two months is ridiculous.

I agree with Ferg, I think carquip is creditable and it just depends on your situation as to whether time or money is more important to you right now.

The only problem I see with sending your current trans to Dr. Evil is that if your only issue is a 5400 rpm resonance then there's a good chance that there won't be anything particularly obvious upon inspection. They can be some of the most difficult things to troubleshoot, being almost impossible to identify on visual inspection. I've seen a couple similar cases where even after a several attempts to solve the problem a new box had to be sourced. Of course it could be something simple that's relatively obvious on tear down. It's a roll of the dice. It's so inexpensive to just buy another transaxle that your core is almost not worth the cost of shipping it, especially considering that the problem may be difficult to identify. Dr. Evil offers a very reasonable refreshing service which may or may not be able to solve your problem.

You could try putting a WTB known good transaxle ad in the classifieds. They pop up pretty regularly and Greg Robins may have one available for around $750 or so.

I'd also suggest checking with Brad Mayeur at 914 LTD in Illinois. His prices are very fair, he's been doing this for a very long time and he should have plenty of cores. He recently had a 13k mile original trans on ebay that he has had for something like 20 years. I think he opened it up and replaced the seals. He probably still has it and I bet he'd part with it for around $1500. Not a bad deal at all for what it is. To me that's a much better value than paying twice that much to have yours gone through again.

rebuilt 800.00
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=78858

Thanks to everyone for their excellent advice and suggestions! I appreciate the personal e-mails and quick response. This is the final step in completing a 914 conversion to an electric vehicle for me. For those who are interested, my EV conversion blog is at 914ev.blogspot.com

Cheers,
Tim

I'll PM ya, too. I would bet that your pinion depth is not correct and this would mean that a shop with the special tool would be best to redo it. $3000 is very high, not unreasonable, though. I charge $500 for a rebuild (labor) plus the cost of parts. Shipping coast to coast is $72 via Gray Hound. Core trannies that I have here locally are $200. So, if it is cheaper I can sell you a core ($200), rebuild it ($500 + about $600 for a new 1st) and ship it to you ($75) all for Less than $1500, I would back it up, give you diagnostics and pics of the internals as well as not charge you for what you dont need.

I would not spend the money on having someone reset your r/p or chase a vibe since cores are so inexpensive and can be cheaply rebuilt if you know where to shop. Also, you said you rebuilt your tranny soI am expecting that you have most if not all of the new parts that I would recommend.

He redid my intermediate plate with the weltmiester billet on a tranny that I bought on Ebay for only $500 and it was a lucky buy letme tell ya. That thing was tossed all overhell by the shippers and luckily made it safe......The Doc is the 'Man'. I lucked out but I am sure it can be rebuilt for much less with the doc

A Carquip rebuild (the unit on ebay) should be pretty hard to beat from a quality standpoint. My .02

http://www.carquip.com/