I've always heard that if you shift an automatic transmission manually it messes it up. I am looking at a 92 Camaro with a Hurst dual gate shifter, won't shifting it manually hurt it? It does have a shift kit in it, does that mess with the valve body or whatever so that shifting it manually won't hurt it?

Thanks.

 

It depends. The "manual" side of the dual gate forces the transmission into that gear, whereas the standard automatic gear selector limits your maximum gear to that gear. Now, if you're constantly dropping 5000 RPM shifts in every gear, yea, that'll hurt the transmission. But otherwise if it's a decently built 700-R4 it should be able to do that. See if you can get the specs on the shift kit that's installed. If it's a B&M, see if he has the original parts, and get a TransGo kit. The B&M kit "tricks" the transmission into shifting faster. And that's generally all a shift kit does, is make the transmission shift into the next gear faster. You'll still shift at 2500 RPM while cruising, but the actual time the transmission takes to switch gears is faster, and generally more violent. I like the way the hard shifts feel.

 

There's no difference between the two sides of the dual gate, or between the dual gate and a stock shifter for that matter.

 

having a dual gate shifter is useless on an automatic valve body...even an aftermarket shifter is useless for that matter. only thing the dual gate shifter is good for is manual valve body. other good thing about it is when your manually shifting (and your trans has a manual valve body), you dont accidently throw it into neutral or worse...reverse...