falcon tramsnission fluid

[cushionbumper]

We have been using the Gears Unlimited transmission fluid in our Falcon transmission. Wondering if we could switch to the ATF they recommend without any concern or problems, or should we continue to use the Gears Unlimited fluid?
Thanks,
CB

[rubbinsracin]

you should be fine. we run standard ATF in ours. there are a couple of guys that run an A-mod we just found out that run 10-30 full synthetic in theirs.

with the ATF we get about 6-8 nights on it before it needs changed.

does your falcon, when taking off in first or reverse make a "howling" sound?

[cushionbumper]

we've had two falcons and neither have every howled when starting to engage the clutch in first or reverse.
CB

[1Blacksheep]

What does the howl noise indicate?

[racin6mod]

usaully thats coming from the clutch housing being pressed past it normal limit see item 65 that is an aluminum wear plate that needs replaced along with a new clutch pack more than likely.

[rubbinsracin]

interesting, we replaced the clutch pack twice now(once when we bought it and this last winter) but never replaced the part you are referring too. we got 3 years out of our last set of clutchs and they still looked just like the brand new ones. we put them in a butter tub with atf and keep them just in case.

only thing it seems to do is howl. otherwise works really good. these things shift way harder than all other trannys that i have driven though. any way to make them shift a little easier?

another thing, we have trouble keeping a yolk seal in ours. we have changed it about 10 times and it always seems to pull some of the rubber out. we have the long yolk(8" i think). and it never bottoms out. any ideas?

[racin6mod]

The falcon has a shifting rod set up pretty much like the bert but they put the springs and balls in from the side.but the problem with the shifting could be the way the gears are cut at winters not enough led in angle at the edges of the gear teeth. as for the seal hows your tail shaft is it tight or loose in the housing the tail shaft in falcons can become loose and cause the yoke to have a side load on the seal.they do have a nice bearing in the tail housing but it's only a 1 1/8 th or so wide so it can be more a pivot point for the yoke. if your yoke is smooth in it's intire working area and has no rough sures that could tear up the seal than look in to the tail shaft.

have you changed just the clutch plates or the steel wear plates and the clutch plates ?

[rubbinsracin]

we did the basic rebuild kit and replaced the entire tail housing this last winter. We replaced the tailhousing because originally we had a short yolk with a longer driveshaft that came with the car and we pushed in the first seal it had in and did a little bit of damage to the housing so we just replaced this winter. so we shortened up the drive shaft and put the long yolk on it and the only thing we have done since then is tear out the rubber part of the outer seal out. it doesnt leak at all static or even when you jack the front end up. we just get slight splatter during the race as the fluid heats up and thins out i would guess. doesnt do any damage to the yolk or even touch the rest of the seal that is still there. it is in there tight and does not wiggle or anything with the outer bearings and shaft holding it tight. im just guessing its from when we wash the car and wait until the next day to put some tranny fluid on it to keep it lubed up.

we used the kit right from speedway below:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Falcon-Racing-Transmission-Basic-Rebuild-Kit,6569.html

[racin6mod]

pm me your address and I'll mail you a couple seals I use here at my shop.so fare I've had no problems with them at all.I'm not saying the seal mfg is your issue but just a idea to try.this is really a strang problem, have you ever tried sliding the seal on the yoke before you put it in the trany just to have a better look at how it fits.

[1Blacksheep]

We actually run a Bert, but figure its the same thing causing the Howl or just worn disks? We used to load the car under power which I am sure helped it along the wear path to destruction.Its More of a Bark from a sick dog.LOL . 15 races on the assembly.Winch is wonderful now just a little late. Thanks 6mod

[rubbinsracin]

well we figured out why we were going through seals. turns out that the bearing at the end of the shaft was going bad and completely came apart on me this last weekend. good thing we got 2 weeks until we race again because 2 of the 4 parts we needed are on back order through speedway.

we are hoping all we have to do is pull the tail-housing off to get all the junk from the old bearing out. does anyone know if there is any way that the "shrapnel" from the bearing could have worked its way into the main housing? or should we be able to just pull the tail-housing off....dump all the junk out....put it back together and go from there?

racin6mod - thanks for the offer, we will try this seal through speedway when it comes in. where do you normally get yours from? what brand are they? the speedway guy told me that the ones they get come right from winters.

[racin6mod]

I get my seals from a local gm trany repair shop.he does a lot of wheel drive trany's and has a ton of rearseals left over from the gm kits.

you might try southwest speed they might have the parts you need on hand.I thought that bearing was one of the best parts about the falcon trany.I'll have to remember this one in case someone comes into my shop with the same issue.

[rubbinsracin]

its one of the best parts as long as you dont have some kind of incident where someone/something gets into your rear wheels. we had someone put us into the wall about 5 weeks ago now and it bent/broke a couple of the rear 4 bars and broke the jbar off at the heim. were guessing that when that happened it slid the rearend over to the left where the tire was outside the body about 8" and used the yolk to overload the bearing by yanking on the yolk. that would explain the damaged seal and bearing. we just never noticed it until we this week when the bearing finally gave up and we started to hear the yolk knocking around. im just hoping at this point we can just replace the bearing, clips and seals and be good to go, but i have a bad feeling that the tailhousing is really beat up. guess we will find out on thursday when i have time to get down to the shop and look at it.