I think the S4 is trying to tell me something

SANDPSYCHO said:
I got a Mendeola S4 that during last season started making noise. When I'd start it, it sound fine. After I put it in gear, move it and put it into neutral and let out the clutch you could very clearly hear the tyranny spinning over the loud running V8. I also notice now I can hear it if I just start it in neutral but not as loud.. So I go to drain the oil and the drain plug is full metal.

View attachment 15298

At the start of last season the magnet was clean and got fresh oil.

This is what I was able to clean off and let sit over night on a paper towel.

View attachment 15299

The piles are not flat. I'm guessing I have a bearing going out, input shaft, main shaft? What do you think @Sean@Weddle ?
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That's bad enough to pull it. Could be bearing, could be worn gears. If you need gears, sorry to say you might be waiting awhile unless you can work with a different ratio we might have in stock. If you need a R&P, please don't call and yell at me, I get enough of that already. Just going to have to be patient and maybe we can get you something before the end of the year.

Lord of the Dunes said:
Sean says thank you! It looks like his kids are going to Harvard after all.
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Jokes on you, By the time my 2 year old is ready for college, it will be free! 

Jersey_Jeff73 said:
great story..... i have a 18 speed in one of the petes the low side of the splitter has a bad gear loud nock if you put in low been like that for two year and about 200k miles so its a 9 speed now.  well ist about 4500 for a rebuilt 18 speed i just cant understand the pricing for these gearboxes 
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How many of those 18 speed gearboxes are produced compared to ours? I would bet 50,000 (or more) to 1.

Big volume production goes a long way to bring down cost of parts. I won't get into the variations of material qualities and required duty cycles. 

 
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Sean@Weddle said:
That's bad enough to pull it. Could be bearing, could be worn gears. If you need gears, sorry to say you might be waiting awhile unless you can work with a different ratio we might have in stock. If you need a R&P, please don't call and yell at me, I get enough of that already. Just going to have to be patient and maybe we can get you something before the end of the year.
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Thank you for you input, I appreciate it. Not going to yell, I know we all live in a clown world now.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to pull it but in the back of my mind I know I'm not that lucky. I'd rather miss the season with the car then cause more damage $$$$.$$ just not worth it.

Besides with my luck it would, at the furthest point from camp, in the deepest bowl of the softest sand, blow a hole in the side and lock up. Add getting dark fast and all the recovery companies are all broke down and I'm out of beer.

:bangin:

 
SANDPSYCHO said:
Thank you for you input, I appreciate it. Not going to yell, I know we all live in a clown world now.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to pull it but in the back of my mind I know I'm not that lucky. I'd rather miss the season with the car then cause more damage $$$$.$$ just not worth it.

Besides with my luck it would, at the furthest point from camp, in the deepest bowl of the softest sand, blow a hole in the side and lock up. Add getting dark fast and all the recovery companies are all broke down and I'm out of beer.

:bangin:
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Out of beer?!  Thats one grim picture you just painted!

 
I don't mean to speak for Weddle but I know a good amount about manufacturing gears. I am sure it would cost a fortune and take a long time to get another shop tooled up and running good parts. Also a lot of manufactures in the USA would have large MOQ

 
I waited about 6 months last year for a R&P for an S4.

crazy that things are still behind. 

 
I had heard that the gears where cut made in Australia, is that correct?

If it is I don't see things getting better for quite some time if ever with them moving to full blown communism.

 
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parker@gearone said:
I don't mean to speak for Weddle but I know a good amount about manufacturing gears. I am sure it would cost a fortune and take a long time to get another shop tooled up and running good parts. Also a lot of manufactures in the USA would have large MOQ
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Couldn’t a current USA gear manufacturer get up to speed pretty quickly? Seems like we’ve been running gears in vehicles for quite some time now. 

 
If we are posting drain plug porn, here's what a 2D looked like when I pulled it this weekend. The "unhappy bearing" noise gets better when the clutch is depressed, and the trans shifts fine, but it's loud at cruise speeds.

Hoping just a shaft bearing, but don't know if I will get that lucky. 

IMG_2652.jpg

 
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Coryz71 said:
Couldn’t a current USA gear manufacturer get up to speed pretty quickly? Seems like we’ve been running gears in vehicles for quite some time now. 
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manufacturing takes longer than most think.  also think about all the different gears and ratios Weddle sells between all the different transaxles.

 
parker@gearone said:
I don't mean to speak for Weddle but I know a good amount about manufacturing gears. I am sure it would cost a fortune and take a long time to get another shop tooled up and running good parts. Also a lot of manufactures in the USA would have large MOQ
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This is part of the "short-term" supply problem. 

