im thinkibg about getting a shift kit and am wondering how big of a difference it will make

 

Huge difference, add the vette servo at the same time.....

 

deffinately a great mod to do. The best shift kit varies from person to person. Most ppl prefer the transgo kit. It is pretty intensive. I am running a superior kit in my car at the recomendation of the trans. rebuilder and I love it. Nice smoothe shift while driving normal and a nice hard shift while hammering down. My last kit was hard all the time and it kind of sucks if your drinking a cup of coffee sloshing around and stuff.

 

Just curious.....which kit did you use before the "Transgo" kit???

 

is there any brands other than b&m that make good kits?

 

yea, transgo (earlier mentioned) is apparently really good shifting...smooth but hard when ur racing...i might go with taht shift kit then the b&m shifter

 

aslo do you have to manually shift it everytime or is there still a fully automatic option?

 

you talking shift kit or shifter???

the shift kit gets installed inside the transmission.. shifter well that obvious where that goes

 

u must be really new to shifters lol, no worries haha, it is pretty much ur stock shifter but it shifts better..1st, 2nd, 3rd, then orverdrive...not manual

 

The TransGo kits offer the option of manual valve body (manually shifting an automatic transmission all the time) or fully automatic.

The consensus on B&M shift kits is that they're hard all the time and don't tend to last. The best TransGo shift kit to get are the "modified" ones that ProBuilt Automatic sells. There are many people on this board who have this (including myself). It's perfect in that it's easy enough for daily driving, yet shifts quicker when you want it too.

Between the Heavy Duty, Street/Strip, and Elite options, you'd want to go for the Street/Strip......The Heavy Duty is for things like S-10 trucks, towing, etc. The Street/Strip is the performance one. The Elite is pretty much a race only setup for high HP cars.

https://www.700r4l60e.com/store/home.php?cat=65

 

well i was going of off what some one told me his dad has on his charger that he has to shift it everytime. it didnt seem right to me because i know theres still the drive option in the trans. and yes i am new to shifters and i didnt ever look into them because i always planned on going manual.

 

ohh, that sounds really different...and there should be a overdrive/drive gear in the trans...i am kinda new too, but i have been researching for a couple months because i want one...i really am tied between auto and manual, honestly i really like auto, but manuals seem faster, but ive heard of automatics being just as fast as manuals....i guess its just what you prefer.

 

I would go for the transgo shifter kit, in the past there have been reports of people having problems with there transmission after a B&M shifter kit is installed. The transgo is is really nice and you can get it for $60 on ebay. It comes with a lot of info on how to install it and what it should feel like after along with a guess price of labor for it's install. I would recommend having a well know and good standing transmission place put it in as it seems you are new to this.

 

There are a few different ways of making a transmission shift harder. Kits like the B&M tend to simply increase line pressure. This gives you a hard shift all the time and is harder on the transmission over time. I had an 88 IROC that shifted hard all the time. It got annoying if you drove it as a daily driver. Especially in busy traffic.

The TransGo kit has various washers (1, 2, or 3) that adjust the firmness. There are also instructions with the TransGo that offer "firm" or "firmest" options. My transmission shop told me that those are more like "crazy" and "insane." And that a lot of customers come back and want them to make it shift a little more tame after having a shift kit put in. With the washers, most people go with 2 washers while the strictly racing people go for 3 washers.

Now with the "modified" TransGo from Pro Built Automatic, you get a quicker shift, but not necessarily a harder shift. It depends on your driving style. It's actually parts from two different TransGo kits combined and with a WHOLE LOT of custom instructions included. Do this, do that, don't do that. This part of the instructions crossed out. Drill here to this size rather than the default instruction size.....Their kit recommends using zero washers and using the "firm" setting only for cars that have 9.5" aftermarket torque converters. I seem to recall the settings were something like drill .82-86 for stock converters while the drill .96 size was the "firm" setting (recommended by ProBuilt only for cars with the aftermarket converters). "Firmest" was something like 1.10 (I'm going by memory.....it's been 3 years)

So I brought the car to the shop with the kit and the custom instructions. Had them install it. They were really impressed with the results when they went for a post-install test drive. I really like it too. It's near stock at low throttle with the shifter in O/D. The more throttle you give it, the quicker it shifts. So in traffic it's not a nuisance. With moderate gas, you know there's a shift kit in there. Heavy on the gas? You'll chirp the tires with ease.

With the TransGo, if you pull the shifter into D, it will shift harder doing 1,2,3 shifts. If you pull it into 2, it will shift very hard doing the 1,2 shift. Going the other way. Driving in 4th gear and pulling the shifter into 3rd, it will shift immediately into 3rd. Pulling it to 2nd does the same thing. Snap of the fingers now. Pulling it into 1, there will be about a 2 second delay and the RPM's will wind up and then it will shift into 1st. This protects the transmission from the hard shock that would normally occur during a manual downshift to 1st gear. It's sort of like double clutching and matching the RPM's on a manual transmission downshift. It just makes sense.

I took my mother for a ride afterwords and she said the car shifted just fine to her (all women universally hate hard shifting cars). Then I took my Dad out and he loved the way it went through the gears when you got on it. It's not harsh. It's just faster.

The kit is a bit more expensive. Around $150-160. But the benefits compared to a generic TransGo are definitely worth it. If you do a search on TGO for Pro Built Automatic, you'll see all sorts of happy owners. His kits are based on accumulation to control the firmness of shifts rather than jacking up line pressure and dealing with aftermarket springs and such.

 

Wow! Thanks for writing all of that, this info will help a lot of people that are wondering about this.

 

yep good info

 

good info indeed i have a transgo kit in mine too i love it, when i shift it manually its hard shifting depending on how far on the throttle i am but normal it still shifts quicker but not harsh at all

 

Speak for yourself.

 

hah damn, i guess he figured wrong XDDD

 

I'll to throw another shout out for the transgo kit from pro built, best option out there (although a bit more pricey than the B&M kit)

 

can i use the transgo shift kit with a B&m shifter??

 

Yeah, they are completely unrelated, as far as combatability.

 

Yes I do.....

 

ok, i was just curious because they are different brands and i didnt want to have something go wrong when i would use it