In house MT82 rebuild saga

[Mad Hatter]

Well. the ongoing saga of MT82 failures goes on.... Just installed box number 5! This time around we had too do the rebuild in house. My buddy just got a Calimer tranny from VMP and by the time customs and duty were done it came out to US$2700....... So, we took my spare MT82, recently repaired by a local tranny shop, out to install.... But my mechanic did did not like the way the tranny felt when spun it by hand..... So we took it apart..... and found it was full of nylon string with three gear clusters with obvious damage and several bearings sounding very rough...

As luck would have it, when we picked up the locally repaired tranny from the shop they gave us all the "old" parts.... Which turned out to be new....they had not bothered to install what i had imported for them!!! So, we got a crash course in rebuilding a MT82. Out with the worn parts and in with the new, Chinese bearings out! and some Japanese ones in...(one needed a trip to the machine shop to get too the right size). The gears got the oil ports polished and we added two more per bearng for a total of four. The gear box housing got tapped for the return line from the tranny oil cooler with the cool oil going directly over the fifth gear assembly. Now the tranny is in and looking forward to seeing how it does. Installing tranny oil temp gauge along with engine oil temp and pressure (plus a idiot light just for me!!!)..... all this because I did not like spending the extra cash on a Magnum XL!!

I hope now with the MGW 2 race shifter, the Transmission bushing, BMR engine supports, 3.31 rear gear going in soon, Amsoil tranny oil etc etc.... Maybe now it will last a while... That, and nicer, kinder... shifting.

 

[Drlee50]

That sounds like a shitty trans shop to do that to you.
Rebuilding a manual trans is not that bad really. The gears and syncros only go one way. If you have a nice big table and can take it apart and lay it all out in order and rebuild one piece by one piece, its not bad at all. Some cases you need to buy or fab up a case spreader and having a press for some bearing races is needed but other than that, its not too complicated. Good snap ring pliers are a must.
Yes, the Magnum may look better now price wise but thats just how it goes with race cars. Id rather know my trans and be able to pop it open and swap out a shift fork or something at the track if I needed to in a pinch on a race weekend. The best is to have a spare trans and just swap them out yearly for a fresh one and you take some time and replace the syncros and the bronze guides and anything worn on the used one and save $ and time in the long run. Especially if the local places dont do that great of a job on the rebuilds for you anyway.
Nice job!

 

[ArizonaBOSS]

Wow that sounds like a cluster, especially the bait-and-switch by the "rebuilders". Hope this all comes together nicely for you.

 

[302BOB]

What's the story with trannys now a days? Back in the late 60's, early70's, cars were rockn n rollin with no problems! These days, Guys like Mad Hatter and others are having all kind of troubles...Heaven forbid they race their cars.It seems to me the quality of manufacture may have declined a bit over the years??..............................Thank God my Boss is only around for a Giddy up moment once and a while....

 

[Mad Hatter]

Actually, I only blew one gear on the street. All the rest have been at the track... Poor beast spends most of its life at the track, or coming and going from the track.... or the garage preparing for the track!! So far so good in the Championship!!

 

[TMSBOSS]

What's the story with trannys now a days? Back in the late 60's, early70's, cars were rockn n rollin with no problems!

In the 60’s and 70’s we had 4 speeds and they did break. Try to find a Muncie which has not had the countershaft bores fixed as well as having the countershaft gears replaced, 4 rows of 14 needle bearings, if I remember correctly. Second gear syncros were good for 50k miles on the street, maybe.
Muncie had to develop the rock crushed M-22 to deal with any kind of real power. Back in the day, An extremely stout street car put 300hp to the ground, maybe. Any boss with 300hp is throwing codes and needs repair.
I agree, the MT-82 has issues. But be cautious comparimg Apple to oranges without recalling some of the challenges we had with transmissions in the “Good Ole Days” oh yea, don’t forget the muncie shifters. This lovely part in itself made Hurst famous, because they replaced that piece of trash. I would place George’s shifters as necessary just like the Hurst of old. Some things have changes, some, not so much.

