Just Installed: TRE Tranny, TRE TC, Cusco Clutch
Dec 7, 2004, 12:01 PM
#1
Evolved Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (23)
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: NJ
Posts: 2,044
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Just Installed: TRE Tranny, TRE TC, Cusco Clutch
I just finished installation and break in on my new clutch, rebuilt tranny, and rebuilt transfer case. I did all the labor myself, the removal and installation took about 16 hours of work, I've never worked on an AWD car before, only RWD and FWD. All in all, I think the job is easy. I think it is very tedious and time consuming, but is in no way hard to do, if I was doing it again, I could finish it all in a solid day of work. But that's not what you are reading for, you want to know what I think of my new parts!
Clutch:
The Cusco Twin Clutch is just as easy to drive as the stock clutch, it can be slipped easily and pedal pressure feels no harder than the stock clutch. FYI, I am still using the stock clutch line and I have not removed my restrictor pill. The clutch was easy to set up even not knowing Japanese. The hardest part was phasing the clutch disks properly. The disks are both 6 puck sprung hub disks, I felt it was important that each of the pucks are lying above each other. This is hard to discribe, but imagine two 6 point stars lying on top of each other, I wanted the tips of the stars to be aligned. My reasoning for this is that if they are mis-aligned the pressure plate is transmitting force to the first disk, that force is then transmitted to the floating flywheel, which is then transmitted to the second disk, and then finally to the main flywheel. If the disks are not aligned the force is unevenly placed on the floating flywheen and could cause warping IMO. Whether this is true or not, I'm not sure, but it made sense to me, and it is something Cusco recommends on their S2000 twin plate clutch. As far as the clutch rattle when my foot is on the pedal... It's barely audible over my Helix exhaust. The people that complain about it either have much better hearing than me or simply need to find something to complain about. I just feel it's a friendly reminder to never sit with your clutch foot on the pedal, saving the TO bearing and keeping the trans lubricated.
TRE Tranny:
My car is an early production 03 Evo. This basically means the tranny had all the parts that Mitsu has recommending replacing with TSBs. I wasn't about to try to pass my car off as unmodified and have Mitsu fix my tranny, so I bit the bullet and sent my tranny to TRE (www.teamrip.com) I was pleased to hear from Jon that I had the best condition Evo tranny he's recieved to date. The reason I sent it to him was my 4th gear high RPM grind and I mis-shifted 2nd 2 or 3 times and feared that I damaged the gear (it still shifted fine). Well, Jon informed me that every syncro in my tranny were the old styles that needed to be updated, and my 4th gear syncro was shot (I knew this). Jon went through my tranny and replaced every hub/sleeve assembly, every syncro, and cleaned up all my gears on his CNC. He magnafluxed every gear to check for sub-surface imperfections and made his recommendations. He clearanced the shift rails to help make the shifts smoother and checked all the other components in the tranny. I can tell you this much, I have never driven a car that has shifted smoother or felt better than my car does now. When in gear the shifter has NO, I repeat ZERO movement. It LOCKS into place and slides between gears smoothly and cleanly. It is simply the most dramatic improvement I have ever felt in my car, better than the shifter bushing upgrade. This tranny with the stock bushings would feel more solid than the stock tranny with brass bushings, no exageration. Huge thumbs up for Jon.
Transfer Case:
The transfer case was a question mark to me. So many people have broken them and other people regularly complain about noise, etc. I had a slight drivetrain noise on deceleration aroun 3-4k RPMs. I spoke with Jon about it and he informed me that Mitsu often did not keep a tight enough tolerance on the alignment of the ring and pinion gears in the TC from the factory. This results in uneven wear of the gear faces and subsequent noise and growling from the TC. I, being a Mechanical Engineer, understood exactly what he was describing and decided to send him my TC too to check it out and make sure I didn't have any of these issues. It turns out I was one of the lucky few who had a well built TC from the factory and mine was a-ok
Jon still did some little tricks to strenghten the spider assembly and make the TC as good as it can be (at a very reasonable price I might add). The 3-4k RPM drivetrain noise is gone now, but it's impossible for me to tell if it was the tranny or the TC that fixed it since both were rebuilt at the same time.
My review of TRE:
Very knowledgeable people that want nothing more than to make our drivetrains the best they can be. Service is excellent and the products they deliver are top notch. I made the mistake of doing this project right around the time they were attending SEMA so my turnaround time was not as great as I would have liked, but I can't complain, especially after the results.
I'm not going to give exact prices for everything online, but I can tell you it was money very well spent. I can also tell you that when it was all said and done, everything, including shipping and the clutch, cost less than $2500.
If you guys have any questions, feel free to hit me up!
- Steve
EDIT: SEE ROUND 2 THREAD!!!
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=195399
Clutch:
The Cusco Twin Clutch is just as easy to drive as the stock clutch, it can be slipped easily and pedal pressure feels no harder than the stock clutch. FYI, I am still using the stock clutch line and I have not removed my restrictor pill. The clutch was easy to set up even not knowing Japanese. The hardest part was phasing the clutch disks properly. The disks are both 6 puck sprung hub disks, I felt it was important that each of the pucks are lying above each other. This is hard to discribe, but imagine two 6 point stars lying on top of each other, I wanted the tips of the stars to be aligned. My reasoning for this is that if they are mis-aligned the pressure plate is transmitting force to the first disk, that force is then transmitted to the floating flywheel, which is then transmitted to the second disk, and then finally to the main flywheel. If the disks are not aligned the force is unevenly placed on the floating flywheen and could cause warping IMO. Whether this is true or not, I'm not sure, but it made sense to me, and it is something Cusco recommends on their S2000 twin plate clutch. As far as the clutch rattle when my foot is on the pedal... It's barely audible over my Helix exhaust. The people that complain about it either have much better hearing than me or simply need to find something to complain about. I just feel it's a friendly reminder to never sit with your clutch foot on the pedal, saving the TO bearing and keeping the trans lubricated.
