Who Has Had a D.Shaft or Trans. Failure ??

[mungce]

We have all heard that our MMs have a factory defective drive shaft; thus the speed limited chip. I read that many of the guy's who have had mods. on their MMs are needing a bullet proof transmission.
My question is, just how many of you have had a shaft or trans. failure ?
I have what's refered to as " phase one " mods, and do agree that the more mods. I make, as far as performance enhancing, the more I should consider safety issues, install a matrix shaft, and do some transmission upgrades.
I have over 5K on my phase onemods. and have been nothing but pleased. I am now wanting to do some more mods., but I want to put my cash into what will really make this great car, even better.
IMHO, I think that some MM owners are buying add ons, for reasons that the car may not require. I have learned what I know about my car from you all on this great site Logan started, way back in '02, when the 1st 300As rolled off the line. I read the posts that contain all the various mods. now available for the Marauder, and see that we now have more choices than in the past, thanks to Dennis R. and other vendors. That's a good thing, and I hope it continues.
I drive my 300A daily, so I don't want to get it to the point where a drive across Texas requires a trailor to haul my MM on; I bought it to drive, not haul it !!
So, how about a count of how many of you have actually had a d.shaft fail at speed, or a trans. fail under " normal" usage.

Jim Williams
Ft.Worth, Tx.

[LVMarauder]

We have all heard that our MMs have a factory defective drive shaft; thus the speed limited chip.

I must respectfully yet whole heartedly disagree with this statement. These are high speed interceptors ,yes. but dont forget these are civilan production cars, not designed for the german autobahn and 150+ speeds. It is the driver behind the wheel that is the problem =) All im saying is the stock DS is fine for what it was made to do.

[mungce]

I have a stock drivshaft, and have never had a problem with it, thus my questions to the membership. Same with the tranny. I see so many members making changes to these OEM items that I have to wonder if there really is a problem that can be verified.

Jim Williams

[SergntMac]

I am clueless over what phase one mods are. Explain this, please?

I recall Stage I mods as a combination of DR performance chip, 180 stat, Denso IT-20 plugs and 4:10 gears. Of course, there is some variety in this formula today, in gear ratios and method of programming, but the end result is the same.

I've owned two MMs, and neither showed any weakness in the DS. I cannot agree that the DS is defective. It may be wise to upgrade the DS for other reasons at a later time, however, the OEM DS is not defective IMHO.

My recommendation to everyone, has always been test first, replace when necessary.

[mungce]

In reply to SergntMac - you are correct, about a phase one mod. Just an e-z way to say " I got this, that and the other thingy from Dennis R. " I use the word defective only because the need to replace a driveshaft, part of the drive train ( not a choo-choo train)would be that something is wrong with it, in this case from the factory, thus the factory speed limited chip. FMC warrents complete drive train for an extended period of time, because the drive train rarely needs any warrenty work done on it, unless it's a factory goof up.
I will assume that only one member has reported a shot tranny, derik, and have yet to see a post on a drive shaft failure. Scare tactics like drive shaft failure, result in more matrix shafts sold to those that may not need one, unlike SergntMac, who is pulling 441 h.p. out of 281 c.i.....now that's a need for all the extra parts one can get ! If you have the bucks, you can find allot of mods. for the MM. Yet what each member really needs, is according to how he plans on using his Marauder. I would not be surprized to see roll bars for sale from a vendor soon........

Jim Williams

[TAF]

In reply to SergntMac - you are correct, about a phase one mod. Just an e-z way to say " I got this, that and the other thingy from Dennis R. " I use the word defective only because the need to replace a driveshaft, part of the drive train ( not a choo-choo train)would be that something is wrong with it, in this case from the factory, thus the factory speed limited chip. FMC warrents complete drive train for an extended period of time, because the drive train rarely needs any warrenty work done on it, unless it's a factory goof up.
I will assume that only one member has reported a shot tranny, derik, and have yet to see a post on a drive shaft failure. Scare tactics like drive shaft failure, result in more matrix shafts sold to those that may not need one, unlike SergntMac, who is pulling 441 h.p. out of 281 c.i.....now that's a need for all the extra parts one can get ! If you have the bucks, you can find allot of mods. for the MM. Yet what each member really needs, is according to how he plans on using his Marauder. I would not be surprized to see roll bars for sale from a vendor soon........

