915 Rebuild - Phoenix area - needs machine work
 

I have an '81 915 transaxle from my '78 911SC race car that needs a rebuild. Last rebuild (I think that was #4 under my 30+ year ownership) my mechanic in MN told me the case was getting tired and I should look for a new one for my next rebuild. At a track event in September the transmission started making noise under power (clutch out: noise, clutch in: no noise) and so I think I've probably spun a bearing. As for finding another transmissions - I'm not seeing any so I'm hoping mine can be machined and sleeved. So that brings me to my question:

What shops in the Phoenix area should I be looking at for a rebuild? I'm retired and willing to cart the trans anywhere in a 5-ish hour radius. I've talked to Bill Rader in Vegas and CMS in Lake Havasu. Have seen recommendations for Arizona Transaxle Exchange here in PHX and Transaxle Engineering in LA but haven't called either of them yet.

CMS seems like a slam dunk except they are really backed up and their estimate was up in the stratosphere. I'm hoping to find someone local to do the basic rebuild and send the machine work out to CMS or similar.

Thanks for any input.
-Vic

I'm on the east coast. my shop rebuilds transmissions and I send it to CMS. Great work, no nonsense and even if it takes a while, it's done within their estimate of time and price. I have a local machine shop tell me their price is in line with what the job costs and their experience doing it. So for me, they are the slam dunk.

rebuild
 

I heard excellent things about Bill, any reason you dont want to use him.

Patrick Motorsports does machine work, and are right there in Phoenix.

Thanks for the suggestions. CMS and Rader are on my short list. They're 4 or 5 hours away so if I find something closer (and maybe cheaper) I'll consider it.

And regarding Patrick: doh! I watched the PCA shop tour of Patrick Motorsports but somehow they didn't make it on my list. I'll call them this week.

Thanks again.

I'd be surprised if PMS is any less expensive. Interested to hear what you find out.

I’ve had good experiences over the years with both Patrick Motorsports and Beck’s European. 901/911 transmission rebuilds to factory specs or better.

Aase Motorsports is the go to guy for the OC here in SoCal.
Einmalig in HB sells rebuilt transmissions.

I’m here in Phoenix and I would check with Don Jackson’s enterprises. They do Porsches exclusively.

Has anyone used an Einmalig rebuild transaxle? At $5400 + $1000 core for a rebuilt '79 with LSD that seems a good price. With my car coming up on 50 years old having spare parts could be a bonus. OTOH my trans has a Guard LSD that I like.

-Vic

He jobs out the machine work.

If one is going to do their own rebuild or have a local shop rebuild it, you could send just the bellhousing and center case out for machine work. The guy’s name is Dan Barnes. He’s also in vegas and sometimes posts here, but I forget his SN. He’s also on IG&FB.

The CMS rebuild estimate is honest if you want a perfect box and plan to drive the car in a sporting manner. If you're not going to drive the car on the limit, corners can be cut. But any way you slice it, you'll still need machine work and CMS (or Dan Barnes) will need the case as Matt pointed out.

You just hate Bill, don't you? Is it his politics? Or is it that he works with a competitor of your's, No Politics Racing? Regardless, be upfront about your bias when trying to make Rader sound like a bad choice.

Rader sends his machine work to the guy that used to work for him in his shop. So, yes, he does not do the work in house....but the same guy does the work that has done the work for Bill for a very long time.

Rader does the best work of anyone and is actually quite reasonable in cost. For my 915 transaxles, I would go to no one else...

Wow. You’re so defensive. I’m not saying don’t use Bill for rebuilding work. I’m saying that if you’re sending it to him just because it needs machine work, no reason to work with a middle man. It’s really that simple. Sheesh, dude.

And I’m very consistent in telling people they don’t need to ship a gearbox for rebuilding work. I’d only suggest shipping a gearbox that needs machine work. None of these mechanics have a magic wand. There are hundreds of really good 915 mechanic.

FWIW. My local 915 transmission guy has retired and tells me to go to CMS.

We have used Dan Barnes with great results....

Cheers

CMS and Patrick are your go to shops.

Been using az transaxle for 20 years, hes honest and stands behind his work. Hes does all the transmissions for deluxe customs along with many other shops

He just rebuilt my 915 for a very affordable price

Thanks for that feedback. I talked to Bill on Monday and his estimate for teardown, cleaning and reassembly was very reasonable. He uses CMS for his machine work so that checks a lot of my boxes.

Still waiting to hear back from Patrick Motorsports.

Vic