ELECMAN

Im trying to find out the purpose of the manual side of the shifter.can it be used for normal driving or only used for strip racing.if its used as normal driving to is there a certain speeds to shift between gear 1,2,3 i have a 455ci engine with a th400 tranny.thanks for the replies guys.

mugzilla

Put tranny in drive floor it and notice shift points ...

Manually shift at a higher point, stock engine 4.5Gs', comp 6Gs'+...

There are pressure/heat generation differences with manual shifts so watch your temp...

Do you have a shift kit ..?

ELECMAN

No is that the one with a shift light i have a aftermarket tach in the clock spot.

mugzilla

I mean a tranny kit ...

Does it patch out on the second gear shift under wide open throttle in drive and what is that shift point in rpm's ...

firefrost gold

The his side was so you dont get to exited and over shoot the next gear or into nutural . The shift point is all speculation and feel if you over rev it it will A fall off power and B could hurt your 455 .

joe_padavano

Here's a little more basic response. Both gates put the shift cable (and thus the manual selector lever on the trans) in exactly the same place. Selecting low on the left gate is no different than selecting low on the right gate. The only difference, as noted above, is that the right hand gate has internal stops so you can't overshift when manually moving the lever from low to second and from second to drive. This is important when racing, but the transmission neither knows nor cares if you are doing this with the lever in the right gate or the left gate. The bottom line is that you can drive any AT car exactly the same way by manually shifting (even a column shift car). The only difference is that if you are trying to shift a regular shifter too quickly, you can overshoot and hit neutral. This will NOT help your elapsed time...

The Stickman

So that's why my car runs hotter when I shift manually.

joe_padavano

Only if you are holding it in gear longer that when it shifts automatically. If you shift at the same time as the trans would on its own, there there is no thermal difference. If you hold it in gear longer, you generate more heat in the trans AND more heat in the engine, due to higher RPMs at the same speed. An added factor is that you're running the engine at a higher RPM but driving at a lower than normal speed for that RPM, so airflow through the radiator is also reduced.

BlackGold

I'm not as afraid of hitting neutral as I am of hitting reverse ....
Been there. Done that. Paid for it.
Note to self: When staging at the dragstrip, make sure you really do have it in the manual gate and not just think you do.

stlbluesbrother

Nice explanation. Now this noobie (me) understands the basics of the Dual Gate behavior.

Question: who in their right mind would drive a car in Low ? Isn't that gear for serious torque needs? Such as pulling a trailer? I've always been tenative to use that gear on any AT car.

firefrost gold

Just like a locomotive put the coal to her and she will make some smoke

Bluevista

My GTO has one, haven't used it in the "His" mode ten times in 15 years.
It gets rubber in all three gears now, why worry about shifting?
That's why they call it an "automatic".

mugzilla

When I manually shift I am holding the shift ...

I had thought there was a different circuit ...

svnt442

Nope. It's all mechanical in the shifter.

The Stickman

Makes sense now that I think about it just didn't think it would be that noticeable. My car seems to like to rev out and until I get the EFI working I gotta deal with my carb issues so easier to bang thru the gears than deal with it being a slug.

mugzilla

Another leadfoot tuneup ...

...

87cutlas

lol, i put a full manual valve body in mine, so i have to shift every gear, a pain, especially in town. and i did notice more heat afterwords, i just figured it was the increased line pressure/more friction factor inside the tranny