Jeepspeed guys with an auto

[NorCalChris]

I've read of some tranny failures on here and I'm wondering what broke in the tranny. Also, were your trannsmissions rebuilt or were they old stockers?

Another question I have: Do any teams run a beefed up race tranny? I can understand if no one answers because it could be their secret. No hard feelings. Im just curious to see what is holding up in the jeepspeed world and what isnt.
-----NorCalChris

 

[GrimmJeeper]

Heat kills, the AW4 is a pretty strong transmission but you have to keep it cool. Regular fluid changes and a good trans cooler with a fan on it will make handle abuse pretty well, also don't bother with "D" in the dirt. You probably won't get going fast enough to need overdrive but the trans will try to go into 4th gear and the torque converter will slip like crazy.

 

[DieselSJ]

There doesn't seem to be a lot of heavy duty aftermarket parts for the AW4. The car we borrowed last year had one and he had one of the aftermarket controllers with a manual lock-up on the converter. When unlocked the thing would get hot quickly, but would also cool fairly quickly as soon as we locked it.

We run a beefed-up race transmission, but it isn't a AW4.

 

[NorCalChris]

There doesn't seem to be a lot of heavy duty aftermarket parts for the AW4.

Check out this thread. Its not alot, but theres support out there.

 

[child9]

There are stronger sprags you can use, I believe you can upgrade the clutches in the AW4 to the Supra ones, but I have not actually done either of those to the AW4 yet. I have combined the rear internals of an AW4 with an A340e to produce a 2JZGTE/A340e combination that will bolt to an NP231 transfer case. There are stock clutch discs that are alternating friction and steel, but you can get discs that are dual sided (friction AND steel) and thinner, so you end up with 10 discs instead of 6 or 7, and have much more area of friction material-on-steel. I know that you can NOT use the Supra valve body in the AW4, however you can modify the valve body you already have in your AW4 for higher line pressure and faster shifts.
I am going to get every upgrade component that is used in the 700+hp holding A340e transmissions that are out there and see how much of it is needed and can go in the AW4. A billet piston is one of the kit parts that the AW4 does NOT need, for example, because it, like the Lexus version, is thicker and stronger than the Supra version. Something to do with the different input shaft/TC/bellhousing combinations.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1054053

 

[child9]

I mistyped above about the friction plates. Dual-sided have friction material on both sides and alternate with solid steel plates. Single-sided plates have one side friction material and the other side steel. While single-sided plates increase clutch frictional area and thus increase torque capacity, they are more prone to heat build-up, since one of the functions of the steel plates is to act as heat sinks.