Afraid to lock up convertor

[10secvega]

I have a pretty well built 200r4.It was built by someone on this board but i won't mention a name.At the time this happened it was 3 months old and had maybe 500 street miles and 20 passes on it
It has a hardened input shaft,but a stock overdrive planatery and ring gear.
Late last summer i blew apart the overdrive planatery,stripped out the splines and cracked it around the spline area.
It was semi warrantied and a stock planatery was then reinstalled.
I was told it broke because i was locking up the convertor,which at the time was a Pats 3500 and only did it a hand full of times at the track.
I know have a Vigilante 3200 7 disc that i'm afraid to lock up for fear of braking the tranny again.

Should i not lock it up until i have a Billet planetery and ring gear installed?Or maybe the stock part was fatigued to begin with?

 

[Lee Thompson]

?

Where were you locking ? 2nd, top of 3rd? IMO that has a lot to do with stress. I lock @ the top of 3rd. Never had a failure doing it that way.

 

[Grumpy]

we have broken a few of them in different HP cars .. put a good aftermarket one in!!

 

[turbo nasty]

Aftermarket one will help but just make sure you are getting lube to the OD planet set. Other wise you gonna keep killing them.
I am going through this now.

 

[bison]

The pinions arent what usually fails. Its the splined area of the carrier that is thin and not acceptable for WOT locks. Especially if the ball has been removed from the input shaft. If you want WOT locks and not break the planet or ring gear then buy billet pieces or buy a NL converter.

 

[TurboDave]

Ya, you'll need some good billet parts for sure if you want trouble free WOT locks with that converter (same converter I run).
I raced two full seasons with it back in the mid/late 90's and have been beating on it on the street (not racing) ever since.

I have some good billet parts in the tranny from Bruce Toelle (Performance Transmissions) though which is why it's held up all this time!!

I lock mine (WOT) at around 88mph (done in the chip) which is about 1/3 the way through 3rd gear on the way to the big end. Locking it in second or on the line will hurt performance (at the rpm/power bands we use).

 

[10secvega]

Thanks for all of the replies.This tranny was suppose to be full billet and good for mid 9's in a full weight GN.

If anyone wants to know who the builder was so they don't get ripped off like i did please PM me.