hey guys have any of you ever used a manual valvebody and trans brake on the street. and i dont mean at a red light street racing i mean have you ever driven a car on the street with these installed. i want one for my th400 when i have it rebuilt but am not sure what the manual shifting would be like on the street. does it work just like a manual car but without a clutch or is it different. my daily driver is a manual so im no stranger to shifting but if its more of a headache than that then i dunno. and this car by no means will be more of a street than a strip car but i do want to drive it around town occasionaly.

push the shifter forward or backwards to change gears, no clutch obviously. To get into reverse you have to hold the transbrake button down or else it won't engage reverse. that's about it.

Manual shifting an automatic is not like manually shifting a standard transmission and it's easy to screw up on the street. When you shift, there's no pause or delay between the gears. One gear releases and the other engages instantly. Many manual and transbrake valve bodies have no engine braking in any gear except first. If in a higher gear and you let off the throttle, the engine goes to an idle and the car keeps rolling at roughly the same speed only using friction to slow down. On the street, this can be dangerous if you're not used to it.

A manual valve body means there is no automatic shifting at all in the transmission. You need to up and downshift the gears as required. The manual valve body will be in whatever gear you have the selector in. This means someone can hop into your car, put it in D (high gear) and start off in high gear, burning out the clutches.

Many TH400 manual valve bodies are a reverse shift pattern. Instead of PRND21, it's PRN123. You pull back once from neutral and you're in first gear. Once you're in high gear, you can't go back to neutral or into reverse without downshifting which is hard to do without slowing down first. Downshift at to fast a speed and the tranny will still go into gear and either red line the engine or skid the tires. Automatic shifting is a wonderful feature to keep the engine in the proper gear at the proper speed.

Some manual valve bodies or shift kits are semi manual. If left in D, they will operate like a normal shifting transmission but you can still start off in first or second gear if the selector is in those gears. If in D, it will still start in first and upshift through the gears like normal.

Using a manual valve body gives you control over WOT shift points. The transmission will only shift into the next gear when you manually move the shifter to the next selection. The novelty of manually shifting part throttle shifts wears off quickly when driving on the street.

A transbrake has no use on the street. It's simply a way to put the transmission in reverse while the selector is in first gear which will lock the transmission in 2 gears at the same time. This allows the engine to be brought up to the converter's stall speed. When the transbrake is released, the reverse circuit oil is dumped. The car launches forward in first gear at high rpm. Think of it as a high rpm clutch drop but the rpm is limited to the converter's stall speed.

Most transbrake valve bodies require the transbrake button to be pushed to back up in either reverse or while in neutral. If mounted on the steering wheel, which is most common, this can make it difficult to back up and turn at the same time.

A manual valve body swap is relatively easy and a good shift kit can achieve the same results for less money. A transbrake valve body swap requires stripping the tranny down to do internal modifications.

If you're mainly going to be street driving, just install a good shift kit.

i run a manual valve body and trans brake instaleld in a th400 in my 86 monte with a blown 489 stroker. shifting manually ALL the time sucks.

Transbrakes and full manual valve bodies are not intended for street use. To use them safely you would need a pretty high stall converter. Then you would be fighting the heat that comes with it. Install a good trango shift reprogramming kit. Then you can shift it anyway you please. You won't be giving up that much. I ran a th350 for three years at the track only with just a transgo 2/3 kit installed, with a good converter it'll leave hard and shift hard.