A855 - 5 Speed

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I got on the waiting list on 9/20/2013 (just looked it up in my old emails) and received an email acknowledgement thanking me for my interest and stating price w/shifter and stating they would soon be letting the first 350 units made out the door. Asked for an update 5 years ago (6/14/15) after hearing nothing in all that time. I have never received an answer from the update request. Needless to say I've felt a bit ignored like the OP, matthon. I have always wondered, and will continue to wonder, If I was ignored because when registering I mentioned that my car, while low in horsepower comparatively speaking, was driven 40-50 thousand miles a year. Could have just been an accidental oversight too. After following/reading all this I'm starting to think I got lucky and dodged a bullet.
 
We left off on the 7/3 call, "If you don’t hear from me by Tuesday, call me."

7/14 Tuesday - Didn't hear from anyone, called today at 3:45, left message. VM stated office closed Monday, be back Tuesday.

Called back at 5:02, he answered, I stated my name and asked how he was doing.
He replied 'fine' then silence.

I'm calling to see what's going on?

He told me he's driving back from Carlisle and should be home late tonight. Tomorrow morning he'll talk to Christine to 'see how we can facilitate things here and then I'll be in touch with you.'

I said, ok, I'll be here expecting your call.

He said he needs to get paid before he drives up, 'I'll talk to her tonight, I'll text her tonight once I'm closer, and as soon as I have a game plan from them I'll be in touch.'

I left it as we'll talk tomorrow, and finalize this.

I think we all knew I wasn't getting a call back, not on Monday or Tuesday, and I would have to call, and keep calling.

Twice I got the, once Christine does something he'll be in touch. It comes across as if it doesn't happen he'll never be in touch.

Today is day 21 if the 30 day window he provided on 6/22.

I'm clearing my schedule for the coming week.
 
No callback, no answer.
Sent my final personal email, needs to happen this Friday 7/17.
I even offered to drive halfway, about an hour and a half, to get this over with and this trans out of here.
I'll drive all the way if I have to, but if he's going to tell me he has no $ and needs to get it from Christine, all I can ask is why, is that a lot of money to be out?
That's all I can do personally, and then some.
 
matthon said:
No callback, no answer.
Sent my final personal email, needs to happen this Friday 7/17.
I even offered to drive halfway, about an hour and a half, to get this over with and this trans out of here.
I'll drive all the way if I have to, but if he's going to tell me he has no $ and needs to get it from Christine, all I can ask is why, is that a lot of money to be out?
That's all I can do personally, and then some.
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I don’t think this is going to get better any time soon. There will be lawyers and such and it will be ugly.

McLeod used to make a 5 speed kinda like the Passon or whoever owns this design. There was a webinar today and I listened to it. Paul Lee who owns McLeod said they no longer offer it because getting it made here in the US was just too expensive and he didn’t want them made overseas. I know guys with them and they work. It stuns me someone can’t make this 833 based gear box work.
 
lemondana said:
Has anyone seen any feedback on the overdrive Hemi gearset for the 833? I wonder if they are as big of piece of crap as the A855?
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Lots of feedback on the OD Hemi gearset for the 833, all good that I've seen...

Calling "the A855" a piece of crap is FAR too wide a pattern to spray that ammo!
I am well aware of the myriad of problems that have happened, but as an A855 owner, for around 3 years, and that includes a number of WOT no lift shift 1320 runs, local and highway cruising, and with a MAJOR ramping up of frequency of 1320 runs once the current work on my car is finished by September, and planning maybe a no trailer trip from the New Orleans area to visit Farmtruck and Azn in Oklahoma, maybe some Power Tour like trips etc....bottom line?
MY 855 has been OUTSTANDING!!!
I've already put the deposit on a BME aluminum block for a 541 stroker build and my HP and TQ goals are around 700 and the Passon 855 is going to be pushing that power to my Dana 60. According to Passon, 700 continuous Ft. Lbs of torque is supposed to be a "conservative" power handling capability rating, and I hope to put that to the test!
I've been reading and following the plight of @matthon and empathize with him, I'm totally disappointed in what happened and really look forward to it being resolved.
IF my 855 should fail, IF I find that the stroker output is too much for the 855 to handle, I am already looking at a viable 5 speed replacement that WILL handle it!
To say "the 855 is a piece of crap"??
Absolutely NOT an accurate or fair statement, but if it breaks, I'm going to get it fixed and move on to something stronger if the breakage is from a failure to handle the power I'm ultimately going to be sending thru it.
 
