Vince B

iTrader: (1)

There were some issues with the beast shell breaking. The issue with the shell was the company that makes it for SAP decided to change the way it was made without the approval of SAP. They basically added one more piece to the part and welded it all together. That was a huge mistake and was never apart of the original design. Because of this they lost the contract on making these shells. If you only knew how many pieces this was a year...

It is now being made in a different location and I have not seen one failure to date!!!! The "other shell" being made is pretty much a factory shell with a bearing on it! If I were you I would go right back with the beast shell and makes sure it has the "SAP" name on it. Sorry to hear that you broke your trans but I think the guy who put it together did his job!

offroadrider12

Vince, by "other shell" do you mean the Sonnax Smart Shell or the bad batch of beast shells?

I see FLT is now using the sonnax shell in their builds.

TURBHOE

iTrader: (4)

Yeah, he put together one hell of a Trans. Hopefully the new sunshell will hold this time. One day I may do the 80 swap. But I don't have time now to do it. A built 80 cost as much as a built 60 or more plus a new billet torque converter. It would be a $5000 project. Need drive shafts and input shaft for the 149. That puts me half way to a dmax swap. Lmao.

Vince B

iTrader: (1)

Sonnax shell. What Sonnax has done is use a factory shell that is hardened in the spline area for the sun gear and added a bearing retainer. The hardening is not new to these shells and has been used in factory shells for some time now. The thickness of the shell has not been improved in the lug area for the reverse input drum that applies the band in 2nd and 4th. I have seen factory shells take some abuse but I still like the beast.

One thing Sonnax did with the smart shell is to remove the load on the bearing inside of the rear planet. Well this is not new technology and is something I did at FLT a long time ago. FLT had a bearing style shell when I started working there. After staring at it long enough and seeing some issues with wear, I made some changes. I did this by modifying the retainer for the bearing and also the height of the machined low roller race. This removed the load on the bearing in the rear planet and also corrected issues with the bearing on the shell rubbing the 4L65E low roller element. Dont get me wrong I like what Sonnax has done here.

As I stated in my earlier post the beast issues have been resolved and to this day I still use it and install my modified kit to it. SAP is going to be offering the beast with a similar kit on it and I will have something to do with it at one time or another. I have already told the engineers what they have to do here and like anything else these things take time. I look forward to seeing the new product which I believe will involve some hardening, the bearing and a true spun balanced part. The factory shells are balanced but it is a static balance which really is not a good way to balance a part IMO. I hope this clears up your questions. Vince

offroadrider12

Thank you for the in depth explanation Vince. Makes sense now.

TURBHOE

iTrader: (4)

Thanks for the info. That would be why when I ask if it was better Andy kinda hesitated on it. And I said not better but work different and he said yes. Lol. Hmmm. I don't wanna break this again. Lol. Is he 4-2 shift the thing that breaks this most often? That what my wife did. Basically she was driving down 17 here in jax in front of base rolling 60 (flow of traffic limit s 55) and two cars in front of her got over suddenly. So she looked back to check if she was clear, when she looked forward there were two ****** drvng a freaking golfcart down the road. Doing like what 25 at best. So instead of killing the guys she hammered it to cut infront of the car coming up and that's when it happened. 4-2 shift.