If I remember right, "Factory Tech" ?

Oh, I understand now -

A quote from the SVT Forum

I have the LFP Art Carr kit in my tranny. It is a nice kit and the pressure plate design is much better than the Monster Box Kit. The AC kit just cuts back the outer edge of the pressure plate (enough for the snap ring to fit) for better strength where the MB kit shaves the whole pressure plate thinner to add the extra clutches. This lets the pressure plate flex in the MB kit prematurely wearing out the outer edge of the clutches and not wearing the inner edge.

The BTS tranny is not a kit. Brian has several parts reengineered using pressure plates that are at least 1 1/2 times thicker than stock. His transmissions can not be compared to others because he does so much in the way of part changes that a kit with an extra clutch or two here and there with relieved pressure plates can't be remotely called equal.

Dealerjim has a BTS tranny and I have seen the pics he took of the MB kit that was taken out along with the new BTS parts that went in. Jimmy watched the build and it is staggering to say the least at the difference in parts that are used and the amount of them. Brain takes a different approach to get more clutches in than those kits do and he adds parts that strengthen the tranny from front to rear. This description might seem a little vague but I promised Jimmy that I would not give away Brian's trade secrets.

Bottomline is that his transmissions are not more expensive because he is overpriced. He just has that much more parts wise in them.

Jimmy and I have wanted to post this for years but never could because of all the Factory Tech nutswingers and supporting vendor status on most of the boards. Now you know the truth of why so many Monsterbox transmissions and MB kits failed prematurely. The pressure plate design sucked bigtime. There, I finally got to say it and Jimmy has the pics to prove it.

It always amazed me when a person that paid a good penny for his MB tranny and then pay $300 R&R plus $300 shipping when the POS failed in a year would praise Gregg for his great customer service if he fixed it. I saw it time an time again but it seemed like nobody caught on. When Jasper came into the picture along the way people use to blame it on them ever though people would post about their failed MB tranny that Gregg had built. NEWSFLASH: Jasper never was the problem.

 

If you want an interesting couple of bits of info they can be easily found with a little searching. Particularly on a Crown Vic site.

The vendor that at least one person got a transmission from in this thread claimed to have "designed" the monsterbox transmission. Knowing what I know about all of this, it tells me why there have been failures.

But, Jasper has an awesome warranty and will honor it even when they don't have to. They may not build the product in that monsterbox that it should be, but they will replace it if it fails. I give them that for sure. There is a lot to be said for customer service.

Some other mentioned vendors have a terrible history of customer service in the event of a failure, and there have been failures.

You have to be VERY careful in choosing a vendor. Sometimes some with less than honerable intentions might even do things that seem like great service when there is a far different reason for doing it. For example one might offer to meet you somewhere under the premise of helping you. That 'service' just might be to keep you from visiting their 'shop'.

It's no trouble at all to hook you guys up with links to threads about, and the actual contact info of fiercely dissatisfied customers of one of these vendors that does things like this.

Also, you need to remember that you usually get what you pay for. If the deal sounds too good then it's time to start looking for the reason.

Just be careful and choose wisely. A dog can learn new tricks, but it often takes a lot of harshness and needless suffering for everyone involved to make that happen if it thinks it can keep on getting away with it's old ones.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but Mike Troyer can guide you in a great direction on this stuff if all else fails.

Also, I am not telling people to not buy from anyone. I am definitely saying that you need to know the history of customer service of the places you are thinking of buying from though. Just like people every business has troubles with different things from time to time. It's just part of it. How people are treated after the sale or when things go wrong is what defines the true worth of a business far more than how people are treated in trying to make the sale or when things are going great. It's super easy to be everyones friend while you are getting paid. If your interests are not what they should be though, then it's a lot harder to be that same friend when you have to deal with the inevitible problems that go along with running a business. While it's definitely the toughest time for everyone, dealing with troubles and problems is where character and integrity are most often displayed. In my opinion, some have it and some just don't. It is possible to learn new tricks, but I think those things are either there or they are not.

Darrin

 

this is why i chose to avoid the 4r75 swap with alan, sure he could have built a great tranny for me. but troyer was unsure about my old eec5 pcm controlling the 4r75 as the logic is really outdated in my 97's pcm. (all i know is whats explained to me briefly) troyer also briefly told me a small bit of customer service history/hearsay with alan (i quickly passed heads up on to joey). so i chose a local guy who is striving to be the best in the area, he offered a 12/12 warranty.

 

Alan has been nothing but good to me, he answered all of my questions and went out of his way to meet me half way. I am running my 4R75W and my 2001 5.4 off of my 97 computer and have never had the first problem. I talked to my tuner (which is a service manager at a ford dealership) and was told the 97 computer was more than capable. I hope your trans works out for you and you get it back on the road

 

heres the thing i do not know about alan's track record... how long ago these "problems" arised? whats the most recent?

