Hopefully the shop will treat you fairly under the circumstances. Is the direct clutch dual fed? I do not like the HD-2 newer shift kit that has a the multi layer spacer plate. I like dual feeding them like a th400. Any questions feel free to contact me. maybe at least consider a billet forward clutch hub and if you are really going to push it, a billet intermediate shaft. What kind of clutches are you using? If you are launching pretty hard pay attention to your 1-2 shift. If you are not using a deep pan its will more than likely have a slight flare. AWD's launch really hard most cases almost zero slip. Deep pans keep the filter submerged in fluid eliminating pump cavitation. We had this problem with Pat's transmission, he is pretty in tune with his vehicle and I must admit I did not feel it until he brought it to my attention. I still didn't believe it until we installed a pressure gage. You can see it way before you feel it. Just some food for thought.

 

Currently I am running a 3" pulley that is giving me 12lbs. Between the new cam and going from shorty's to the 1 7/8 LT's i lost 3lb's on the rebuild. I am sure I am going to want to put the 2.75" pulley back on sooner or later, it gave me 18lb's before.

 

They seem pretty concerned with the failure and want to make sure I don't have any more issues. They had nothing to do with the shaft failure but they were surprised to see 3rd gear burnt like it was with only a few thousand miles on it.

I do not know if the direct clutch is dual feed or not and where I don't have a hd-2 shift kit I think the Monster build has their own blend of custom shift kit. I am not real familiar with tranny internals but as with everything else I have been doing with this build I have been forced to become pretty knowledgable when the experts have let me down.

I am running a deep pan so hopefully I will be good with the cavitation. What should I be looking/feeling for?

 

A rpm flare or surge part way through 1st. Mine was at 4k as was another persons. A pressure guage will show this before you feel it, it would only happen on all out launches. Dual feeding should help your 3rd gear clutches as that is your direct clutch.

 

So it would feel like a slip? When you put in a deep pan it went away?

 

It actually felt like a quick hit of wheel spin. Once I got the filter submerged better the pressure stays rock steady. I think this is something that is only going to show itself with a stock new style pan.

 

Did you have to do something to better submerge the filter or by just going to the deep pan resolve it?

 

Had to baffle the stock pan to keep fluid from rushing away from filter on launch. A deep pan would be my choice but my exhaust doesnt allow it.

 

Hopefully I should be good on this one but just incase I will bring it up with the builder. If I can prevent another stupid unknown that would be great.

I really appreciate the input. I always say I don't know what I don't know and unfortunately not till something goes wrong do I now know.

 

Update, I might be getting the tranny back tomorrow.

I received the new input shaft from CKPerformance and the tranny shop is putting in a new aluminum direct drum with 36 element sprag that has an additional clutch since I burned the 3rd gear clutches in about 3K miles. They are also putting in a new valve body with their modifications and a new reverse band since it still had a delay going into reverse even after it was rebuilt and we don't trust the Monster valve body and whatever they did to it.

I told my tuner that I couldn't find anyone to say they would ever lock a converter at WOT in 2nd gear even with billet parts and that's why the input shaft broke he seemed rather surprised, said he has done it before with no issue. Another 3K for someone else's mistake...

For anyone building anything similar, spend the 5-6K upfront for something bullet proof otherwise spend 11K on a tranny like me stretched out and that doesn't even include the new drive shafts and tcase upgrades when doing the 4L80e conversion.