Its a gear x 4.9 final drive. Brand new. I actually send this one back and was getting an mfactory one sent to me, but the guy said the mfactory one had similar blemishes/pitting , but not as bad as the one pictured. He said it is fine to run, and that the company will stand behind it. both the gear x and the mfactory are forged. Should i accept the mfactory one if its similar and just run it?

 

Ask them if they are going to cover your whole transmission if that fails killing the rest.

That would suck if not and they only covered a new FD while you have a shredded transmission.


This happened to me with supertech retainers failing and destroying my motor...I got a nice new pack of retainers and had a blown motor.

 

looks like a blem to me. send it back for a new one.

 

i did send it back. and even switched brands to mfactory. They called me and told me the mfactory had the same issue, as well as all their stock for the gear x apparently....

 

They need to get new ones from Mfactory and GearX

 

Yeah, use a different vendor maybe.

I wouldnt put that in my trans.

 

yea the weird part is i was told by the customer service i bought it from- Basically to just install it as is- no big deal, it happens, just run it- im mainly worried that it will continue to disintegrate over time inside my transmission

 

I've run GearX forever, never had a problem with them , really good quality. That just looks like casting marks, besides I don't look at the gears that close since I know I have good quality parts.
By the way, to replace my tranny it would be somewhere in the 3 thousand. I have two trannys and they both have gear X final drives.

 

We at GEAR-X Stand behind all of our products and of course we would not expect any of our customers to accept inferior products.
I was made aware of this particular problem a few days ago and I believe the part has been refunded in full?

However,
this is something I have never seen before and I have had the Phone red hot to our Manufacturers to get it sorted out.
This is a 4.928 final drive which is the largest Diameter Ring Gear that can be machined from the standard size forging that is used.- What is happening is that the Forging is just barely big enough to allow the final machining to clean up the rough forging surface on the edge of the teeth, I have seen the same thing occur with other brands.

I have contacted our manufaturers who are at present preparing to run a new batch of 4.928 Ring gears and resolve the situation. We have found 4 others from the same batch that we have recalled and sent back for replacement. I will have replacements on the way very soon, so if SSBP-GSR cares to call me Direct 714 998 1258 I'm sure I can solve his problem a lot quicker and more amicably than can be done on this forum.
I certainly would never recommend running this product with that blemish on the surface, we value our reputation too much.

Call me and I will make the situation right.


Kiwi - GEAR-X

 

No they were advised through me that the manufacturer recommended that you use it anyway. and that may be true. However I would never allow any of our parts to be used in that condition. That is why as soon as I saw the actual part I recalled it immediately.

Kiwi

 

Sounds like they both come from the same place.....

 

Good to see KIWI handling this..Im just kind of dumbfounded how this leaves the factory as acceptable.

 

Kiwi, you are a top guy.

 

X2

 

Thanks Guys...
Not one of our proudest moments. But at least we caught it in time before any harm was done. Just a good reminder to never let the QC Slip!

Kiwi GEAR-X USA

 

KIWI

 

That's pretty awesome customer service.

 

sometimes its how a person or company resolved a problem, not the problem itself. There needs to be more like Kiwi out in the world running businesses...

 

Yes, Kiwi is a very honest person.
It is impressive to see how he solves the problem

 

I only just found out about this thread after one of our dealers informed me of it.

First of all, to avoid confusion and general assumptions, the MFactory and Gear-X final drives are substantially different from each other. The MFactory 4.923 FD utilizes a different tooth profile and design and is forged from a different grade steel than the Gear-X 4.928 FD. Both are proven products though, so customers should not have any issues with either product.

Regarding the aesthetic issue, this is all it comes down to; aesthetics, as the area concerned is on the outer edge of the gear tooth and is not involved with the mesh between the gear teeth. Having first hand experience with virtually all final drives on the market, this is nothing new as all brands have had this issue with their 4.7+ ratio final drives at some point. This is not a machining nor metallurgical fault, nor is it pitting. It is simply a limitation of the tooling and the fact that most tooling used is based off the measurements of an oem final drive. In order to keep the costs of the final product affordable, the same tooling is used for all the available ratios. If separate tooling was used for each ratio, you would be looking at $1500 final drives, not sub-$600.

This tooling limitation would only really apply to the brands that machine their products from blanks, and not brands that are solely machine-cut (what is wrongly termed as billet). In this case, a product machined from a forged blank is vastly superior to that which is machined from a cast blank. Both MFactory and Gear-X final drives are forged.

However, not all units of a specific batch will display this aesthetic trait and, if a customer was to receive a unit in this condition, I am certain that all companies concerned would happily offer a replacement or refund to the customer if required.

Unlike with "billet" final drives (which all cost $1200+) which are made individually, forged final drives are made in the hundreds. As much as we praise ourselves on our QC and ISO Certification, when dealing with this sort of quantity, a few "imperfect" units may slip past.

For those who are interested in the manufacturing side of things, feel free to PM me and I can run you through the whole manufacturing process from Barstock to final product. I don't want to clutter this thread more than I already have done.

To the original poster: Kiwi is a great person to deal with and I'm certain he will sort out any issues that you may have.

 

One of the MFactory 4.923's I had, had this "issue". Decided to try it anyways and it has been beat to death on track for over 3 years with no problem and taken 2 Championships. If someone receives one like this though it shouldn't be a problem to exchange it as both Stephen an Jeff have pointed out.