Hi gtv-racer:
Nice work supercharging your 916 TS.
I have not done much work in the area of strengthening the transaxle, a few others here have so hopefully they will chime in. My dad and I have looked into this issue very carefully and arrived at the following conclusions.
The overall problem seems to be that so many things in the transaxle fail around the same point (evidently about 350rwhp according to Barry H.) that it's essentially impossible to solve all the issues, and more effective to go to a front mounted transmission, which in itself is a huge job.
There are three major weak points in the transaxle I know of. First, the pinion gears are weak. I have seen two of them fail on stock engines (both 1983s so it may be a bad production run). In any case plenty of other people have destroyed pinion gears with modified engines so that's a known weak point.
I suppose some treatments could help the pinion gear a little, perhaps, shot peening, cryo treatment etc.
Next, the gears try to force themselves apart in a fore-aft direction due to the forces and angles at which the gears are cut (like almost all transmissions). In the Alfa transaxle it seems they are actually able to do this enough to separate, and when they crash back together, BANG, it's over. Something in there flexes enough to allow this to happen, I think it's the area around the intermediate flange, which could be strengthend. It's possible to make reinforcement plates for this area, but I don't know if they will do any good.
Third, the gears try to force themselves apart in a up-down direction. I have heard of people making girdles, or using straps around the gear box to try and minimize this. None have been successful as far as I know. It's interesting to note that even if you go with all aftermarket straight cut gears to eliminate the fore-aft movement issue, you can't eliminate this up-down issue.
Even if you do go with straight cut gears and somehow eliminate the up-down issue, you are still stuck with the pinion gear that fails about the same point as everything else.
What does all this mean? You could sink a ton of money into the transaxle with straight cut gears, cryo treatment, special reinforcements, and on add enough strength to support another 25 horsepower.
Greg Gordon,
www.hiperformancestore.com