Biomedtechguy said:
Lots of feedback on the OD Hemi gearset for the 833, all good that I've seen...

Calling "the A855" a piece of crap is FAR too wide a pattern to spray that ammo!
I am well aware of the myriad of problems that have happened, but as an A855 owner, for around 3 years, and that includes a number of WOT no lift shift 1320 runs, local and highway cruising, and with a MAJOR ramping up of frequency of 1320 runs once the current work on my car is finished by September, and planning maybe a no trailer trip from the New Orleans area to visit Farmtruck and Azn in Oklahoma, maybe some Power Tour like trips etc....bottom line?
MY 855 has been OUTSTANDING!!!
I've already put the deposit on a BME aluminum block for a 541 stroker build and my HP and TQ goals are around 700 and the Passon 855 is going to be pushing that power to my Dana 60. According to Passon, 700 continuous Ft. Lbs of torque is supposed to be a "conservative" power handling capability rating, and I hope to put that to the test!
I've been reading and following the plight of @matthon and empathize with him, I'm totally disappointed in what happened and really look forward to it being resolved.
IF my 855 should fail, IF I find that the stroker output is too much for the 855 to handle, I am already looking at a viable 5 speed replacement that WILL handle it!
To say "the 855 is a piece of crap"??
Absolutely NOT an accurate or fair statement, but if it breaks, I'm going to get it fixed and move on to something stronger if the breakage is from a failure to handle the power I'm ultimately going to be sending thru it.
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The system of rating gear box durability by torque is idiotic. I can break any gear box design with significantly LESS torque than what they are rated for just by the clutch I use.

Break the gear box and the clutch is junk or tuned wrong.
 
Biomedtechguy said:
Lots of feedback on the OD Hemi gearset for the 833, all good that I've seen...

Calling "the A855" a piece of crap is FAR too wide a pattern to spray that ammo!
I am well aware of the myriad of problems that have happened, but as an A855 owner, for around 3 years, and that includes a number of WOT no lift shift 1320 runs, local and highway cruising, and with a MAJOR ramping up of frequency of 1320 runs once the current work on my car is finished by September, and planning maybe a no trailer trip from the New Orleans area to visit Farmtruck and Azn in Oklahoma, maybe some Power Tour like trips etc....bottom line?
MY 855 has been OUTSTANDING!!!
I've already put the deposit on a BME aluminum block for a 541 stroker build and my HP and TQ goals are around 700 and the Passon 855 is going to be pushing that power to my Dana 60. According to Passon, 700 continuous Ft. Lbs of torque is supposed to be a "conservative" power handling capability rating, and I hope to put that to the test!
I've been reading and following the plight of @matthon and empathize with him, I'm totally disappointed in what happened and really look forward to it being resolved.
IF my 855 should fail, IF I find that the stroker output is too much for the 855 to handle, I am already looking at a viable 5 speed replacement that WILL handle it!
To say "the 855 is a piece of crap"??
Absolutely NOT an accurate or fair statement, but if it breaks, I'm going to get it fixed and move on to something stronger if the breakage is from a failure to handle the power I'm ultimately going to be sending thru it.
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The A855 is a pile of crap. You’re the only one standing up for it on this entire thread. Jamie Passon obviously is a crook pile of ****.
 
On whether the A855 is a piece of crap, I see two major issues.

First: No one knows how many were sold, minus any produced for development and testing.
Of those produced, how many have failed to perform, and how many have the same defect?

Second: The recovery always matters more than the issue, to any reasonable person.

As far as the first issue, here are the facts they provided on building, testing, and failed trans.

8 b-body trans and 1 a-body rebuilt for the same issue sent for testing in December.
In April there were 2 a-body trans and 3 b-body trans still in WY that failed.
That means at least 1 other a-body trans was sent for testing and failed, add my current trans, John's trans, that's a minimum of 12 trans, 9 in one month, with the same exact issue.

Here is the timeline to build, bench test, and send out to WY for road testing:
11/18/19 there were no a-body trans in stock.
12/3/19, 15 days later, a new a-body trans was built and failed bench testing.
12/27/19 it was ready to be shipped out to be road tested.
12/31/19 sent to WY for road testing.
1/6/20 all 9 trans passed.

