Ok. Couple of questions. First of all I'm planning to either do a heads & cam swap or ATI supercharge upgrade in the future. So right now I'm looking into beefing up the auto transmission so I don't have to worry about it breaking.

First of all I realize that a lot of people here seem to dislike the 700r4 but personally I am really happy with mine. Very, very firm shifts. Now I have read about people upgrading to a corvette servo to firm up the 1-2 shift. I can't understand why you would want the 1-2 shift any firmer. It is not uncommon for my car to either chirp the 1-2 shift or break the tires loose and start spinning them when it shifts depending on road conditions. I have heard that when these cars were being built that some of the corvette 700r4 servos made their way into the Camaro. What do you guys think? By the way I have the 350 TPI and my car only has 20,000 original miles on it, so maybe this is why the tranny is in such good shape.

Ok second question. I was just wondering what else can be done to strengthen this transmission. I already have plans to put on a B&M transmission cooler. If someone knows of a better transmission cooler than B&M let me know. Anyway aside from the transmission cooler what else can be done to this tranny? Does anyone make a shift kit for it or anything? I have heard of people adding and/or upgrading the clutch packs. How hard is this to do and what would it cost?

Anyway like I said this tranny shifts very firmly already with no slippage. I have never ridden in any other 3rg gen except for a 6 cylinder so I don't know if they all shift firm or if mine is the exception. I rode in my friends 94 LT-1 with the 4L60E tranny which I have heard is the same as the 700r4 except that it is computer controlled. Anyway this tranny shifted relatively slow and sloppy compared to mine tranny. After he got a custom chip done which increased the line pressure it was much better but in stock form it wasn't that impressive.

 

If you have firm shifts now, chances are you already have the Corvette or an aftermarket servo. The Corvette servo firms up 2nd & 3rd gear, so its purpose is twofold.

 

Yea my 1-2 shift is very solid. The 2-3 shift is firm, not as much as the 1-2 though. The shift from 3-4 is sloppy and slow but I guess that one isn't as important.

So if my shifts are solid and I get a tranny cooler is there anything else that I should do to strengthen it?

 

Check out the TCI transmission site. they have all kinds of interesing info on auto transmissions and the tech people there are very nice.

I am buying a full race grade rebuild kit from them along with the servos, and modifications for the TV valve and such to get it all inline and where it needs to be to handle the extra power i will be putting to it this winter.

3-4 may not seem very important until it goes away because of a burnt up clutchpack or a Throttle valve that is starting to go.

I will also be going with the full Manual valvebody for the 700r4.

All bought from TCI with the technical help of there people there.. very nice bunch of people there.

 

I only had one run in with the stock servo that gave me trouble. I was on a straight-away and just punched it. It went in 1st gear until about 5800RPM (it normally switched gears around 5200 in full throttle runs) and it flung my power steering belt right off, I still havent found it.

Anyways, that was because the stock servo wasnt able to grab a hold well enough, so I put a corvette servo in (PITA, but if I had to do it again I would because I realized my mistakes).

Like ProBuilt said, it sounds like yours already has a 'vette servo in it.

 

Call me kooky, but the 1-2 shift happens with the application of the 2-4 band. The same band that is part of the 3-4 shift.

I rebuilt my 700 with the master kit from TCI. It adds clutches to the 3-4 clutch pack( from 6 to 9), a heavy duty band, and the corvette servo, as well as a redefined valvebody plate.

Car shifts very firm and I have had no problems performance wise especially with the abuse it sees.

The only hardware problems I have head of is teh weak spot of the splined hub attachement to the input shaft basket.

 

Having built several 700's before and useing them in racing enviroments I realized several things that are weak points in them. Once they have been addressed. most people think that because the trans shifts hard when they have one setup it will always shift hard with any other engine they put behind it. I learned this the hard way. One thing that I see everyone doing is shift kits (while these are good add ons for a mild engine they are only a band aid), esencially a shift kit is just increasing line pressure useing diffrent springs and a different check ball placement, people will find that once they install an engine with large amounts of torque and quick revving that the trans will begin to not shift and that you have to basically have to let off compltely then it will shift then you stap the throttle again. I have learned that the automatic valve body under heavy line pressures (shift kits,improved servos,converters, boost valves) will have a tendency to not move the valves inside of itself.I say converters because the faster your engine revs that faster line pressure builds and a slippier converter reves the engine faster. The one cure that I have found is a full manual valve body, with this valve body you can run all the improvment (converters, servos, and boost valves) and when you select the next gear it has no choice but to move the valve and select the next gear. I think about as far as improvments go to a automatic valve body can take I would say a good shift kit and improved servo would be good but any more then that and it will start to have a hard time shifting if it is behind a quick revving engine. The band and clutches are also a weak links (TCI, Hughs, and B&M has thought about this issue and addressed it with added cluctchs and kevlar bands), Another weka point in a racing application is the reaction drum which has a tendency to crack under heavy torque apps., A large portion of any automatics problem is heat (espcially when running slippy converters) installing a cooler will make your trans last twice as long as any other trans.

 

O.K. if 1-2 shift and 3-4 shift is firm and 2-3 flares [ it doesn't if manualy shifted ] a corvette servo will help this trans isn't very old and has always done [it's a goodwrench trans ] and installed B&M kit when installed if that is that will take care of it I'm getting one because it only has maybe 5000 miles on it

 

Even when you shift a 700 manually you are still useing part of it's automatic feature. I am talking about a full manual valve body one that you have to shift for it and it wont shift on it's own

 

I have a shift kit on my 700R4 and I broke lose the tires from the 1-2 shift at the drag strip, and it almost seemed to spin on the 2-3