I recently had my front end bearing go out on my 2D trans, it has 1 full season on it and on my second trip this season it went bad. I pulled the trans and took it down to Rancho where I bought it. When I pulled it from the car I noticed that there was a crack in it on the bottom under the gear clusters. The trans was torn down and all the parts checked, everything checked good with no rough wear or beat up gears. The case was sent to Mendeola for inspection, they then asked to see the gears. My question is, What caused this? If the internal parts were all clean and not damaged How did it crack? If there was a problem from the start how come it lasted this long, and why were there no concessions given for the replacement of the case. Any response or answers would be appreciated. Thanks

Sorry no words of wisdom here. But if you are interested in selling your broken case i am looking for a mockup case for my new buggy. Until i can afford the real thing

E-mail me at mntharkins@pixius.net
Thanks
Mike

I had a piece of my shift rod do an explosion to my case 4 hrs into a brand new trans.. The builder (weddle) told me and my builder "we aint never seen that before". 1700.00 later I was back in business. The rod broke because someone (weddle) over torqued the bolt on the end of the rod.
Good luck ever getting anything back or taken care of when something breaks - be it almost brand new or a year old.

In your case having a year on it, I would carefully look at the mounting putting pressure on the case that over time will cause stress cracks.

I sold my busted case also to a builder as a mock it. Helps a little..

There are no waranties in this buis. Especially on the trans side- Jess

I wonder if machining the case to accept the Porsche G-50 input shaft and larger bearings has anything to do with the problem ?. Still better than a type one tranny (4e). I just replaced my mid-housing case due to a crack also !. My builder did say that where mine cracked was 1 out of every 50 or so that he see's. ( maybe hecho on friday) lol. I just wish I hadnt gave my old case away for nada !!, must have been worth a few bags of aluminum cans ehhh ?. LOL.

.

Heck i would fund a couple of case's of full alum cans for one

I have seen these things crack also. Obviously an internal failure/parts explosion will cause a crack on the case. This is typical around the ring gear. If no internals show signs of being the culprit to a cracked case, other thoughts may be:

1. BAD CASTING-To my knowledge, the Mendeola cases are cast from A356 T-6 alloy (Mendeola, correct me if I am wrong) This material has had issues before, well, at least the T-5 did. Anyway, researchers found that this material had problems when used in both sand castings and mold castings. Check out the article - http://www.allbusiness.com/manufacturing/f...g/125326-1.html

These Chinese guys did a whole bunch of research to perfect the crystallization of the molecules. Now, the article does say they were able to better stabilize the molecular structure by super heating it. This caused the material to form in a "Chinese Script Form" as they call it. Prior to this, castings showed a needle-like shape, which was "deleterious" for castings. This is where the T-6 comes into play. T (temper) is the hardness of the material. The harder, the more brittle the material becomes. I am no metallurgist, but I wouldn't put the idea that the material might be too hard past me. Another thought is that no 2 castings are exactly the same. Some may come out hotter than others, faster than others, material compound is off a bit, heck, the sun and moon might not be in the right spot in the sky! There are many variables here.

2. CHASSIS FLEX-This one might be a bit far fetched for some, but I believe in this-CHASSIS FLEX! They move a lot more than most think, or want to think. These days everybody plugs a big V8 into their sand car. Reciprocating engines produce this crazy thing called "Torque". Torque is quite simply described as twisting force. When you stomp on your sweet-(_|_) foot shaped gas pedal the engine will twist that entire chassis. Now, the Mendeola transaxles SHOULD be hard mounted to that twisting chassis. This twisting force is then transfered to that A356 alloy transmission case! You can see where I am going with this! The shear strength on the F911 hardware bolting your transmission in should be somewhere around 75,000-90,000 lbs. You can do the math on the first to give-that bolt, or the aluminum transmission case.

Disclaimer: All of the above info. is solely the OPINION of myself, BenTerrible. This information is not "guaranteed" by me! Long story short, don't quote me on this stuff, as I am not an engineer...yet.

Make sure you put a trans pump. Kinda off topic but it dont hurt.

why hasnt anyone tried welding thier cracked cases? you can normally weld it up to be stronger with added supports and material. with the prices of these high dollar cases i would think repairing them would definatly be an option. then again, if you can afford a trans like these in the first place i suppose you can afford a replacement.

Which is amazingly sad and statement on how builders trust their own product.

I know a guy who broke a wheel, the manufacturer said "no warranty" because it is used "off-road."

Isnt that what it is designed for?

I believe he took it to court and won.

If a product is designed for off-road use and it is used for it's intended purpose, it should carry a warranty. I believe by California law, it MUST carry a warranty against defects.

Unfortunately, way to many buyers ASSUME that their is no warranty because the builder says so...NOT TRUE at all.

And there is case law to back it up.

People cant just have a green light to put junk on the market without being responsible for it.

"no warranty' does not fly in California.

The implied warranty of merchantability is basically a guarantee made by the seller that the products they sell are fit to be sold. If they sell a washing machine, they must guarantee that the machine can wash clothes. If they sell a television, they must guarantee that the unit will receive and display television images. And so on.

What's important to remember is that this implied warranty applies only in cases where a merchant is selling a product that they are normally in the business of selling. So if an appliance merchant sells a delivery truck, and they do not regularly trade in delivery trucks, the law would not automatically treat them like a used car dealer. They would face the same laws in regards to the sale of the delivery truck as would any private individual.

The implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is a guarantee the merchant makes at the time of sale that a product can do what is expected of it. This is more subjective and qualitative than the implied warranty of merchantability, but they do overlap to some extent. For instance, if a washing machine is described as being "heavy duty," or more specifically as "large capacity," it must live up to those attributes, especially if the buyer relied upon those attributes to make their selection.

Unlike an express warranty, an implied warranty normally has no set duration. This is because an implied warranty is designed to protect buyers more from fraud or unscrupulous sales practices at the outset than from poorly-designed or defective products down the road. The old warranty joke was that if the used car you just bought broke in half on the way home, you would own both pieces. Nowadays, an implied warranty of merchantability would protect against that kind of problem. But it would be no help if the car failed after months or years of normal use.

Most states allow a merchant to sell products "as is" or "with all faults," as long as they inform the buyer of this policy in writing. In such a case, the "as is" buyer would indeed own both halves of the useless car, because there would be no implied warranty of merchantability. However, some states simply do not allow a merchant to disclaim these implied warranties, even if they try to do so in writing. Some states have outlawed only "as is" sales of vehicles, and some states have gone a step further by requiring statutory warranties on used cars. In Massachusetts, for instance, dealers must cover used cars sold for $700 or more with 80,000 to 125,000 miles on them at the time of sale with a 30-day/1,250-mile warranty. Used cars with less mileage are covered for up to 90 days or 3,750 miles.

Finally, implied warranties apply to many types of products that are rarely if ever covered by an express warranty. For instance, a restaurant is bound by an implied warranty that its food is edible. It may not be delicious, but it must not be poisonous. A filling station cannot pump gasoline and call it diesel fuel. Even a Web site is bound by an implied warranty that the information it publishes is true. It's always amusing to see a publisher who claim their articles are provided "as is," but in this era of fake news and retractions, perhaps the best policy is to let the buyer beware.

Very true there is an "Implied Warranty" in which the product is expected to stand up the the use it was designed and marketed for.

Absolutely. Also, in California, they cannot put up a sign or have you sign away your warranty rights. In California you CANNOT sign away your rights.