We know now that not all 9 trans passed, and my replacement failed road testing twice, however, using their timeline that's 7 weeks total for a trans to be built, bench tested, road tested, and it has yet to be shipped to a buyer.

Without the actual numbers, it's difficult to determine the failure rate, however, based on the facts and communications, multiple trans failing road testing more than once, and at least 1 trans passing all testing multiple times and being sent to a customer, I would surmise it is high enough to cause any reasonable person a considerable amount of concern.

I would imagine if any company had 10+ low production, expensive, widgets, with the same defect in 1 month, they would certainly reach out to customers and social media to identify those impacted.
 
Dartsun said:
The A855 is a pile of crap. You’re the only one standing up for it on this entire thread. Jamie Passon obviously is a crook pile of ****.
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Another A855 owner who disagrees that it is a pile of crap. I was #4 on Jamie's list and got mine in Nov 2013. It is behind a slightly modified 6.1 Hemi in a '69 Cuda convertible. Did have some minor grinding shifting into 3rd gear when cold, then changed oil from the incorrect GL-5 to the correct GL-4. Other than that, it works great!!
Jim
 
RealWing said:
Another A855 owner who disagrees that it is a pile of crap. I was #4 on Jamie's list and got mine in Nov 2013. It is behind a slightly modified 6.1 Hemi in a '69 Cuda convertible. Did have some minor grinding shifting into 3rd gear when cold, then changed oil from the incorrect GL-5 to the correct GL-4. Other than that, it works great!!
Jim
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When is the failure rate unacceptable? It sounds like it’s well over 50% and that is JUNK. This isn’t hard. Why can’t it be fixed? It can, they just don’t want to.


Junk is junk at any price. Passon and GFI are lucky I didn’t get one. I’m old enough now where I won’t Re-engineer junk. I’d be at someone’s front door with that pile of **** and they’d be cutting me a check before I left.
 
yellow rose said:
I didn’t get one
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But you're the expert with the blanket statement "the 855 is a pile of crap"...
But you don't have one...
Do some have problems, do too many have problems, is the way customers are treated the worst stories ever told?
Yes
THAT doesn't make the 855 a pile of crap.
Mine certainly IS NOT, it performs GREAT, and I'm not the only OWNER of one with LONG TERM ACTUAL FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE of how GREAT my 855 works.
As far as your OPINION based on OTHER people's experiences, I'll say it again:
Your blanket labeling of the 855 as a pile of crap is a worthless opinion as YOU DON'T OWN ONE.
 
Biomedtechguy said:
But you're the expert with the blanket statement "the 855 is a pile of crap"...
But you don't have one...
Do some have problems, do too many have problems, is the way customers are treated the worst stories ever told?
Yes
THAT doesn't make the 855 a pile of crap.
Mine certainly IS NOT, it performs GREAT, and I'm not the only OWNER of one with LONG TERM ACTUAL FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE of how GREAT my 855 works.
As far as your OPINION based on OTHER people's experiences, I'll say it again:
Your blanket labeling of the 855 as a pile of crap is a worthless opinion as YOU DON'T OWN ONE.
Click to expand...

No, you're not the only one, but you're in the minority. That's not a good thing. It speaks volumes about the lack of quality in this JUNK they are passin off.
 
Biomedtechguy said:
But you're the expert with the blanket statement "the 855 is a pile of crap"...
But you don't have one...
Do some have problems, do too many have problems, is the way customers are treated the worst stories ever told?
Yes
THAT doesn't make the 855 a pile of crap.
Mine certainly IS NOT, it performs GREAT, and I'm not the only OWNER of one with LONG TERM ACTUAL FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE of how GREAT my 855 works.
As far as your OPINION based on OTHER people's experiences, I'll say it again:
Your blanket labeling of the 855 as a pile of crap is a worthless opinion as YOU DON'T OWN ONE.
Click to expand...


Think about this for just a second. How much engineering did it take to develop the box as far as the way the gear box operates? I’d say damn near NONE. The gears, syncros, dogs and springs are as old as time. And the 833 is as simple and bullet proof as it gets.

So why would more than ONE box not stay in gear? Why are so many failing during testing? The OP isn’t lying about that, and he has the documents to PROVE what he says.

So my question is WTF? They didn’t develop some new syncro system, or anything else. They had to engineer how to get a 5th gear in the same case, but they should have used (assuming they did use the 833 design in most stuff but it’s impossible to find anything like engineering drawings or even pictures of the internals of the box anywhere) every single piece of 833 stuff they could.