 

Wow I gave him 2 plates to try at completely no cost and get badmouthed for it. Thats crazy. He obviously doesn't know jack about the differences in a 4r75 electrically because the other sensor just doesn't get used. The OSS count gets corrected for the year of vehicle inside the transmission.
This place is turning into a soap opera lately. I haven't been on much because I have been busy. From the last few threads I have read it looks like I shouldn't come here much. People spend too much time trying to make others look bad instead of working on the quality of their own work. I hear the drama stories and fix other peoples customers problems on a daily basis. I don't have the time to spend 30 minutes on the phone badmouthing.
Alan

 

no offense alan, i made my decision based on the fact mike troyer did not have a firm answer of yes or no on the tuning stand point. i opt for the most reliable method, i dont like being the first one to try things and mess something up, im sure u can understand that.

like i told you over the phone, i know nothing about auto transmissions. so any thought there may be a problem of any kind, even as simple as tuning, i favor to avoid. i have to admit, you were very willing to discuss things with me, tell me what you would do. i appreciate your willingness to give a brief overview and try to help me understand.

i did not start this thread to attack you in any way, rather to become more informed on my choices.

 

I wasn't saying you did. I just got reading the forums and it seemed like the same crap over and over. Not from you but from others who sell this stuff. The 4r75 uses the same exact electronics as a 4r70w. The differences are that the 4r75 has an input speed sensor. I actually put a freeze plug in the hole and that is gone. The 4r70w's count 6 holes in the oss. The 4r75's count 24 teeth on the OSS. The sensors are different as well. I correct them to match the year of vehicle. There are no electrical or tune variations. I hear stories about the guy who says how bad my customer service is ona daily basis. I fix problems with his customers as well. The difference is I don't go running my mouth about it trying to make him look bad. I have my own work to do and customers. Gaining customers by slander is just poor business. Everyone gets upset at times. Some people need to move on and worry about their own customers. Then I wouldn't have to clean up their mess with customers who couldn't keep their transmissions working. This is still nothing more than a personal grudge turned slander. I'm surprised it is allowed to continue for this long.
Alan

 

I am completely happy with my trans I got from Alan. He is one hell of a guy and builds one hell of a trans, he answered all of my questions and was great to do business with.

 

Im supprised that you took Mikes advice Klitch even after all that chit you went threw with him.

 

yeah me too LOL
well actually we both took a step back and re-looked over the situation after i got it running by only changing the air filter from a short ram cone filter to a stock lightning paper filter and box. we both looked at it and said similar expressions of speech. so i decided to work with him again after i figured out it wasnt his end, or a physical fault of my own. merely a weird quirk of the truck.

 

Interesting. Talking about other vendors not knowing jack about this stuff isn't really fair and you know it.

I have to tell you, Mike was honest enough, sensible enough and man enough to say that he didn't know instead of just putting something together that he truly didn't "know jack about" and selling it to his customer without also knowing exactly what it would do.

Reminds me of a very similar and totally related situation where I helped you out once.

I clearly remember us leaning against your truck and my car in front of that nasty chili place talking about the couple of transmissions you built that still weren't working at least half a year after the customers installed them. We talked about this because I was asked by one of the customers to help if I could. He was tired of you blaming the installation, wiring, computer and tuner for the problems instead of either researching the issue yourself or offering to take the transmission back to sort out.

But just in case you have forgotten, I was the one that explained to you the differences in the ring gears between the 4R70W and the 4R75 and that this could be the problem with those transmissions you built. You told me that wasn't what you built for these guys, so that couldn't be it. What you didn't know is that I had already told one of them, Doug, what the problem had to be and that I was going to explain it to you. Oddly enoough, you got back with these guys before I could even drive back home and cleared it up for them. Just like I knew you would. You claimed that you figured it out and made posts about the differences. Again, just like I knew you would.

As I always say, honesty is always the best policy. One situation where the truth isn't told almost always forces more situations where the truth isn't told to cover up the original.

Now, what Troyer said is the truth and you should know it better than most anyone after the experience above. You can't put a 4R75 directly into a 4R70W vehicle without changing things. He didn't answer a question about your transmission that should have been corrected for this to put into an older vehicle, he tried to explain the facts about it. The same fact that I explained to you about the difference in the ring gear that causes a problem. He didn't get into details on it, but he is absolutely accurate and you know it.

For shame.

Darrin

 

update, need your guys knowledge of the shift solenoids, new trans threw p0755 immediately. i checked my wiring for shorts to ground from trans checked out. dropped the pan and expected to see a 4 pin solenoid, rather i got 3 pins, +,-,2.

+ to - yields 25 ohm.
+ to 2 yields 25 ohm.
2 to - yields 51 ohm.
is this the results of one normally open and other normally closed? (edit: i think the - is actually a 1 now that i look without tired eyes.)


now im not sure if this is what i should be getting or not, let alone proper method of diagnosis.

do i need to bench fire the solenoid with a 12v source? tomorrow i will double check the internal wirings integrity.

 

It's +,1 and 2.

The solenoid pack always gets + voltage and the individual solenoids are energized through the ECU grounding them as needed. The ranges you are seeing are normal. Each solenoid coil is reading about 25 ohms and when you checked them in series you got about 50 ohms.

This could be from a misaligned MLPS sensor and not an actual failure.

Darrin

 

i was thinkin the same thing after i got the schucks unit (im pullin that ugly sob out if i get the chance today). not necessarily the MLPS being the culprit, just that it may not be an actual failure.

my only notations since that post were that shifting into D from N feels softer than a 1 or 2 from N.

and the trans will throw a code within 30 sec sitting in park.