Speedtek Gearset Review

[HIKAR1]

Speedtek Gearset Review

This is a review based on my experience and may not correlate to your experience when dealing business with Speedtek Auto Racing Parts.

TL,DR;

Positives

•        Received the goods (gearset and rebuild kit)

•        Fair priced and holding up 540whp (soon to push more)

•        Conversations are in professional and respectable manner

•        Comfortable to resolve issues and will follow through

•        Many other higher HP cars in Europe using his products with success

Negatives

•        He has been outside Australia from February 2017 till now, leaves his co-worker in Melbourne to run the business

•        Co-worker does not seem to conduct any QC prior to sending the goods out, defects were present in the product (read below)

•        Replies from him take days to weeks to get back in resolving issues (but was quick on the point of sale) being outside the country

•        Lead time was very average

This is more suitable for somebody who has rebuild gearboxes before and understand the components inside, otherwise, it is just jibberish for you.

I’ve placed an order for their replacement ‘strengthen’ gear set to replace the current OSGiken gear set on R33 GTR S3 gearbox along with new bearings, synchro and seals. The keyword was GTR Series 3 gearbox. Order was placed on mid-February 2017 and payment was done ever so promptly. Item was sent mid-March and received end of March. The person behind Speedtek is Alex Kantarovski, as some of you would know; he is in the no-good list in SAU with his previous dealings. I am in no way presenting him as a scammer in this review, I’ve received my goods and he is willing to help to resolve the issues I’ve found. He has been out of the country since the beginning of this year and leaves his machinist to produce the product and his co-worker as logistics support.

Upon assembly and checking clearances, I realised that the input shaft (4^th gear) cone diameter did not match with the synchro supplied. The 4^th gear synchro supplied by Alex fitted the OSGiken input shaft properly but not with the input shaft supplied (S3 4^th gear synchro is bigger in diameter and uses shifting keys instead of clips). The input shaft he supplied is suitable for R33 GTST GTR or Z32 with the smaller diameter 4^th gear cone. I popped him a message early April and he replied by insisting that he will send the correct synchro promptly. The 4^th gear synchro for his kit is basically an off the shelf synchro but re-machined to allow for the shifting keys instead of the clips. A month was lost and I received the replacement synchro early May.

The day I received the replacement synchro, I received a message from Alex saying that there is an issue with the synchro that I just received. I checked it over the sliding hub and sure enough it has issue with the teeth indexing that will pose shifting problem. He insist that it is a one off issue from the machinist which has been rectified, another replacement will be sent to me soon. 4 days later, the replacement of the replacement is sent to me and received mid-May.

Opening the parcel, the synchro has a defect. The machinist made a mistake in the CNC program and created an undercut on the face of the synchro like it smashed tool. Indexing appears to be ok and that undercut shouldn’t affect its function as it is in a non-critical zone. Alex apologised and insisted to send me another one; apparently his co-worker sent me a prototype. I received the replacement mid-May (so right now 4 x 4^th gear synchro in total).

So assembly starts right away, it is my mistake in just quickly checking the clearance on this synchro and close up the gearbox. I didn’t bother checking how the latest synchro indexes on the hub. With gearbox being back in the car, all gears engage smoothly….except 4^th. It crunches whether you shift into it from neutral/standing still/driving/slow shift/fast shift. Double clutching fixes the issue. Contacted Alex about the problem, he suggested to check the diameter of the pilot bronze bush on the crank. He made his input shaft snout to be 16mm diameter. I pulled the gearbox off to confirm and surprisingly the pilot bush was stuck on the input shaft as I pull the gearbox off indicating the interference fit. Why he made it 16mm diameter? I don’t know.

The stock and OSGiken input shaft snout measures 15.8mm diameter in which the bush is 16mm diameter internally. I was not informed of this change. I’m not going to call this as my oversight because there was no design advantage to make that change, hence, I didn’t check it. This was the most plausible explanation at the time to why it crunches 4^th. I was then suggested to drill the bush out to 16.2mm diameter which I did and slapped the gearbox back on the car. Then still…..no Bueno. It still crunches 4^th and the only thing I could think of is the indexing issue of the custom synchro he made, the groove cut for the shifting key was perhaps too narrow so that the synchro does not slightly provide positive engagement with the hub and inevitably the synchronising action pushing it onto the input shaft cone.

After messages exchanged and with no luck with this 4^th gear syncro, I suggested for a replacement input shaft. The replacement shaft will be to fit the 1^st synchro he sent me which has a cone diameter identical to the S3 GTR and OSGiken, co-incidentally it is the same as R34 neo input shaft in which his machinist already has a program on the CNC. This was because I know that the 1^st synchro he sent me is a correct off the shelf component rather than guessing with another custom syncro. This is where I am right now, another month has gone by and his co-worker is in the process of sending me the replacement input shaft. Further update to follow…

Overall

I am not entirely sure if there is anything special with the S3 GTR gearbox. I’ve rebuilt a couple of FS5R30A from R33 GTST, SR20 box and Honda B series gearboxes without an issue with off the shelf parts and this would hopefully be an one off unlucky event. Alex will assist you with any related issue, his parts looks good (not sure what material and heat treatment these gearsets are). He could improve with communication and getting information from his co-worker. I’ve read worse experience in SAU with other companies such as PAR where they seem to just throw you under the bus after sale.