 

[302BOB]

Yes. things will fail, that's a given. let's just hope what we got won't.. or shouldn't.....that's probably going too far!...Flat out is just enough for......................................me....

 

[Mad Hatter]

What's the story with trannys now a days? Back in the late 60's, early70's, cars were rockn n rollin with no problems!

In the 60’s and 70’s we had 4 speeds and they did break. Try to find a Muncie which has not had the countershaft bores fixed as well as having the countershaft gears replaced, 4 rows of 14 needle bearings, if I remember correctly. Second gear syncros were good for 50k miles on the street, maybe.
Muncie had to develop the rock crushed M-22 to deal with any kind of real power. Back in the day, An extremely stout street car put 300hp to the ground, maybe. Any boss with 300hp is throwing codes and needs repair.
I agree, the MT-82 has issues. But be cautious comparimg Apple to oranges without recalling some of the challenges we had with transmissions in the “Good Ole Days” oh yea, don’t forget the muncie shifters. This lovely part in itself made Hurst famous, because they replaced that piece of trash. I would place George’s shifters as necessary just like the Hurst of old. Some things have changes, some, not so much.

Too true. We had a fleet of Land Rover Defenders with UK built MT82s.... many of them had over 300.000km of nothing but offroad use... naturally many things failed...... but not the trannies. Not one in 17 jeeps. But thats with 125hp and 200 ft/lbs of torque!!

I am a little relieved to see that the tremec trannies do have problems as well!

Sent from my SM-G900M using Tapatalk

 

[2012Boss302]

What's the deal with the string????

 

[Mad Hatter]

Looks like it was used to keep the assembly together when they mounted it in the case.... We just took apart the old tranny we took out out of the car..... and guess what.... Its got string as well!!!! Shitty shops are all too common down here.... Glad I have a good mechanic now who likes me to come by and help out when ever I want.

 

[Grant 302]

But thats with 125hp and 200 ft/lbs of torque!

Might have something to do with them lasting in the Land Rovers...

I do remember early complaints about it being a 'truck trans'. Didn't bother me though.

Maybe the string helps bring back repeat customers.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Am a internal optimist!! Hoping that a properly built MT82 with good cooling and top notch oil, might acutally last. But I liked your idea of the 3.33 rear end, it will give a top speed of 134Hp in fourth, and thats a stronger gear. Its here sitting here in a box waiting to be put in.

 

[Swine]

Am a internal optimist!! Hoping that a properly built MT82 with good cooling and top notch oil, might acutally last. But I liked your idea of the 3.33 rear end, it will give a top speed of 134Hp in fourth, and thats a stronger gear. Its here sitting here in a box waiting to be put in.

Considering going to a 3.55. I have it sitting here ready to go in but my tire diameter decision matters. Im floating between a 285/35 and a 275/40 on my 18x10's.

As for trans failures then and now, high rpm/rotational speed and high hp applications are challenging. Hi rpm/rotational speed means parts need to be light weight, light weight means strength gets compromised... and mustang typically uses budget running gear so ford can make its margin. As a result in extreme racing conditions...there can be issues even with some modification

 

[Mad Hatter]

Considering going to a 3.55. I have it sitting here ready to go in but my tire diameter decision matters. Im floating between a 285/35 and a 275/40 on my 18x10's.

I think you would be fine with those tires (maybe a 295/35-18??)... I was running 295/30-19 at 25" diameter and will be running 315/30-18 at 25.6" Right now I have 320/650-18 at 25.8"

 

[blacksheep-1]

You need to cruise through the ultra low buck autocross thread and look over the T45 rebuild.

https://trackmustangsonline.com/threads/the-ultra-lo-buck-autocross-car.13356/

 

[Grant 302]

Does it include string?

 

[Mad Hatter]

String extra... and it has to be blue!!

 

[302BOB]

I got no string!...Good thing I got what I got..................and it don't need no string!!!!............

 

[Mad Hatter]

Here, if you want to know where to put your string..... Its even in a bow tie!! Straight from the shop after the rebuild..... with all the grim and pieces of rag intact.....

 

[Grant 302]

Crazy. One more thing to add to the list of reasons why I do my own wrenching.