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Gear Vendors

4K views 16 replies 12 participants last post by  diver 
#1 ·
http://www.gearvendors.com

Anyone know anything about these? They sound way cool. I would love a 6 speed on my Auto C4. It might be a future... very distant future... purchase. Thoughts on these?
 
#5 ·
Put one in my 454 SS behind the turbo 400. Loved it. Increased gas mileage with the 4:11 still in place. Cruised at 75 @2300, quiet,shfted itself, everything you could ask for. Lasted almost 20,000 miles. Repair cost almost half the price of a new one at gear vendors. They wouldn't sell me the parts to do it myself. So now it is a 3,000$ shelf sitter, right next to the 12V electric supercharger my daughter gave me. :mad:
 
#7 ·
We have built full house power glide trannys in Dedenbear cases with a gear vendors unit on the back for monster trucks. The monster trucks would use them on the longer race courses they run for a higher speed.

Monster truck guys tell us they run 2,000 hp motors
 
#8 ·
I loooooove mine. I have one behind a Caddy 500/TH400 and it tames my 3.42s down nicely. Not that 3.42 needs too much taming, but we are talking about an engine that redlines at 3800 :)

I tow a lot with it and its just darn near transparent in operation. Pretty easy to install, foolproof plug and play kinda thing.

The thing is, when I bought mine, they were only about $2200 and a 4L80E conversion with computer was $3000 or more. Now those tables have turned. The GV is $3000 and the 4L80E setup is getting cheaper especially with products like the megashift computer. In your case, an AOD is easier to swap and cheaper, but it all depends on what you want.
 
#9 ·
I have a Gear Vendor as well. I have had it for ~5 years. No problems. I only paid $2500 for mine directly from them. They will handle 1200HP in stock form and can be modified to handle more. I really like it but, it's not cheap. If you have a tight tranny driveshaft tunnel you might want to make sure you have room for it. In my 70 Camaro it was a tight fit but, those cars are known for having small driveshaft tunnels. When people ask me about Gear Vendors this is what I tell them, if you have a healthy 3 speed tranny with the proper stall for your combo and are making ~500HP or more, then a GV might be the way to go. If you have a mild street rod, just have a 700R4 or 200-4R built the price will be about the same in the end and you will have the lock-up feature

61bone,
I would be interested in hearing what went wrong with yours or why it need a rebuild. What price did they quote you for a rebuild? A new unit with all the electronics, etc.. was only $2500.

Royce
 
#10 · (Edited)
#13 ·
61bone,
I would be interested in hearing what went wrong with yours or why it need a rebuild. What price did they quote you for a rebuild? A new unit with all the electronics, etc.. was only $2500.

Royce[/QUOTE]

The pump went bad and let the clutch slip. The oil was changed with the recommended oil at the recommended interval. Quoted me 750 for a reman ( if theyr'e so good , why do they have remans) plus shipping both ways or rebuild mine starting at 750 plus shipping both ways and another driveshaft rebuild. I can't afford this every 20k
Its true that the cost was "only" 2500 but we also had 2 driveshaft rebuilds,my time for puttin and takin, 200 towing. a 100 for the motel, a bunch for a rental car for 3 days to get home and to work till I could get it running again. I know that the unit will still function with the od out but I couldn't stand all the crunchin and grinding and knowing that there were going to be bearing issues before I got home.
You made me think about it again and now I'm really :mad:
 
#14 ·
Bone,
I think you took my "only $2500" the wrong way. What I was saying is if the whole kit is $2500 (OD, brain, speed sensor, coupler, adapter, etc..), then how much could a rebuilt unit cost. I was in no way saying $2500 was chump change. Not sure about your driveshaft situation.

My GV has been perfect even behind my blown engine and some drag strip abuse, lots of street miles as well. Maybe you just got a bad unit. The reason they offer rebuilds/remans, is because they are often used in motor homes and tow rigs that get tons of miles put on them and like anything mechanical parts wear out. If it costs me $750 every 5 years, I don't think that's bad. I asked the price because I'm building a new car and have been thinking of sending my GV back to be freshened up while it's out of the car. For $750 I'll send it to them for peace of mind.
 
#15 ·
61Bone -- The GV unit is based on the old Laycock-DeNormanville OD used in most British cars of the late 60s and early 70s. It was used for 2-3 years by AMC in the mid 70s behind T-150 manual three speeds. That's how GV got started -- they bought up the surplus units from AMC and made new adapters. Shortly after they got manufacturing rights and started producing a beefed up unit. I don't know if the pump is that much different, or they just made stronger gears.

In general these things are pretty reliable. There are plenty of MGs and even a few AMCs still running around with them. Of course those were smaller engines -- AMC only used it behind the 258 six, no V-8s, and MG behind fours.

Sounds like you just got a bad pump. Everyone makes a lemon on occasion, no matter how strict the quality control. Your experience is one I've never heard much of about GV. They usually last 5+ years and 80K+ miles, at least when just used as a high gear.

Gear splitting is harder on them, I can tell you that from experience with the Borg-Warner units! The old Borg-Warner OD and the GV OD are the same as far as how they increase the gear ratio. The difference is the BW uses an electric solenoid to engage OD and the GV unit uses a hydraulic pump and servo. Low or dirty oil can cause failure in the GV unit. It doesn't hold much either.

I've "blown up" a BW unit, mainly from gear splitting. In my case I wasn't doing anything to eliminate torque input when dropping out of OD like the factory wiring does. I didn't have anything set up to cut torque input during the down-shift (OD drop-out). This eventually lead to catastrophic failure -- one of the planetary gear shafts (the weakest parts) broke. Sounded like a shotgun blast under the floor! Nothing comes out, that gear just jams in the drum and locks the input and out put shafts, so you just lose OD and free wheeling. Scares the crap out of you though! I figured out why this happened (no engine torque cut-out) afterwards.

I don't know how GV does it, but the BW wiring momentarily grounds out the coil when dropping out of OD. It's so quick that you don't even hear or feel the skip, only skips one or two cylinders in the middle of the shift. I used a BW unit behind an EFI engine and was concerned about grounding the coil -- didn't know how the computer would handle that. So I rigged a relay to the ignition module. The relay would cut power to the module for that fraction of a second rather than ground the coil. Results were the same. It was short enough that a code wasn't set in the computer.

In short, I'd just use the thing as a high gear only, no splits. The GV unit is supposed to be much stronger than the old BW and LD units though. With an auto trans (the BW and LD were used behind manuals only AFAIK) as long as you let off the gas during a downshift there should be no torque on the OD unit. With a manual there can be unless you use the clutch. I don't know what GV recommends as far as shifting, or how the auto controller works.
With most three speed trannys (auto and manual), splitting really doesn't help. Second and OD is just about the same as third w/o OD. Very little difference. Same with 1-2. I was just playing with mine setup that way, there was no real need to split shift.

AMC had a setup designed to shift as a five speed (Twin-Stick -- a long three speed floor shift w/OD kick down button on the shifter, and a short stick beside it for OD lock-out instead of an underdash handle). But the three speed manual trans had a big jump between 2nd and 3rd. Shift like a normal three speed and you could tell! It was designed to shift 1-2-2OD-3-3OD. That's why the kick down button was on the shifter -- easy to hit it when shifting from 2OD to 3. That was used from 63-65, right before four speeds started being used.
 
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