GREAT POST, RICH!
All of us should be thankful for customer service people so well healed and caring for the customer.
***Note: the next sections are my personal opinions. If you are not interested, please skip this section and start at Technical Info ***
Moparts has a lot of roughness around the edges - that is common knowledge. But we all like our Mopars, so let's get along and try to be nice to our guys. especially Rich.
I, Shafi Keisler, invented this product line when there was not a hope or prayer for Mopar 4-speed guys to get an overdrive stick worth a damn. In case you don't know, Mopar is generally looked at as the step-child of customers for the main line vendors making repro parts. Low volume, lots of variations, and not a ownerbase willing to spend loads of money on the car to warrant spending time to tool up parts we need. Even Chrysler can't spend much money on making parts for us.
It is common knowledge that Mopar customers are passionate, knowledgeable, and loyal. Bill Miller, co-founder of Carlisle Productions, said at the closing ceremony at Carlisle last weekend, that the Chryslers at Carlisle is the staffers favorite show. What a compliment!
I am passionate about Mopars. But, the pig pilers here - people that focus and feed on negative energy - really bring Moparts down. I met with Tom - the owner of Moparts - at Carlisle and we had a good discussion, for which I am hopeful things will change here - especially for the newer members. I know I wouldn't take my family to a house of garbage, and quite frankly that what posts look and smell like here at Moparts thanks to the pig pilers.
I really would like to spend time at Moparts - I gave it up several years ago, and have my staff field the questions so I can focus on continuously improving our product and not get dragged down in the BS. Normally, customers having problems work with our front line sales and customer service people first. If there is a problem still, it gets escalated to our business manager, Bruce. If he can't work it out - which is very very rare, it goes to me.
If EVER, you feel like Keisler is not listening to you, or you need another person at Keisler to cross-check, please DO NOT HESITATE to contact us. We have a TOLL FREE number now 888-609-0070 and emails and phone calls are returned within the same day, generally. If that is not enough, here is my personal number: 865-566-0314 This rings to my desk. I check my messages several times per day. We have a new sales and customer service assistant, Melissa, who handles overflow calls, takes driveshaft measurements, does invoicing, shipping tracking requests, etc. Another great person. She can be reached at x221.
*** end of personal thoughts & opinions - thanks for listening ***
Tech Info
1. SHIFT RPM ISSUES
Over the years, we have worked to refine the TKO product. In 2004, the TKO500/600 series came out. It is a much better box than the previous model. We rely on Tremec to advise us of the capabilities of the unit. We knew early on that 6500 rpm was about the limit of *reliable* shifting. That doesn't mean you can shift it past 6500, just that the shift quality will fall off past that.
Modification of the synchro can be done to improve this; simply removing every other tooth on the bronze rings has been reported to work well. At this time, we do not do this. Liberty Gear, Promotion can do mods like that. If you want that done, we will need to ship the unit to them for their work, then install our parts and test/seal the entire unit.
I don't know of any Mopar muscle car that has a redline over 6500rpm, so I feel that the TKO is a very well suited unit. As another member pointed out, we move a LOT of product (we are the largest Tremec distributor in the world!), and this is not a widespread problem. Following Rich's advice on the technique for 2/3 shifts will help a lot. Even then, you may have a ghost shift where you move the lever, but there is no 3rd gear. This is a limitation of the single cone sychronizer. Think of the synchro cone like a clutch disk that has to speed match two parts. If the friction surface area is not large enough, or grippy enough, it can't slow things down/speed things up fast enough for you.