TRE Tranny:
My car is an early production 03 Evo. This basically means the tranny had all the parts that Mitsu has recommending replacing with TSBs. I wasn't about to try to pass my car off as unmodified and have Mitsu fix my tranny, so I bit the bullet and sent my tranny to TRE (www.teamrip.com) I was pleased to hear from Jon that I had the best condition Evo tranny he's recieved to date. The reason I sent it to him was my 4th gear high RPM grind and I mis-shifted 2nd 2 or 3 times and feared that I damaged the gear (it still shifted fine). Well, Jon informed me that every syncro in my tranny were the old styles that needed to be updated, and my 4th gear syncro was shot (I knew this). Jon went through my tranny and replaced every hub/sleeve assembly, every syncro, and cleaned up all my gears on his CNC. He magnafluxed every gear to check for sub-surface imperfections and made his recommendations. He clearanced the shift rails to help make the shifts smoother and checked all the other components in the tranny. I can tell you this much, I have never driven a car that has shifted smoother or felt better than my car does now. When in gear the shifter has NO, I repeat ZERO movement. It LOCKS into place and slides between gears smoothly and cleanly. It is simply the most dramatic improvement I have ever felt in my car, better than the shifter bushing upgrade. This tranny with the stock bushings would feel more solid than the stock tranny with brass bushings, no exageration. Huge thumbs up for Jon.
Transfer Case:
The transfer case was a question mark to me. So many people have broken them and other people regularly complain about noise, etc. I had a slight drivetrain noise on deceleration aroun 3-4k RPMs. I spoke with Jon about it and he informed me that Mitsu often did not keep a tight enough tolerance on the alignment of the ring and pinion gears in the TC from the factory. This results in uneven wear of the gear faces and subsequent noise and growling from the TC. I, being a Mechanical Engineer, understood exactly what he was describing and decided to send him my TC too to check it out and make sure I didn't have any of these issues. It turns out I was one of the lucky few who had a well built TC from the factory and mine was a-ok
Jon still did some little tricks to strenghten the spider assembly and make the TC as good as it can be (at a very reasonable price I might add). The 3-4k RPM drivetrain noise is gone now, but it's impossible for me to tell if it was the tranny or the TC that fixed it since both were rebuilt at the same time.My review of TRE:
Very knowledgeable people that want nothing more than to make our drivetrains the best they can be. Service is excellent and the products they deliver are top notch. I made the mistake of doing this project right around the time they were attending SEMA so my turnaround time was not as great as I would have liked, but I can't complain, especially after the results.
I'm not going to give exact prices for everything online, but I can tell you it was money very well spent. I can also tell you that when it was all said and done, everything, including shipping and the clutch, cost less than $2500.
If you guys have any questions, feel free to hit me up!
- Steve
EDIT: SEE ROUND 2 THREAD!!!
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=195399
Last edited by SuperHatch; May 15, 2006 at 05:08 AM.
Dec 7, 2004, 12:11 PM
#2
Evolved Member
iTrader: (70)
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: La Isla Del Encanto
Posts: 2,070
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Steve,
Thanks for the review. John has been in the business for a while now. He started with porting turbos and went to transmissions. I am glad that he did as it will benefit us like it has the DSM people. How did you ship him the tranny, was it via UPS and how much was it.
Thanks for the review. John has been in the business for a while now. He started with porting turbos and went to transmissions. I am glad that he did as it will benefit us like it has the DSM people. How did you ship him the tranny, was it via UPS and how much was it.
Dec 7, 2004, 12:15 PM
#4
Evolved Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (23)
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: NJ
Posts: 2,044
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
TRE can send it's customers reinforced UPS boxes with pre-moulded high density foam inserts to support the Tranny or TC (depending what you're shipping). They charged me $150 for the boxes shipped to me with prepaid return shipping to them. Then to ship them back to me again after service it was $140. I think the Tranny was $100 of that amount each way though since it was 140lbs.
- Steve
- Steve
Trending Topics
Dec 7, 2004, 06:42 PM
#8
Evolved Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (23)
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: NJ
Posts: 2,044
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
4th became a constant grind, and I never mis-shifted it, it developed on it's own and became persistent. It would only grind when shifting above 6500RPMs, otherwise it was fine. 2nd gear never made a grinding noise when shifting, only when I mis-shifted it the couple times. The 4th gear grind was the reason behind my rebuild.
- Steve
- Steve
Dec 8, 2004, 05:46 PM
#13
Originally Posted by SuperHatch
He clearanced the shift rails to help make the shifts smoother and checked all the other components in the tranny. I can tell you this much, I have never driven a car that has shifted smoother or felt better than my car does now. When in gear the shifter has NO, I repeat ZERO movement. It LOCKS into place and slides between gears smoothly and cleanly. It is simply the most dramatic improvement I have ever felt in my car, better than the shifter bushing upgrade. This tranny with the stock bushings would feel more solid than the stock tranny with brass bushings, no exageration. Huge thumbs up for Jon.
Dec 8, 2004, 08:16 PM
#14
Evolved Member
Thread Starter
iTrader: (23)
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: NJ
Posts: 2,044
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Jon said sometimes there is casting flash in the case or burrs on the rails from the manufacturing process. He said he cleans that stuff up to make sure the ends of the rails don't run into anything.