Quote:
Originally Posted by ZL1powr

The TKO has held up very well and shifts ok now but it took a lot of miles for it to loosen up. Also the TKO has some minor but annoying vibration through the shifter at high RPM under load particularly in third.

That is exactly what my TKO 600 is doing. I've e-mail keisler customer support without answer yet. Under power the buzz is terrible. I explained to them that if I shift into "N" it's all gone and smooth which I think rules out drive line imbalance. I can also rev the motor in "N" and it's also smooth indicating that the flywheel clutch is all balanced.

Also i have new poly motor mounts and the tranny doesn't touch the tunnel anywhere. I also mounted the tail shaft so the drive line was nearly straight. Never a hint of vibration with my Auto tranny.

Does anybody know a fix? My car is down for a couple of days with swapping out the head gaskets anyway.

Other than that I think the 600 is good tranny. It's a big brute made to take the power, so I never expected it to be a slick shifter like my old ZF-6 Vette that I got rid of.

 

I get the same thing in second, under load, it comes in at 3300RPM goes away and comes back a second time a few hundred RPM later then goes away.

Been there since day one, more than annoying to me, I took the motor out to have it tested for improper balanced, it passed with flying colors, it was very smooth.

It does not do it in any other gear or speed or RPM. I gave up trying to figure out what is causing it a long time ago

 

It's most likely either an imbalanced drive shaft or (more likely) improper drive line angles. Misalignment tends to get worse under load.

 

It's smooth as silk in 1st, 3rd,4th and 5th, no vibration under load or not under load at any speed, only 2nd has a vibration comes and goes twice at around 3300 - 3500RPM

 

Mine is more of all the time under power. ZWEDE - would that be left and right or up and down?

 

George I had the same problem. It would come in at about 60, last until 70 , go away and come back at 90 with a vengence.
It bugged the hell out of me so I really spent time aligning the drivetrain BOTH up and down and side to side.
Now there is absolutely no vibration anywhere.
I believe in proper alignment.
Remember your rearend must be equal and opposite to the angles measure off the tranny.

 

Either or. The tremec sits too high unless you really jam it up in the tunnel. I don't think you can get it high enough without enlarging the shifter hole to where the tower can stick up a little. I enlarged the hole in the tunnel and covered with a bolt-on aluminum cover. I also had to cut a small (about 2"x3") hole in the side of the tunnel to clear the yoke. That hole also got a plate over it (on the inside). With the carpet in place none of it is visible.

 

I did not have a shifter hole to begin with. So my whole shifter (billet aluminum block with the shifter ball is above the sheet metal. Maybe 79 tunnels were also bigger because i have ample clearance all the way around the yoke.

I did not change the coss member mounting position left or right from where my 700R4 mounted. to move the tranny left and right would require elongating the holes.

 

Did you guys re-align or check the bellhousing location relative to the crankshaft with an indicator? I read on their site how they needed a much more critical alignment than the original GM tolerances. I'm not suggesting this is the problem I'm not educated at all on these transmissions, just curious if you guys see the need or had to adjust things.

Bill

 

Yes - you set the bell housing to withing a few .001 of perfect as per instructions.

 

Yes, three tiimes, got 10,000 miles on mine now

 

Just one word of caution. Make sure your yoke universal cap bolts are good and tight. I started feeling a small vibration under load.......more like a harmonic whaa...whaa only to find the cap bolts on one of the yoke ends loose. I proceeded to soak the bolt theads in lock-tight....so far so good. I doubt that's what your dealing with but??????

Bullshark

 

I had vibrations on my 73 tko600 turned out to be the driveshaft that came with the kit,fixed now after a whole year ,still have a slight buzz also in third gear above 4000 rpm,Im tired of tracking down vibrations,if its in the trans Im gonna be pissed.

 

dude, make sure the stick is tightend to the SHIFTER.. when i got mine i was kinda excited and put the stick on the shifter to play with it a little, once i got the tranny in, it too made a funny noise, still does, check that it might be it

 

I know I don't have the horses you guys have and probably don't drive as hard as you guys do; but from 0 to 120 I'm liking my little T5 more and more!
Bernie

 

gkull....I also have worried all of the obvious potential issues. My bell housing alignment is within .002, my pinnion and tranny output shaft are parrallel within a degree (not alligned), and all of my mounts are new. The vibration is not speed dependent but occurs under hard accel above ~3000 rpm. It is most prevallent in third. There are no vibrations at any speed or rpm in neutral. That seems to me to imply an issue with the transmission. I have decided to live with it for the moment because I am tired of trying to get an aftermarket transmission that performs as advertised. As I indicated in an earlier post I had issues with a Richmond 6 SOD also. The richmond shifted smooth and had zero vibration but second gear failed twice. I am about ready to go back to my very reliable M22.

 

I have the same problem.
Will a heavier weight trans oil/lube absorb this vibration?

 

I was playing around with mine today and I have a slight vibration in 1st and bigger in second, like you above 3000 RPM and under load. Third is OK and so it forth.

Because of the problem is not speed related and definatly not the motor because I had the motor out to verify it was smooth, I also suspected the tranny itself, but then kinda dismissed it because it was a new tranny. I am living with it for now too.

 

gkull:
I have spent the last week away from the phones in the R & D shop working on a 64 Vette TKO that was leaking and had some vibration issues as well. Sorry it has taken this long to respond I did respond to your e-mail that you sent me last week, this morning.
Is the handle rattling or is it a vibration that you feel in your seat?
The 64 I just finished had both issues(as well as a couple of leaks).
Turns out the customer had an issue trying to get the slip yoke to fully engage in the output shaft completely and ended up having his driveshaft shortened to fit the length that he now had from the slip yoke. driving down the road he had a vibration that came on at about 2300 no matter which gear you were in. His shifter handle also rattled so badly I couldn't stand to ride in the car. Turns out, by him shortening the driveshaft, the slip yoke was barely engaged onto the output shaft. We changed out driveshafts and that completely fixed the issue. The handle rattle was taken care of when we saw that the roll pin was never installed from the initial installation. It is a wonder he never had the stub come out when going into 5th. We also installed a new "Perfect Shift 3" designed shifter assembly. Everything was smooth as silk when we test drove it Friday afternoon.
If yours is a handle rattle, then I would ask you if the roll pin is installed. If it is then we may try the new shifter design. if it is a driveline vibration, then what is the measurement from the machined aluminum face of the tailhousing to the center of the front u-joint? What are your driveline angles? On the 64 we had 4 degrees at the tailhousing, 5 degrees on the driveshaft itself for 1 degree total on that end. On the rear end side we had 2 degrees on the rear end housing and 5 degrees on the shaft for 3 degrees on that end. by those measurements we are not perfect but had no issues when we were done and drove it Friday afternoon.
Let me know what you have and I will work to correct it.
Richard

 

Sat. morning I decided to change the tail shaft position to try to eliminate vibration. I lowered the rear 1/4 inch and since the shifter was tight on the drivers side console I also moved the tail shaft 1/2 inch over to the passenger side..

Vibration through the shifter and clutch petal dropped by 50% I'm thinking that it is trial and error to get the best tail shaft location. I'm considering buying a mag. based level. So I can find out the angle of the drive shaft and make additional changes.

I put the pin in after the shifter popped out when shifing into 5th going down a highway.

As to drive line length. It's good. I'm able to slide the output yoke forward just enough to clear the u-joints to be able to R&R the drive shaft. If the drive shaft was much longer i couldn't remove it. So it has about the max spline engagement.