[admS15]

Knowing about his previous dealings and the reputation he has, i've always thought twice about purchasing any of his products (never have). Good to see that he is helping to rectify the issue but can definitely understand your frustration. Hope that it does all get resolved and run smoothly once you receive the input shaft.

[HIKAR1]

Replacement input shaft received! Dimensionally checks out. We'll see how this goes in a week or two time.

[mitchum]

Any updates to this? 

How's it holding up, anyone been beating these things? Broke the common 3rd gear.. looking for a solution..

[vito_96]

Any update im looking to purchase his 1-3 gear set with input shaft 

 

[Guilt-Toy]

what happened ?

 

[HIKAR1]

So after giving it few months of moderate driving on the 550whp GTR, the straight cut noise got louder and louder. We drained the oil and it was pretty much silver glitter with metallic build up on the magnet.

Castrol VMX80 was used, Speedtek said to use any oil other than redline shockproof.

We decided to strip the gearbox down again where we saw;

• 1st to 5th gear that were helical cut were mint
• The straight cut input shaft and the straight cut portion of the  countershaft has decent wear where backlash seems excessive.

The gearbox was set up properly in terms of the end play clearances of the countershaft, but, since the input shaft is straight cut and centrelines don't change, it didn't matter much for it.

Speedtek was informed and he will be sending a replacement input and countershaft soon. Right now, we are just speculating whether the gears were cut out of tolerance or the VMX80 didn't cut it. I guess, when they come, redline MT90 will be used and see how we go.

[Dobz]

Which gear had more wear the input or counter shaft?

[HIKAR1]

The input and the adjacent straight cut portion of the counter shaft.

[Dobz]

Yeah I understand that, I'm just trying to decipher which gear of the two has more wear or have they both worn evenly?

I'll take a stab and say there's something going on with gear tooth hardening or lack there of.

With the small amount of work the box has done there shouldn't be such accelerated wear regardless of machined tooth tolerances or setup clearances. 

Is speedtek just sending another shaft with no questions asked? Surely they would want the worn one back for analysis.

 

 

[HIKAR1]

On 3/22/2018 at 2:38 PM, Dobz said:

Yeah I understand that, I'm just trying to decipher which gear of the two has more wear or have they both worn evenly?

I'll take a stab and say there's something going on with gear tooth hardening or lack there of.

With the small amount of work the box has done there shouldn't be such accelerated wear regardless of machined tooth tolerances or setup clearances. 

Is speedtek just sending another shaft with no questions asked? Surely they would want the worn one back for analysis.

 

 

The f**ked shafts were sent back to him. I can almost agree that there is a mixture of incorrect grade oil used and lack of teeth surface hardening. I took it to work to see it under the microscope; contact surfaces were pitted and worn (grooved).

He promised to supply replacement input and counter gear and delivered mid of April. As of today, mid of March, nothing. He doesn't give updates, he doesn't respond to the messages. Last info I've got was two weeks ago saying it will be sent whenever it is ready. f**k knows now. So the dilemma continues, 1.5 years later.

[niZmO_Man]

So... another alibaba special? Or is it "billet" made in Melbourne?

Also, today is mid of May

[HIKAR1]

My bad; **As of today, mid of March May, nothing.**

Many other guys and myself believe it is made in Thailand or one of the south east Asian countries seeing their facebook posts.

It is getting to a pathetic level.

[HIKAR1]

31st May, last day of the month. Nothing. I managed to get in touch with him mid of this month and promises were made that I will be updated towards the end of month. He said he didn't have the straight cut input shaft in stock and there were manufacturing delays, a 4 month delay????

As always, the promises were always broken.

[iruvyouskyrine]

You are aware of all the past dealings mister speedtek has had here in Australia?

[HIKAR1]

8 minutes ago, iruvyouskyrine said:

You are aware of all the past dealings mister speedtek has had here in Australia?

Before the purchase, we weighted up quiet heavily based on his previous dealings from here. Then we weighted up his current 'reviews' of the product. From all that, it was pretty much "lets see if he lives up to his words" and bit the bullet. The initial purchase came, we got the product but problems arise since. In short sense, any sour dealings falls its responsibility on me because I decided to trust the guy.

 

On another note; he emphasised that he is giving me "FREE" items. Just no. We returned the three defective synchros, we returned the original input shaft so we can use S3 synchro and we returned the whole set back to him because of the wear issues. All for exchange on non defective items. It is not like we took it to track, slammed every gear and breaking shafts. The car couldn't even be pushed on the road because of all the underlying issues.

[niZmO_Man]

It sucks when this happens, but someone has to be a guinea pig I suppose. Good to see you've shared your experience (assuming it's all honest obviously).

[HIKAR1]

Surprise surprise.....it is coming to the end of July and still nothing, nada, jack shit.

[mitchum]

Updates

[r33ryan]

Updates? What grade oil would be best suited?