Hey guys, thought I might share some of what I've learned about theRacerstev
31th. Please if you have a different opinion or trick please let me know!
Clutch packs: The forward clutch pack is just fine stock. The Neon box
comes with the 4 disc pack and holds up to as much as 1100 hp!
The high gear clutch pack is were the problem is. I'm using the Alto 6 disc
pack in mine and it does a great job. You will have a problem if you
stay with the stock 4 disc pack. I really don't know how much power it will
hold but I'd guess in the 250-300 hp range depending on what's been
done to the valvebody.
Band: I like to reline mine with either a Kevlar or carbon lining. I also
consider it a must to weld the tabs on the band before it's sent for relineing. Even the best lining will burn up w/o valvebody mod's.
Planetarys: All the Neon trans's I've seen have come with the HD 5
pinion front planet and the 4 pinion rear. It's smart to weld the shaft
that the gear spins on, these can break with either high miles or lots
of power.
Gearing: We have 2 final drives, 3.05 or 2.85. The 3.05 is in the DOHC
cars and the minivans, the 2.85 is in everything else.
Transfer Gears: Stock Neon is 1.04, the early Omni gears are 1.22.
(to find your gear ratio multiply xfer gear and final drive)
Diff: Good luck here, just as wilh all Chysler's we have a weak dif. At
least put the dif tabs on to keep the dif pin in place! We can go Phantom
Grip Extreeme or some kind of knock off, the Quaife or new OBX will
fit with a spacer and some mods to the cover. Or of course if you are
a hard core drag racer welding the dif is an option. Be SURE to stress
releive it when you are done welding or you may break the carrier,
and you better be using good axles.
Torque Converter: My opinion on this may differ from many but I really
like to keep the lockup clutch. When the lockup turns on in 3rd gear you
will have no slip from the converter. The stock lockup is a POS, it won't
work in even mild applications.
You can go with a stock size converter and get stall speeds as high as
5000 rpm, efficancy will suffer though. For the hard core guy a smaller
converter (7-8 inch) might be better.
The way to check stall speed is to just floor the gas and hold the car with
the brake pedal. Your stall speed will be were the car either starts to
move or the rpm stop climbing. SO many things can effect stall speed,
engine size, compression, turbo size, brake size, final drive will all have
an effect.
As a rule of thumb, small turbo-nitrous cars will need a lower stall.
You would need a higher stall for big laggy turbos, NA cars, or cars
running on street or drag radials.
Valvebody: There is a couple ways to go, Reverse manual, Manual and
modifyed stock, just don't stay with the stock one! I've never messed
with anything but the stocker so I can't comment, I DO know you will
lose the lockup funtion with one of these though.
The stock VB does a great job of giving nice smooth slow shifts, just the
reason you don't want it in you perfomance trans!
Line Pressure: Stock pressure is limited to about 85 psi, it's safe to go
to 100ish with the stock band before the tabs rip off. With welded tabs
140-145 is plenty.
Higher line pressure will really mess with the stock shift points. You can
mess with the governer to bring the shift points back or you can just
disconnect the tv cable to the throttle body and adjust the lever to get
what ever shift point you want. You will get no kickdown though, you will
have to manually down shift the trans.
Weak Links: There's a couple places that need some extra attention.
For 400 hp or more you really need to work on one of the thrust washers.
These even go bad on high mileage transmissions. This is one of the tricks
I devoloped so I can't go into detail.
Input shaft, no worry's here up to about 500 then you need to do some
heat treat work. Do not use the old solid input, these twist off around
500 ft pounds or torque.
Output shaft, this one wears out on stock tran's and should be checked
for spline damage.
The case is fine till you really start beating on it, it will hold 1.65 60 foots
all day long. Once you want better times or spray off the line with big
slicks you WILL break it. It needs to be reinforced.
The rear band strut can break with high line pressures and should be
replaced with a HD unit.
Pinnon shaft, if you are breaking these you are making about 1000 hp,
we should be so lucky!
Axles, an auto is just much kinder on the axles then a stick but you
should still do at least the shadow-PT upgrade.
Other area's: One of the tricky parts with a Torque Flite trans is timing
the shifts. Bind on the 1-2 shift, flare on the 2-3 shift are what's common.
I have my own solutions to these.
Some other little tricks: you should tap the case for access to the pressure
adjustment screw, makes setting pressures a breeze, adding a drain plug
and a hole for the temp sensor in the pan is a good idea. Shortening
up the dipstick can save alot of room too. The accumulater and 2nd
gear apply piston need some work as well. A modifyed stock shifter can
give you no miss shifts and still looks stock...
OK, my head is starting to hurt now.....
Steve