So why won’t it stay in gear? Why can’t they fix it?

Junk is JUNK at ANY price. When the failure rate is that high, it’s JUNK.
 
RustyRatRod said:
My GAWD! Is this STILL not resolved?
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Sadly the OP still has that albatross hanging around his neck.

I suppose it’s going to take a lawyer to get this sorted out. And that’s just stupid.

If Passon/GFI or whoever else has a hand in the project can’t sort it out, they’d be better off getting outside engineering involved to clean up the mess.

Somehow McLeod did essentially the same thing, and for what I can find they had nowhere near the issues the Passon/GFI box does.

They stopped making them because they were losing money on the sale and the only way to fix that was to manufacture the overseas and they didn’t want that.

That came straight from the mouth of Paul Lee, who owns McLeod. It’s sad really. There is a market for this stuff.
 
yellow rose said:
Sadly the OP still has that albatross hanging around his neck.

I suppose it’s going to take a lawyer to get this sorted out. And that’s just stupid.

If Passon/GFI or whoever else has a hand in the project can’t sort it out, they’d be better off getting outside engineering involved to clean up the mess.

Somehow McLeod did essentially the same thing, and for what I can find they had nowhere near the issues the Passon/GFI box does.

They stopped making them because they were losing money on the sale and the only way to fix that was to manufacture the overseas and they didn’t want that.

That came straight from the mouth of Paul Lee, who owns McLeod. It’s sad really. There is a market for this stuff.
Click to expand...

Damn right there's a market for it. Just look at the Chevy guys. They HAVE products that actually WORK.
 
i heard from someone real close to the 855 project well before it was even released that there were issues with it.. looks like that pile of over priced **** never got straightened out. jamie passon was a well known name in 4 speed stuff. someone i'd spend my money with at the time.. after seeing this crap i'm not so sure now.. he needs to publicly separate himself from this garbage..
 
No way should he be able to separate himself from this garbage.

He took all the credit and praise, including 2 articles in Hot Rod magazine where it states 'Passon Performance has come up with an all-new, made in the USA transmission,' and was defended to the end for it taking so long to develop and to find decent suppliers for parts.

Problem is, there is no mention of GFI anywhere, who designed and built the damn thing.

You want all the credit, are actively selling it with your name on it, you can't just walk away when it goes south.

The discussion on whether it's a piece of crap still sticks in my mind.
I know now they have been plagued with this same issue for a long time, and they went for cheaper suppliers at some point.

I'm trying to be objective even though my trans is crap, as well as the replacement.

The questions that I keep coming back to are, would you buy one now, and would you invest in the company right now, no conditions?

Also, according to GFI's website, to date they have produced 300 in 4 runs, including test trans.
 
Exactly. One of the great mysteries of the hot rod world is how certain people can screw over customers, big time, yet they seem to always have this fan base that will defend them to the end. Hennessey is another good example.

When a man puts his name on a product, that should mean something. He doesn't get to suck up all the praise then point the finger at someone else when the words turn ugly.
 
Ok people, time to wrap this up.
Here is what happened from last Wednesday to today.

7/15/20 Wednesday - no call back, no answer, so I waited until the eod and sent an email:

On this Friday 7/17 it will be 30 days since I sent the email below and we had a conversation regarding the attached letter and the refund of $6,004.86.

You stated the refund will be completed within 30 days, and although at the time I would have preferred the refund sooner, I thought it reasonable given the circumstances.

I have done everything you asked of me, including giving you time to contact Christine, which based on our conversations you have multiple times, and taking the onus to call you back at your convenience.

The reality is I am out pocket well north of the refund amount. 18 spline clutch and shifter handle for the A855, as well as the cost of a replacement 23 spline trans, and I still need a 23 spline clutch and shifter.

I need your assistance in making this a priority. I am proposing we meet halfway this Friday the 17th. That would reduce your drive to less than 2 hours one way.

I'm asking you to put yourself in my shoes. If you put a ton of money into your car, countless hours, did everything asked of you, and in a few weeks it will be a year since you were able to enjoy your car, and you still have to do it over again, what would you do, what would be your expectation?

Please respond as soon as possible as I would need to confirm my time away from work, as well as other arrangements such as childcare.
 