Rattling Shifter on E-Body
This problem was caused by a metal-metal joint in the linkage which vibrated during hard acceleration. In 2006, we changed the design to a carbon nylon injection molded isolator cup bushing. After getting the isolator just right, we redesigned the rest of the linkage and shifter, along with some major mods to the oil sealing, shift rail bearings, and a few other items. The result of all of this is an e-body unit that is very taught, smooth and free of irritating vibrations under acceleration. It also incorporates Tremec's sealed red shifter which has biasing springs. This is a far better piece than other units out there, including B&M, Hurst, McLeod, Steeda, Pro5.0 and others. In fact I looked at McLeods/Hurst/B&M/Classic Chevy's shifter at Carlisle. I was amazed at how much excess play it has in the forward/aft axis. This amplifies an already irriating problem with the tremec tko which is shifter handle movement during load and unloading of the driveline (accel/decel). A certain amount of this is allowable and normal, but sometimes new units have excessive handle movement. We call the factory, and they work to get the mfg tolerance as a whole back in range for end play. This is a feature we cannot shim out of the unit.
If you hear someone telling you a Keisler shifter is anything less than excellent, please let me know! If someone is vomiting old news in efforts to get you down on us - tell them to stop wasting your time. There are people doing that here which were previously affiliated with my company. Watch out.
B-Body shifter built prior to 2005
These units utilize Tremecs cast aluminum tower. Frankly speaking, this wasn't a good shifter tower. The designers did not take into account the application, and it was an afterthought accessory. We changed the design radically in 2005, and further refined this product. In my opinion, it is leaps and bounds better than the new revised Tremec shifter, the McLeod/B&M/Hurst shifter, and the Fortes shifter. The stub is manufactured to get the most out of the Tremec 3 rail unit.
In 2007, we developed some parts to further the shift quality of the Tremec TKO. Initial testing shows favorable results. However, due to the underlying problem of the synchros, we have not furthered the product to market. Instead, we emphasize the capabilities and make customers aware of the limitations.
E-body Tunnel Fitment
The transmission can fit and work adequately in some cars, and not in others. We tell every customer now that cutting may have to occur.
Look at the top of our transmission versus the one classic chevy makes, and you will see that we have taken extra care to make the TKO the smallest packaging possible. Still it is bigger than the A833, and the compromise has to be made in order to get the drivability from the 32-36% overdrive without sacrificing to the large step changes as found in the A833 Overdrive or aftermarket versions. Anyway you go, there are compromises. We see our product as being the best bang for the buck with the least amount of compromise.
Hydraulic Actuator
From 1998 - 2003, I used a hydraulic bearing from McLeod. It came in two forms - bolt on and slip on. In all forms, I can honestly say, it is a piece of crap. We lost a lot of money, time and credibility over the McLeod hydraulic. B&M now owns McLeod, but I don't see any changes and would not expect to. That is a stone age circle track product that should not be let out of the track. We finally shelved McLeod altogether, and never looked back.
Our current hydraulic system is a proprietary OEM design, similar to what is used in Viper today. They are made to the most stringent controlled processes, have inner and outer seals, forged aluminum case, single line fill/bleed, self centering concentric bearing. The master cylinder is a high quality Wildwood which attaches to a body specific beautiful aluminum firewall mount. We moved out of the dinosaur age - Very nice pieces indeed.
You will still hear stories from older customers who lived the horror stories of the McLeod hydraulic bearing failure. It leaves a bitter taste in everyone's mouth.
If you hear stories from salespeople using any of the items above as reasons why one should NOT buy a Keisler product, please contact me by phone or email. On behalf of the company, I promise to help all of you that have any residual issues that need resolution, but I offer this with a caveaut:
Work with us by contacting us off list through the following emails: Richard (rjohnson@keislerauto.com), Gene (gcharsha@keislerauto.com), Jeff (jkauffman@keislerauto.com), Melissa (assistant@keislerauto.com), or myself Shafi Keisler (skeisler@keislerauto.com)
Also, we have a monthly newsletter that goes out around the middle of the month. This upcoming issue addresses upgrades for older model Keisler kits, as well as some beneficial tech info, and accessories worth adding to compliment your kit. When selling upgrades, we have a policy not to make more than the cost to cover the product and overhead.
Sign up for this newsletter to learn what's shakin' and check out our website often.
Thanks for listening, and I look forward to having good times on Moparts. Here is a video I posted on YouTube showing the burnout I did last Saturday at Chryslers at Carlisle.
ENJOY !!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beDWQgMdyN8Shafi
