Gordon Niemi

Thanks t bear, any and all ideas welcome. What ever way I go on this will get pricey. Any one out there looking for an arctic cat vintage race sled? Have to finance this project one way or another.

Cavero

One thing you might want to look at is the slave cylinder/throw out bearing and/or the pressure plate. If the clutch isn't fully disengaging and the input shaft is loaded when you're trying to shift, it can definitely cause problems. My 3rd gear started grinding and I drove it that way for about a month, hoping changing the fluid was going to work (I tried Amsoil and Pennzoil Synchromesh) but to avail. I took it to my shop to see if maybe the slave cylinder was going out and when the pulled the transmission out, they found the bolts backed out on my pressure plate (even though they were installed w/ red locktite). I wasn't sure what damage I'd done to the synchros by letting it grind like that, and I was already $800 into the labor of a transmission swap, so I upgraded to a Tremec Magnum XL 6 speed. If your grinding's been going on for a few years, I'd be willing to bet you're in the market for a rebuilt or new transmission, but it might not hurt to check the slave and/or pressure plate.


The magnum XL is an awesome transmission, BTW. Handles 700 ft-lbs of torque, very positive and mechanical feeling shifter, and you've got two options for gear ratios (close for near stock power, wide for high powered cars). D&D Performance makes a complete swap kit with the new bell housing, transmission mounts, & driveshaft ( http://www.ddperformance.com/ba78-2-...all-kit-05-up/ ) that makes it pretty easy to swap. Only gotchas (besides price) I can think of are 11+ cars require an extra electronics box to convert the output of the vehicle speed sensor, you'll need to wire up the reverse lockout solenoid to either the brake pedal or a separate electronics box, and you might need a tuner to reprogram the N/V ratios in your PCM for cruise control to work. Cruise control uses your vehicle speed and RPM to determine if your car is in gear before it lets you turn on cruise control. If the ratio of speed/RPM doesn't match what it knows your gear ratios are, it won't enable cruise. My cruise works in 4th & 6th only because those are the ratios that most closely resemble what was in my 3650 (still trying to figure out w/ my tuner what else we need to set)

Gordon Niemi

That magnum xl trans has definitely caught my I. When we pull the trans will for sure look at the other things you brought up. Also got good information on heavier input shaft from AM

Cavero

Yeah it's a great unit. It's based on the TR6060 (used in the GT500, Viper, etc), which people have also swapped into 4.6L cars. From what I've read they're almost completely the same on the inside, but the Magnum's shifter is built right into the transmission case vs the TR6060 still has a remote shifter like the TR3650. The longer tail on the Magnum (to accomodate the shifter) is the reason why the stock driveshaft won't fit. Since you mention the upgraded input shaft that reminded me. The Magnum XL is a 26 spline input shaft, so you'll need a new clutch as well (I'm using a McLeod Street Pro which I've been pretty happy with).