Coryz71 said:
Couldn’t a current USA gear manufacturer get up to speed pretty quickly? Seems like we’ve been running gears in vehicles for quite some time now. 
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None that can meet our minimum standard quality and low production volumes required. The off-road market is a drop in the bucket compared to even small drivetrain manufactures. This market is currently too big to keep up, but too small to invest into large volume production. It will level out and we will have parts back in stock again at some point. I just can't say exactly when that will happen.

 
Sean@Weddle said:
This is part of the "short-term" supply problem. 

None that can meet our minimum standard quality and low production volumes required. The off-road market is a drop in the bucket compared to even small drivetrain manufactures. This market is currently too big to keep up, but too small to invest into large volume production. It will level out and we will have parts back in stock again at some point. I just can't say exactly when that will happen.
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Pretty sad but so true, our "specialized" needs do not cross over easily to other segments of the market.   I cannot imagine where we would be if Mendeola did not take the big step and "scale up" the VW Bus trans ...but it may not have been so smart in the end ...

I can only think that if I was building a transaxle knowing what I know I would have mated a Tremec to a 9"   ... (not so easy but ...)

 
Manxaru said:
If we are posting drain plug porn, here's what a 2D looked like when I pulled it this weekend. The "unhappy bearing" noise gets better when the clutch is depressed, and the trans shifts fine, but it's loud at cruise speeds.

Hoping just a shaft bearing, but don't know if I will get that lucky. 

View attachment 15423
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What fluid are you running?  Looks like Pepto

 
Fullthrottleguy said:
Pretty sad but so true, our "specialized" needs do not cross over easily to other segments of the market.   I cannot imagine where we would be if Mendeola did not take the big step and "scale up" the VW Bus trans ...but it may not have been so smart in the end ...

I can only think that if I was building a transaxle knowing what I know I would have mated a Tremec to a 9"   ... (not so easy but ...)
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Here is how the Tremec/9" IRS diff situation would play out:

Bigger tires = need for closer ratio gears. How much will custom gear sets cost? How much power can they hold up to based on shaft center and width restrictions of housings they need to fit into? (Current VW and MD trans limitations)

More power = finding weak links in the factory housings and other components. How much will billet housings and HD components cost? (The reason why the HV-2's were developed to replace the VW and MD trans)

Big tires/Big power = finding breaking point of factory 9" gears. How much will aftermarket HD R&P's cost? (Current S4/S5 limitations) 

When does the factory 9" housings and R&P's become too weak to handle 1000+ HP and 38" tall tires? How much will a larger differential and R&P cost? (Reason for 11.5" R&P in S4D and AGB)

The fact is, every time the drivetrain industry has met the requirements to put X amount of power to the ground reliably, consumers invariably push the power envelope until that requirement has been exceeded. Then a new design must be drawn up and engineered to fix the shortcomings of the design before it. Then someone exceeds the power handling capability of that design. See the cycle here? 

As long as all you guys want to keep spending money on big power engines, we will have to come up with drivetrains that can meet that requirement. Those new designs and products will cost more money to produce on a much more limited scale since there is no longer a "mass produced" base design that we can start with and modify to meet those requirements. 

There are others out there that have tried or are trying new ways to get big power to the ground through various means of other "production based" components. They either cost more money than it's worth to develop on a small production scale and sell to this market, or the production based parts become the limiting factor.

 
Sean@Weddle said:
Here is how the Tremec/9" IRS diff situation would play out:

Bigger tires = need for closer ratio gears. How much will custom gear sets cost? How much power can they hold up to based on shaft center and width restrictions of housings they need to fit into? (Current VW and MD trans limitations)

More power = finding weak links in the factory housings and other components. How much will billet housings and HD components cost? (The reason why the HV-2's were developed to replace the VW and MD trans)

Big tires/Big power = finding breaking point of factory 9" gears. How much will aftermarket HD R&P's cost? (Current S4/S5 limitations) 

When does the factory 9" housings and R&P's become too weak to handle 1000+ HP and 38" tall tires? How much will a larger differential and R&P cost? (Reason for 11.5" R&P in S4D and AGB)

The fact is, every time the drivetrain industry has met the requirements to put X amount of power to the ground reliably, consumers invariably push the power envelope until that requirement has been exceeded. Then a new design must be drawn up and engineered to fix the shortcomings of the design before it. Then someone exceeds the power handling capability of that design. See the cycle here? 

As long as all you guys want to keep spending money on big power engines, we will have to come up with drivetrains that can meet that requirement. Those new designs and products will cost more money to produce on a much more limited scale since there is no longer a "mass produced" base design that we can start with and modify to meet those requirements. 

There are others out there that have tried or are trying new ways to get big power to the ground through various means of other "production based" components. They either cost more money than it's worth to develop on a small production scale and sell to this market, or the production based parts become the limiting factor.
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A great description of evolution!! 😀😀

 
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