TKO Upgrade

[eschaider]

Originally Posted by RET_COP

I've been on the Ford websites a lot over the years and those guys Hamer the crap out of those transmissions, faceplated and all and i never heard of breaking third gear. Ive seen a lot of carnage in my years of drag racing, could this isolated incident just be a bad third gear from a metallurgy standpoint. I mean this stuff happens. I don't doubt that the .140 is an issue but does it directly result in a breakage problem the we all know about? Im not seeing that.

The torque capacity for a gear set is a function of the steel used, the gear centers, the tooth style and also the face width of the gear teeth. The T56 Magnum has the same gear centers as a regular T56. The box's strength comes from increased tooth face contact (width), improves materials and also tooth pitch angle.

If you have a gear that is 1" wide and you make no changes other than reducing the tooth contact (face width) by 50% the torque capacity of the gear has been reduced by 50%. This is exactly (other than the percentage) what has happened to third gear in the TKO 600's. The torque capacity reduction is linear with gear tooth face width reduction.


Ed