As posted in the first installment of this article Going Beyond Bulletproof Part 1, the powerglide transmission in Jim Blair's Outlaw 10.5 Mustang was breaking stator tubes and front pumps. Jason Gatlin, the owner of ATF, has engineered and manufactured a new design for the powerglide stator tube. His solution for building a stronger powerglide front pump is in development and will be available in the near future.
The new ATF powerglide stator tube is CNC machined from high strength, yet light weight, 4340 chrome-moly steel. As you can see in the images below, there are a lot of differences between the ATF stator tube and the stock stator tube. The ATF stator tube's splines are specially machined to engage perfectly with the converter splines (without being to loose or binding up from being to tight). The ATF unit's wall thickness is 25% greater than the stocker. One of the most noticeable features of ATF's new stator tube is that it mates to the pump with a "locking" hexagonal flange. Compared to the stock stator tube's round flange, ATF's hexagonal design will never twist or rotate inside the pump. ATF's hexagonal design also eliminates the tedious and failure prone pinning of the stator tube in multiple locations (which was done to keep the stock tube from twisting or rotating). During the final stage of manufacturing, Jason puts the ATF stator tubes through a special heat treating process that makes them ready for the tortures of extreme horsepower and torque.
The result of Jason Gatlin's hard work is already paying off. The ATF team won the Super Street 10.5 divison at the 2009 NMCA season opener in Bradenton, FL on March 28th and 29th. (Click here to read more...) Congratulations to Jim Blair and Jason Gatlin and the ATF crew: Patrick, Dave, Danny and Rich. Stay tuned for Part 3 of Going Beyond Bullet Proof for more information about ATF's new powerglide front pump.