7/16/20 Thursday - Passon calls me, spoke to Christine, she's been out of town, blah blah blah, she said they wanted to send me a crate with a prepaid label, and asked if I was open to that?
As long as I get a paypal transfer before I ship it out.
Nope, I'll get it once Christine sees it has been shipped.
He added that he is doing what he can, but "I'm trying to work with two people that are obviously pissed off with each other and I'm kinda stuck in the middle."
I explained that I didn't want to get into this, she doesn't have any reason to be mad at me, "I can't get people to call me back, I can't get people to honor anything, and I'm really apprehensive about shipping it off and then just crossing my fingers."
He replied:
"Ok, well, I've decided I'm not driving up there, so if you want to meet me halfway, that's fine, but I don't know if I can do it tomorrow."
Adding, "Obviously, we're not going to be able to do it with shipping it, and this is just occupying way too much of my time, wasting my time, so I will call you back shortly, with a place and time to meet."

He said tomorrow, Friday, or Monday, but he had two customers on Friday. I reminded him that I also have a job and responsibilities, so I need to know sooner than later, but if it was going to be a definite this Friday or this Monday, then consider it done.

He called me back, and said he was able to push a customer off until later on Monday, so he is going to want to take care of this earlier in the morning.

Call me crazy:
I'll just have to keep repeating myself, no shipping, refund first via paypal instant transfer or cash before I hand over anything.
Christine the liar is mad at me, that's rich. The piece of crap of a business owner called me once, promised me a whole host of things, never delivered, never returned a call.
Stuck in the middle, have to push customers, can't push customers, boo hoo.
Decided to not drive up, what you came up with completely on your own, meaning go back on your word, surprise surprise.
It's now obvious we are not getting this done by shipping, just now?

And the best line to date, hands down, none are even close - occupying too much of your time, amazing.

To get technical, to date, I looked at all of the calls with Passon and it adds up to less than 50 minutes.
By his own admission, he contacted Christine 3 times and spoke to her twice regarding this issue.
Even if we're extremely generous, it's a few hours at most.
I've spent 3 weeks shy of a year.
 
7/17/20 Friday - first call to determine when on Monday and where, and I requested he send me a small amount via paypal so we can both verify he has the correct email to send it to, and on Monday when he sends $6k there are no errors on his end.
I called back and let him know I received $1.
See you Monday at 10am.
 
7/20/20 Monday - I leave at 7:30 am to make the 2hr 5min drive and be there for 10am.
I arrive at 9:52.
He calls at 9:54, traffic, be there 10-15 minutes late, arrives at 10:15.
Checks over shifter, rods, trans.
Sends me paypal payment.
I receive an email from paypal stating an eCheck payment in progress.
Should be Money is Waiting for You, wtf.
So, I have to research because I have never heard of it and neither has he.

I discover, according to paypal, there are two scenarios for a paypal eCheck:
1) Payment sent as refund - did you send it as a refund?
No.
2) Paypal account has no credit card attached to the account - do you have a credit card attached to your paypal account?
No.

That's great, it takes 3-5 business days for it to clear, basically it is the same as a check, it is a check.
Paypal will not send the money instantly, no matter how much you have in your account, because they have nothing to hit if your account has insufficient funds.

I stated many times, paypal instant transfer or cash, it has to be immediate before I hand over the trans, due to the baloney to date. I didn't even think for a minute that you could get a paypal account without a credit card, and I certainly didn't think a business, an incorporated business, and it is, I checked, would have a lame paypal account that couldn't send money instantly to customers, suppliers, anyone.

Luckily, I covered all the scenarios I could think of for this exchange and what I should do. If he showed up with a check, or a business check, or anything else. Cashier's check or a check drawn from the business were the only acceptable scenarios.
Cashier's because the funds are immediately deducted from their account by their bank, their bank holds the funds in escrow, and the funds behind the cashier's check are directly from the bank.
Business check, although not as iron clad, demonstrates a debt acknowledged and owed by the business.

So, I had to make a decision that I thought I did everything possible to avoid. I had a witness with me, snapped a few pics, and handed over the transmission and shifter.

Not ideal, however, I believe the reality is there was not going to be any other alternative, and probably no other opportunity.
Based on all the time he spent on this already, I would have to drive the entire way next time, I do not foresee a credit card being added to the paypal account, and I can certainly see everyone pushing that they did everything and I declined, therefore I'm sol.

An additional 3-5 business days before this is 100% done.
 
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