Precision Gear Drives

[jdotson]

Spoke with someone today at Precision about a box was told there are two gear types available - straight cut and helical. I've read about the issues with the straight cut gears but was wondering if anybody has tried the helical cut gears? Precision guy said it cut down on the noise and vibration that the straight cut gears created. I am about to buy one for a Caddy and would like to know if anyone has had any issues with the helical gears.

 

[a1mudpuppy]

Haven't heard about it, but if you would let me know what they cost I'm going to be looking for one for my DD Caddy some.

 

[jdotson]

$1650 straight cut gears
$1850 helical cut gears

Boxes bolt to Chevy engines and the Caddy takes an adapter to match the bolt pattern. I ordered the adapter from MTS for about $78.00. I saw Cad Co has them too for quite a bit more and Jegs has an adapter as well. It takes the Pontiac, Buick, Oldmobile engine to Chevy transmission adapter. I'm hoping to pick it up on Saturday if all goes well. I'm going to go ahead with the helical gears. Hope to have the engine assembled about in about a week or two if I can get the rotating assembly balanced and back to me by then.

 

[a1mudpuppy]

Thanks and good luck

 

[fatboy0054]

You can buy a Rotator for about 1900 .With no bang at the bottom !That comes with a solf drive ! Needs no adaptor and if look on the Bad Boats !Rotators are on most of them !Never heard any problems with them ! If the adaptor has any thickness to it you got to move more farther to front than you already are with the gear box! Just a brain fart !

 

[harvey]

With straight cut gears less power is lost. The helical should be quieter, smoother,and stronger ;but, you loose more power. I'm not sure how much of an issue this is in this application;however, it's night and day in some transmissions. My pennies worth. Duh Huh

Harvey

 

[jdotson]

I went to precision gear drive and bought a box. Here are some details that addresses some of the issues I've read about.

1. He only makes spur gears if requested, otherwise they are helical gears and he does not recommend spur gears due to the chatter and noise.
2. The output shaft is about twice the diameter as the original design and the splines have changed from 10 to 21 ( I think that number is right).
3. The drive plate that bolts to the flex plate has vulcanized rubber between two steel plates to aborb shock.

It will be a few weeks before I get everything together and try it out. Maybe in a few months I'll have enough run time on it to form an opinion.

 

[jdotson]

I just wanted to clarify the drive plate. It is actually one piece that consists of two steel plates with the rubber impregnated and bonded between the plates. I'm sure it is basically the same as the other soft gear drives available.