For those in need of a transaxle rebuild.

Hey there everyone, Spring is not far away and for some P-car owners I am sure it cannot come soon enough. I know I am very much looking forward to being able to drive my 911 again, on a daily basis. That being said for those who might be thinking of getting their transaxles freshened up or completely rebuilt, we would like to offer our services to you. GBox has long been a stand out provider of rebuilding services to the Porsche community, specializing in transaxle repair, and customization. All of our work carries with it a 12 month warranty and is of the highest quality. We use all new Porsche OEM parts in our rebuilds, and offer a wide variety of services to enhance your gearboxes performance, as well as durability. If you are thinking of having this work done before the weather turns nice again, please do not hesitate to give me a call to discuss how we can help your Porsche driving experience be the best possible this year. It is my pleasure to be a part of the Rennlist community, and I look forward to earning your business and respect here. Warmest Regards, Erik Johnson GBox Performance Transaxles [phone removed] work [phone removed] cell

Eric, I have been meaning to ask you this for a while now. When I put in a LWFW (AASCO) in my 2000 996 C2, I got a lot of rattling at neutral idle from the gearbox's input shaft. I decided to change the gear oil with Redline Heavy Shockproof ( http://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=44&pcid=8 ). I am very satisfied as the rattling is severely reduced and shifting (even during the recent coldspell in Texas) is very smooth. By now I have 30+K miles with this stuff in there, of which at least 5K track miles, and still going strong. Do you have any experience with this Redline product and if so, what is your opinion? Looking forward to your comments. Joost

Erik, there may be a few of us interested in your company's services. I have a high mileage (about 110,000) C4 with a noisy transmission. This is a street car, not a race car. The noise is most noticable under load at low revs. Other than the noise, all is well. The synchros are good, it shifts smoothly and quickly and is a pleasure to use. However, the noise is annoying, and I am worried about what will happen if I just keep driving it. I have been on the GBox website, and the FAQs are helpful, but I am asking if you could post some cost related information. For example: What is the typical rebuild cost? Is it more cost effective to replace noisy bearings rather than purchasing a reconditioned gearbox? How long does the process take? Also, may I ask if there are Forum members who have had their transmissions repaired/reconditioned by GBox, and would share their experience with us? Thanks. ...Rickker

^ In addition, with cost of rebuilds, what is the cost in replacing the brass syncros with steels? In second gear only which is know to be the weak link and in all gears or cost per syncro. How long is the turn around or do you have an exchange program?

One more rebuild question.... What do you offer as replacement parts for the Factory LSD? Are there friction disks, etc to restore a worn out unit back to full operation? Don't really want to throw it away and just buy an OS Gikken when I already have something. Thanks! -Paul

Guys I have been talking to Eric and he seems to know his stuff. Will be doing a swap next month.

Rickker - The noise that you are concerned about is valid, as it is stemming in all probability from a warn pinion bearing. This is a sealed bearing and does show itself to wear quite often in these gearboxes. (You should see the inside of it) This is a pretty important bearing and is not one that you really want to have go out. Typical cost of a rebuild vary a bit from box to box but I generally do not see them go over about $3500. There is always shipping to be added to this as well. Now part of the service that we include is a complete breakdown, and evaluation of the gearbox prior to rebuilding. I basically see what is going on and then call the customer and confirm how they would like to proceed. If for some reason the total that I come up with is not acceptable, then the customer has the option at that point of having us put the gearbox back together and is only responsible for the shipping and a $250.00 evaluation fee. We certainly have rebuilds that will cost less then this, but I would rather look at pricing on a slightly higher basis, so that there are no surprises. This would include, new seals, synchros, idler gear for 2nd, 1/2 operating sleeve, new pinion bearing, new diff bearings, etc. Flying Penquin - I have heard good and bad about the Redline Oils, in terms of what we have actually seen, it appears to be a very good product, with the exception of in some gearboxes the synchros for some reason do not seem to like it too much. It certainly does a very good job protecting the rest of the internals. In terms of what we typically recommend, it tends to be the same oil that Porsche recommends. I like the Shell Transaxle oil. Chsu74 - The issue with the second gear is not something that honestly disappears with a steel synchronizer. It is an issue internal to the gearbox. There are some things that we do on all of our 996 builds to help resolve and protect against the failures of the 2nd gear, however, the one that is always the most difficult to fix is the driver. We all love driving our P-Cars, (some of us harder then others) but a little caution in the 1st and 2nd gear shifting speed will add a ton of life to the gearbox. To answer your question though in regard to the steel synchronizer for the 2nd gear zone. This is a three piece system, and all three pieces need to be changed out. These parts are still extremely expensive at about $1500.00 for just the 2nd gear set. Paul 996 - I can absolutely help you with the rebuilding of your factory LSD. We have the parts in stock and do that right away. Which brings me to timing on repairs. Because we specialize in Porsche transaxle repair, we very typically have all of the parts that need to be replaced on hand at all times. This helps us turn things around usually within 48 hours. There have been exceptions to this obviously when we have had to order something that was only available in Germany, but these are rare. Fergus - I appreciate your comments here, and I have your gearbox ready to go out to you when you are ready for it. My inventory chart was not up to date and it turns out that I did have one already completed. I appreciate all of your questions, and please if I missed something here in the reply do not hesitate to contact me. Any other questions? Warmest Regards, Erik Johnson GBox Performance Transaxles [phone removed] work [phone removed] cell www.gboxweb.com

Just a quick comment to say that I had the gearbox from my 996 3.4 rebuilt by Gbox, after havng problems shifting in 2nd for a while. I ended up having a gearbox as good as new (even better), with a 12mth/12k miles warranty, for about half the price of a used (and possibly abused) gearbox a dismantler would sell on Ebay. I've been driving for 2 years and 18K miles, including track time, and it performs flawlessly.

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I just read this 5 times and still can't understand it. Is your current gearbox rebuilt by Gbox or did you buy it from another party on ebay?

Eric, do you replace the pinion and inputshaft bearings when you rebuild the transmission or do it on an as needed basis (on your website it says you inspect the bearings for wear), so if the bearings needed to be replaced is that included in the price? Thanks

Chao, We rebuilt 996SL55's gearbox. I hope that clears things up for you. Bernie930 - Great Question, because we place a warranty on every gearbox we rebuild for street applications, we try not to take any chances where bearings are concerned. However if we inspect the internals and find that a bearing is in a like new condition, then we do not typically replace it. In reference to your question of the pinion bearing, as well as input bearing, these almost always (at least one of them) need replacement, so yes that would be included in the pricing that I mentioned in earlier posts. I hope that I have answered your question. Warmest Regards, Erik Johnson GBox Performance Transaxles [phone removed] work [phone removed] cell