So anyone ever use one of these gear sets?

QKE4K001 | Quaife USA


Two ratios available

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
2.345 1.544 1.222 1:1 0.868
2.564 1.670 1.273 1.1 0.794

I am looking for an alternative to my RX7 trans with a Miata 1.8L gears. I like the ratios in this combination has but I have already killed 3rd gear.

 

a friend of mine has the set in a turbo miata, he's out at the race track almost every weekend, and the trans has been totally fine. he's ready for engine #4 though. the 1.8 miata isn't reliable @300hp...

 

My biggest problem with those gearsets is getting them...when i was looking a while back the only way i could get them was direct from Quaife and, to the public, that meant something like $2500 at the time. Maybe with the exchange going more favorable rate it would be better...

 

Thanks for the feedback. Still researching options and will give Quaife a call

 

Just be careful. I have a Quaife Dog Box Setup for my Cougar that worked great until it came time to get replacement gears and blockers. New ones took ages to get in and when they arrived the I.D. bore was wrong and Quaife is all, What? Couldn't happen. I buddy in Vancouver is having the same issues with his Cobra Quaife setup as well.

It seems they are great selling you a complete new set, but they go through all kinds of engineering changes that it is extremely hard to get working replacement parts a few years down the road when you need them as the engineering levels are almost impossible to trace backwards without sending them the worn parts as a target. Even then sometimes they new stuff is wrong.

I have learned to always check on replacement parts for wear items, availability and tracking.

Eric

 

Thanks Eric I will ask about replacement/maintenance parts

 

Reading this again, it is almost in English. I have to learn not to write replies so early in the morning. I'm glad you understood. By the way, for those of you who haven't seen it, here is my Cougar.

Regards,

Eric

 

Cool car! Probably legal for SCCA STU

 

It is a full on ex WC Touring Class car. It actually would need to be detuned or add 300 lbs to run in STU. I have thought about what class it would fit in now, but all I can think of is ITE.

Eric

 

Since the ST category was originally created as a club racing home for World Challenge cars I bet your car fits in some where at a specified minimum weight.


I got into STU because I liked the engine swap capabilities and some of the other aspects of the rules. E Production probably would have been a better choice but that die is cast.

 

Are you a Grassroots Motorsports forum reader by any chance?

What situations are you encountering that killed 3rd in your Miata gearset?

Also $2500 is a friggin' steal for a gearset... when I was looking before, they were closer to $4000.

 

Hi PeeJay, I have an e-script to Grassroots. What should I be looking for, I haven't checked my iPad in awhile.


3rd gear failed on an upshift from second at about 8k RPM. Not a speed shift and not what I would consider abusive. Just a pop then no more 3rd gear. I don't think that upshift caused the failure. Likely the gear was stressed by me on a downshift while getting used to the new brakes and clutch while I was testing the car several weeks prior. Or by the previous owner when it was in the 99 Miata it came from.


The cost of the Quaife gear set is not the issue and other than repairing the transmission I have it is the cheapest option I have seen so far. But it is allot of money to spend if it is not better than what have now in terms of reliability.


Another company I am going to contact is Houseman Autosport - www.racegearbox.com

 

OS giken also makes gear sets for rx7s. I haven't seen anyone use one. But based on everything else the make they're probably really nice...

 

I also have a Houseman box, lol. Great setup and he made some magic to get the ratios he did from the stock shafts. Jamie is also a great guy to work with. Only issue is that his modified ratio sets aren't really much different than a stock box in the strength department.

Eric

 

I assumed LMS = Learn Me Some, a phrase I never see outside of GRM

Funny, normally I wear boxes out but I had an FB box fail the same way. No warning, no awful noises, just a bang the first time I tried to shift into 3rd gear and then it was a neutral.

My friend's Miata is making however much power a 12psi MSM engine makes, he's on the same transmission since forever, and I noticed while driving it that it was difficult to shift when stopped when everything was hot. I drained something that looked like silvery water out of the trans... usually if I drained fluid that bad out of an FB trans, it was because I was pulling the trans out to scrap it. Put actual gear oil in and it shifts fine and is quiet.

 

I ran a stock NA FC box for about 4 years. Only issue was the 3rd gear synchro failing. It handled 250 hp with no issues as long as I treated it well. I believe it handled well over 30 race weekends. I replaced the lubes twice a year with good stuff and really tried to minimize the shock loadings it would experience.

Unless you need the different ratios, the strength of a stock box is fine.

Eric

 

I don't have nearly that kind of luck.

 

Picked up "LMS" from another site. Didn't know it was used beyond there!

When my car was in IT7 I used to wear out 3rd gear synchronizers every so often. When it happened I just swapped in another box that shifted okay in 3rd and 4th. Never had one fail out-right though. I always prided myself on not being rough on equipment or a ham-fist behind the wheel. Guess I am a little rusty now.....


Thanks for the info on Houseman. Looking forward to talking to them.


eage8 I saw that OS Giken makes gear sets for turbo II transmissions. More spendier than the Quaife but I understand the Turbo II box is pretty strong.

Thoughts on that one???


Oh, I should mention that I may go to Bridgeport 13B to be competitive in STU and or ST3 (NASA). Especially since KS Speedway is a track I may race at a couple of times a year and terminal velocity really matters there.

 

me neither, well I do fine, but we've always shared cars, and or had multiple drivers, and THEY can take all the teeth off of 3rd gear in an FC trans @140rwhp. in the scheme of things though, loosing 3rd that one time was like small potatoes...

we tend to finish the 25 without the hood... like 3/4 times!

 

Man, you need to teach your guys how to heel and toe and upshift. I started racing in the Firehawk Series and had to quickly learn how to make a weak stock box live for up to 24 hours of hard racing. I am extremely gentle on gearboxes and diffs.

Eric

 

Bounce a curb under power and boom goes the gearbox.

Or the rear axles, if the gearbox is on the downslope of the luck plane that weekend.

 

Jeez us. .. what do you to that poor car PeeJay?

Eric

 

The downside of increasing available traction is that you stress the drivetrain more

 

yeah it depends on the drivers, some have fists of ham.

we just did the NASA western championships, and the orange car is dead, they broke the diff, trans and some other stuff under the car. ours had a wheel loosen up, which ruined it. we also broke a wheel stud. i'm not sure if that cut really shows it, but there were dead cars all over the track...

and that was just a 40 minute race!

the Rx7 of course, was completely trouble free

 

Agreed

We've raced spec miatas and RX-7s. The Miata is a fantastic and very reliable platform. But i have to say in at least my direct experience, once i had the cooling sorted out the FC is such a bullet proof platform it almost makes racing too much fun my car is twice as reliable as any miata ive had direct experience with.

The racing RX-8s though.....what a nightmare...fast as hell but lots of fragile areas on that car for racing...