Transaxle rebuild - Jacques Lefraint

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Mike Grant
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Joined: Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:25 pm
Location: Aptos, CA

Transaxle rebuild - Jacques Lefraint

#1 Post by Mike Grant »

I haven't followed this forum for a while as the last few years involved a relocation from Austin, TX to Aptos, CA and a job role change that involved a huge amount of international travel. Now that I'm fully retired I've begun following the site again and wanted to share my transaxle rebuild experience to hopefully save someone else some time, money and frustration.

My '64 SC underwent a full rotisserie restoration while I was in Texas. The transaxle had 95K mi on it and while the car was disassembled I thought it would be good to get the trans disassembled, inspected and rebuilt as necessary. It was sent to an independent Porsche shop in San Antonio that has an impeccable reputation.

Long story short, the trans howled like crazy in all gears, 4th was the worst. The shop went back into the trans a second time and replaced another bearing, but the howling was still there. Also, there was a lot of "driveline snatch" in the lower gears. The howling was so loud that it ruined the driving experience for me...couldn't hear anything but the trans, and it was the worst when cruising in in 4th.

After researching on this forum, I made contact with Jacques Lefraint and set up an appointment bring the trans to him at his shop on a Saturday. I expected to just drop it off and be on my way. However, Jacques wanted to get into the trans right then so we could decide what the trans needed. It was an impressive experience for me. He installed the unit on a fixture on a bench and quickly had it completely disassembled and had diagnosed what was most likely the cause of the howling, which was that the ring and pinion clearance was simply too tight. He did some other checking to ensure that the axle shafts were straight, gear sets were okay, etc. Probably only took 90 minutes or less...pretty amazing.

We decided to replace another bearing and a few sychros with Jacques' upgraded units, and installed a Cadrobbi Conversion. I got the trans back in a few weeks and the difference is HUGE. If the howling before was a "10" and new Lexus quiet is a "1", the current noise is probably a "3" or "4". I don't think these transaxles are ever silent so this is a really big improvement. Thanks to Jacques for the great work and quick turnaround. I really enjoy driving the car now.

It's been said on this site that 356 transaxle work should only be done by shops who are trans experts. It was an expensive and frustrating lesson for me to learn that's absolutely true. A highly reputable Porsche mechanic does not necessarily mean transaxle expert. The fundamental cause of my issue was simply an incorrect setup of the ring and pinion. The names that frequently come up as transaxle experts are Jacques, John Bunin, Vic Skirmants and Eric Wills. I'm sure there are more. If you're considering transaxle work, do yourself a big favor an choose a shop that is recognized as an expert by Registry members.

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Mike Wilson
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Re: Transaxle rebuild - Jacques Lefraint

#2 Post by Mike Wilson »

Thank you for sharing your experience with us, Mike.

Mike
Mike Wilson
Lomita, CA
'63 B coupe

Dan Epperly
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Joined: Thu Apr 01, 2010 4:35 pm

Re: Transaxle rebuild - Jacques Lefraint

#3 Post by Dan Epperly »

Jacques a cool dude, he did some work on my B gearbox for a very fair price and made my son dismantle part of it much to his surprise. I need to bug him about looking over my 912 trans next.

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