3800 3800 F-body Transmission Problems and (Hopefully) Solutions

Kaeghl

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Nov 18, 2008
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Good news: Refund is officially in process.

Bad news: Jegs wants to charge me a $100 restocking fee. By principal this is grade A bullshit. IT WAS NEVER STOCKED TO BEGIN WITH! THAT'S WHY WE'RE HERE!! FFS the part was never even built!
call them up to complain that there is no restocking fee since the stock never left and was never pulled.
then if its still an issue, call your credit card company and do a charge back.
 
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v6buicks

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Fuck Jegs. I know where I will not be shopping ever again.

I must say that it's a bit tough to be distracted by this though. I got the transmission cheaper through Speedway, got a ton of cashback rewards on my card, and best of all it's finally in transit to my house! ETA: Saturday.

I started researching shifters. The American Powertrain White Lightning seems to be the best bet for me. You can offset it in any direction up to 3". I'll find out if this works very soon!
 

v6buicks

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Hearing about all of the issues you've had really made me make sure that whatever I ordered was in stock. So I pretty much picked the version of the transmission I did just because it was in stock and would ship right away :ROFLMAO:
Lol hopefully the gear ratios work in your favor! This has certainly been a roller coaster. Hopefully by the time I'm done and have this all documented, it will be much easier for anybody to do the conversion.
Speedway ftw! They are an hour from me and have bailed me out many times.
Hell yeah! Their oddball stuff and piping are my favorites. Most of the hot side of my turbo kit is made from speedway bends. They seem to be a good company too. Summit is still my go-to though. I've ordered stuff on from late at night and gotten it the next day using their free standard shipping. lol Their customer service and return policies are the best I've seen in any online store.
 
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v6buicks

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Okay.... Faith partially restored in Jegs. I got the full $3000 refund back from them. Not only am I not as pissed off at them anymore, but I also saved money and got my shit shipped sooner by switching to Speedway. (y) ...Watch. The truck it's in is going to end up in a fiery crash now. :LOL:

Also, it looks like I would have ended up ripping their asses a new one regardless. No way in shit was I waiting another month.
1626980251629.png
 

bs009

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In for pictures of the shipping box. My first trans I received was packed very poorly and had a cracked section of the midplate because of it. I was going to just run it but since the dowel was there I went and returned it for a replacement.
Curious if they pack these things better than the T56's

Notice the input shaft sticking out the front:
G9kmCMA.jpg


cracked piece by the dowel towards the top of this image:
hUo8Kxl.jpg


Even the replacement they sent me wasn't shipped much better:
Zdx2RnV.jpg

Both the shifter and the input shaft are sticking out of the box in that picture
 

v6buicks

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In for pictures of the shipping box. My first trans I received was packed very poorly and had a cracked section of the midplate because of it. I was going to just run it but since the dowel was there I went and returned it for a replacement.
Curious if they pack these things better than the T56's

Notice the input shaft sticking out the front:
G9kmCMA.jpg


cracked piece by the dowel towards the top of this image:
hUo8Kxl.jpg


Even the replacement they sent me wasn't shipped much better:
Zdx2RnV.jpg
That sucks. I saw that they came in all cardboard which shocked me. It probably needs a pallet.
 

bs009

Making 3800's Great Again
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Yeah I was very disappointed with the way they're packed.

My second trans box had some cardboard laying around in the box that was doing absolutely nothing. No foam or anything to protect it. The first box had absolutely nothing in it either.
This guy's trans was packed far better than mine was:
 

v6buicks

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Molded styrofoam or expandable packing foam is cheap AF. I don't understand why they wouldn't want to protect THEIR investment. I'm obviously not accepting a damaged part so it's on them. Then again, ?
We'll shoot just putting a piece of quarter inch plywood at each end of the box with handle grab holes would probably increase the cost of the trans by like a hundred and fifty bucks....just in wood
Idk about a T56, but my UPS tracker says that my package is 109lbs. I thought the TKX itself weighed more than that, but I guess I'll find out soon. I just shipped the Precision SLIC from my GN to NY in a Lowes moving box. It's only 42lbs and should be far less susceptible to damage. Yet, I still had that thing packed full of whatever the hell I could find that was cushiony and worthless. A mint condition Le Bra cover did a nice job. :ROFLMAO:
 

Kaeghl

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Molded styrofoam or expandable packing foam is cheap AF. I don't understand why they wouldn't want to protect THEIR investment. I'm obviously not accepting a damaged part so it's on them. Then again, ?

Idk about a T56, but my UPS tracker says that my package is 109lbs. I thought the TKX itself weighed more than that, but I guess I'll find out soon. I just shipped the Precision SLIC from my GN to NY in a Lowes moving box. It's only 42lbs and should be far less susceptible to damage. Yet, I still had that thing packed full of whatever the hell I could find that was cushiony and worthless. A mint condition Le Bra cover did a nice job. :ROFLMAO:

When I worked at UPS we took overweight (>100lbs) orders of transmissions, whatever companies that were shipping were more adult than what I am seeing above. the boxes were like a super strong cardboard then something like expanding foam in plastic bags was put into the box with the transmission, sure you had to cut the foam out when it got to its destination but those things definitely GOT to their destination in one piece.
 

v6buicks

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Pilot bearing fits the shaft nice.
PXL_20210723_214207922.jpg


...so I drive it home.
PXL_20210723_214446911.jpg


There are two provisions for mounts. The poly mount that I already have fits fine. The T5 mount bolts are already the right size.
PXL_20210723_235349348.jpg


From there I tried to install the the old clutch and got a bit too excited. I quickly googled the pressure plate torque spec and found 52 ft/lbs. That is not correct, but I went with it and snapped the bolt in the flywheel. ?. I decided to wait to do any more work until tomorrow or else I'm just going to continue making dumb mistakes.

The spec is 11ft/lbs +50° but now I get to do an extraction first.
 
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v6buicks

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Isn't your original transmission tilted too though? Wouldn't you want the new one to match up to the way the old one fit in there?
Yes, but I had a couple issues with that. First of all, the T5 tail housing and shifter accounts for the tilt. The TKX isn't made that way. I'd have to make a funky custom wedge spacer for the mount and steal a shifter handle from another aftermarket Camaro shifter. The bigger reason is because I couldn't get a straight answer from the suppliers as to whether tilting the trans voids my warranty in the event of a failure. Upon further reading it does say that you're supposed to mount it that way. I just don't know if it's because of oiling or getting the shifter to line up in normal applications.

I can just buy a TKX shifter that puts the upright handle where I need it. It's more expensive this way, but much easier since no custom parts are necessary.
 
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