There's two Dark Horses I know of: Dark Horse Racing
http://www.darkhorseracing.net/ and Dark Horse Performance
http://www.darkhorseperformance.com/.
I bought a McLeod hydraulic throwout bearing kit from Dark Horse Performance. The slave cylinder leaked from the gun. I believe the cause was the RAM pressure plate I was running, because I put in a McLeod pressure plate and put new seals in the slave cylinder and it has worked fine so far, about 300 miles in. But I do not approve of Dark Horse's response.
I installed the kit and first pump on the pedal with the bleeder closed, the slave cylinder leaked. As far as I could tell there was no movement of the piston; all the pressure was escaping through the leak. I called Dark Horse for help. I got an answering machine. Left a message. No return call. Repeated the process over the course of a week. Finally got a return call, and was told the owners had gone on vacation to Hawaii for a week or two and had closed the shop. It would be best if they'd arrange for someone to handle the phone messages. It shows a verrry low regard for customer service not to do so.
The lady I spoke to was real nice but had no clue regarding the merchandise. She also made what I consider an outrageous statement for a retailer: "People don't realize, we just sell this stuff. If people have a problem they need to contact the manufacturer." She said it like we should both share a chuckle over those poor benighted customers who expect a retailer to stand behind its products.
She said the guy in the shop who knows the tech would call me back. He never did.
This stuff ain't cheap: $449.00 for the TO bearing, JMC MC, a hose, and some spacers. I also ordered an additional TO bearing for service down the road, which added about $60 to the package. They were into me for $500+ all in. To me that's top drawer money for such simple little items.
Luckily McLeod ships the TO bearing with a seal rebuild kit. So I installed the new seals and a new McLeod clutch and PP and hoped for the best. So far so good.
It would be hard to imagine a worse retailer than what I experienced: no one to answer the phone for more than a week, no return call from the tech guy, and an attitude that "we only sell this stuff; whether it works or not is not our problem."
Given the many other retailers of tranny swap kits I certainly would not go to Dark Horse Performance for a major system. You're talking major, major money for a turnkey swap kit. I would expect major, major customer service in return. I would not expect to get it from Dark Horse Performance. On the other hand, if you live nearby and you're able to deal face to face with them, and/or have no problems, you may do fine if you decide to go with them.
I have purchased a few items from them (T5 yoke is quite a bit cheaper than some of the other vendors), and have been happy each time.
