My car has a Hughes Performance Street/Strip 700r4. I'm curious to whether it has a manual valve body or not. Right now, the tranny is on a transmission stand and the shell has been opened so I can easily get inside to look at it... how would I know if my tranmission has a manual valve body? Certain things to look for?

theres way to see that its a manual valve body.....but like mine we put a manual shift kit from transgo and if i put it in od im in 4th gear....you will know it whe it will be install on the car

Seb

Pull the governor and see if it has a spring to deativate it.

RBob.

Deactivate what? The valve body? From what I've read though... the Hughes Street/Strip trannies came with manual valve bodies. But I dunno, I'm confused!

does it have the kickdown cable? if it does have it, then it is not a full manual.

Sorry, if the governor is deactivated. Since it isn't used the weights are normally tied up (outward I believe). This would be for a full manual setup. Where the transmission is always in the same gear as the shift selector is in.

RBob.

Is there something in between 'full manual setup' and 'no manual setup'? My car stays only in gear selected, but if I put it in OD while car is still in 3rd... it'll wait to shift till OD until the rpms haven't gotten to a shift point.

Between 'full manual setup' and 'no manual setup'? A stock 700R4 will upshift to 2nd even with the selector in 1st. This can be changed with a reprogramming kit (such as a TransGo). AFAIK that is the only in-between that I know of.

A true manual will always be in the gear the selector is in. Such as if at a stand still with the selector in 3rd, the vehicle will pull out with the transmission in 3rd gear. Not good for the trans.

My car stays only in gear selected, but if I put it in OD while car is still in 3rd... it'll wait to shift till OD until the rpms haven't gotten to a shift point.

If when at a stop you put the selector in 3rd, does it pull out in 3rd? Or does it start in 1st and upshift to 2nd, then 3rd? If it pulls out in 3rd then I don't really recommend doing this as it will kill the 3/4 clutch packs.

RBob.

for the kick down cable it need to be there even if you have a full manuel trans....since the kick down is not there only for shifting, it boost oil pressur at Wot.....so if you remove the cable your trans will live about 1 mile even if you have a shift kit.

Seb

Yeah, the kickdown seemed pointless in my setup. As for the 'valve body'... when in first, the car stays in first, will not auto upshift. If I put the car in Drive though, the car will shift from 1st thru 3rd as needed.

This would mean that it is not a manual shift transmission. Most likely has had the reprogramming done to allow 1st to the held. That is a common modification. A stock 700R4 will hold the other gears to whatever RPM. With this each gear can now be held.

And the trans will downshift as required by the shifter.

RBob.