Glad to hear you were able to track it! I never got mine back on track after the install haha. Fingers crossed for more good news.

 

Thanks for keeping us updated guys. I figure there are a good deal of people who are stuck in 6 speed limbo after seeing the issues with these kits, so if those issues appear to be resolved it would be great to know.

 

July update. I had the opportunity to have the car on track a few times. My finalish decision point is that the vibration is tolerable at higher speeds. The bigger issue with me is how dang loud the ZF6 is off throttle, sounds like a can of bolts. Tried 2 different lowish mileage ZF6's. The combination of the QUIBO removal, and single mass flywheel makes this transmission sound and feel pretty terrible. But hey.. it holds up to the power finally.

Side bar- I had some 5th gear pop out issues on a straight last event. I did make a clutch rod adjustment getting rid of some of the gap between pedal engagement (clutch was disengaging really low on floor previously) and unsure if that was the cause or not. Going to revert the other direction a bit and see if that's a resolution.

TLDR, there are a ton of variables in this KIT. I do think KPOWER making the switch to the new driveshaft vendor was positive, but the flange/bolt issues is a HUGE PIA to install. I would pass on this if I started over, not worth the hassle. Id rather go full custom to a different transmission that is more tolerable and handles power.

 

Shucks dude, thanks for the update and glad to hear you've been able to track the car again. I'm in agreeance with you, the ZF6 is an absolute rattle box of a transmission. Annoying for street use, but mine did feel just as good to shift as a Miata 5 speed, so high marks there.

There's gotta be some shop out there willing to make a driveshaft with flanges that directly bolt in to the ZF6 and OEM diff. That would make the package much more enticing (aside from having to spend 4+ months getting your driveline vibrations into spec).

 

Yeah a guibo, means you have to have a straight shaft. So i think a 2 piece setup is the way to go.

 

H

Hows your engagement with your input shaft and throw out bearing?

 

Hah.. funny you should ask.

The first time i pulled my zf6 trans off the engine, the pilot bearing popped out and i thought that was odd. Was swapping in another ZF6 to see if this helped with vibration. So i reinstalled the new bearing with sleeve retainer liquid and moved on.

Well, had to pull the second zf6 out since it was having 5th gear pop out issues. Pulling the trans again the pilot bearing was loose again... Weird.

I am using a trans jack and the transmission is sliding off very nicely.

This got me wondering. Spent some time measuring and determined LESS THEN 7mm of engagement of the input shaft to the throw-out bearing.. Less then half the width of the bearing engagement. Reaching out to KPower shortly.

 

They told me that was fine, .1” of engagement even though their directions call for .5” - .75”

 

“We haven’t heard of this before. However, we’ll sell you this updated flywheel that’ll get rid of the problem at a 10% discount.”

 

Guess I was emailing someone else on 8/4 lol…

 

Oh no, that was a joke on my end, sorry

 

lol, "V2 now with more pilot bearing engagement"! I caught the joke sadly.

yeah i dont anticipate a real answer either. Just doesn't seem like enough at all. The room is there for the flywheel to have the pilot bearing toward the trans more.. 6.8mm of engagement and the input shaft has a tapered end to boot.

The kit is built to work with a ZF6 transmission which has a known input shaft setback distance. I just dont get it.

 

Where did you see this spec at?

 

I saw that when googling other bmw tranny swap threads. However kpower said .1” is fine.

I added one washer to the tranny tail mount to set it up more. That took care of a pile of vibes for me. Poly diff mount, reinforced both ears of diff, I think oem tranny mount rubber bushing. Gl

 

Washer to tranny tail mount? Please explain

 

to get the angles closer, I placed a washer under the piece that mounts to the tail shaft in between the rubber tranny mount on the crossmember. Effectively raising the tail end of the tranny up.

 

Ahh ok sorry, I thought you were still talking about Pilot bearing engagement.

Gotcha, Pinion angle matching with washer under transmission mount crossmember.

 

After reading through this thread, im scared to buy a kpower bmw swap kit....

Anyone have a better recommendation? Looking for something to hold 400whp

 

They're the only game in town. FWIW, my kpower 6 speed swap didn't have any vibration issues. Shaft balance and pinion angles seem to be important.

 

Kind of incredible to me that they're still the only game in town. There's enough demand for these transmission upgrades on an NA/NB that it seems like another player could easily join the fray, especially if they produced a product that didn't give so many people headaches.

I dunno if I'd spend my money with KP again after my experience, but I will say towards the end I found my vibration was coming from my driveshaft and adapters not being perfectly self-centering. Had I been armed with this knowledge going in, I could've just had some new adapters made. Still a PITA, but not as bad as making the car untrackable for four months and then parting it out.