Jim Williams
I guess I don't understand your point Jim....

But, I can tell you...nobody has "held a gun to anyone's head" regarding what they should purchase for the Marauder. If you're implying that you haven't heard of any "driveshaft/tranny failures"...therefore you don't want to address either of these areas of your car with any changes? Then fine, thanks for your post/thread...can we move on?

[mungce]

My point exactly.........

btw - O ferget it....................

Jim Williams

[MAD-3R]

From my recolection, we have hadone member report an issue with his Driveshaft. This is after a 12MPH+ run, and it was a lossened gaskit. As for tranny failures, I think the total is at five or six. Not alot in the statistical sence.

[mungce]

Thanks to the work Logan has done, there is a data base of reported failures, and other related garage issues. See " Simular Threads " for the details.
.............................. ..........end of thread........................ .............

Jim Williams

[sailsmen]

The drive shaft is not defective, it is rpm limited, just like the engine is rpm limited. The reason it is rpm limited is due to it's length and weight it begins to whip or reaches it's "resonance" wave. All drive shafts have a "resonance" wave that they will reach at a particular rpm.

With the stock gears this occurs at approxmiately 118 mph. With the 4:10 this occurs at approximately 100 mph. The drive shaft will prob not break but the out put case on the trans will due to the whipping.

If you have the stock gears and a chip, which has eliminated the speed limiter and you drive over 118 mph for any length of time you will eventually have a problem. Same with the 4:10 gears and a chip if you drive over 100 mph for any length of time.

What I am telling you has been reported by Steve Babcock the development engineer for the MM and Jerry W. a former Ford drive train engineer.

As respects the trans there have been over 6 failures reported on this board. We also have a 2001 E150 that my wife drives with the same trans as the MM, no trailer towing or cargo hauling and it went out at 16k miles. Several of the failures have been due to a clip on the OD clutch band that tends to pop off, others have been due to damage as a result of improper assembly.

What Dennis Reinhart charges to remove, bullet proof the trans and reinstall is less than what most dealers charges to r&r w/ an oem rebuild.

What the vendors are offering us is the opportunity to improve our MM. When ever you improve the performance of a vehicle you are putting additional stress and any areas that are marginal on a stock vehicle are then more prone to breakage on a modified vehicle.

Some maybe concerned over mods reducing the reliability of their vehicle and want the option of maintaining or improving the reliability of their moded vehicle over that of an unmoded vehicle.

[Marauder57]

I have a NA Marauder with quite a few mods.....I did a hybrid Tranny upgrade with Dennis kind of a 1.5......for piece of mind....my decesion....hey I like to push the car and wanted to know I could do so with out any ramifications....piece of mind for me.....my decesion.

I did upgrade the driveshaft and found a difference.....there was some vibration in the car when I was getting to 80, 90 and 100....while I was not doing that repeatedly......once the new shaft was on...there was a lot smoother ride.....good mod in my opinion...probably a good early one.

But I think both of these are good if you plan on consistently modding your MM.....while I may never do an SC....I will be doing a ton of NA related mods.....I want my car to last and be as "Idiotproof" as possible so that when I want to go fast or push the car....I know I can.

"Wear your seatbelts....and if you are in a Reinhart SC....Wear a Blindfold!"

[Marauderman]

. I would not be surprized to see roll bars for sale from a vendor soon........

Jim Williams

:lol: You may be right on this mod, and Dennis will probably be one of the first cause he is presently pushing or will be in an MM well over 600 to the tire and so,,,he may just install one and .....he should know from experience with having to install one on his MarkVIII.....

And BTW, My OEM tranny was about to become toast when Dennis pulled it to updrage to level II for my S/C....I couldn't tell it was going bad but he said only about 30 more days for it at that time.....could have been cause by my 100 + mph with stock tranny and shaft before upgrades....so if you do the upgrades..do the drive train as well...period...Tom