I back in the Buick world. I'm in the process of making my 62 Skylark a street/strip hell raising car, not a daily driver. I imagine driving around town and to the track 30 miles away. What our your thoughts? Love it? Hate it? Advice. Plus I will use a trans break.
If you want the cool look in addition to the benefits of reverse shifting for racing applications than the cost of the reverse valve body is right up your alley. However, if you just want the safety of shifting fast without the chance of overrevving or going into reverse, there's a cheaper, safer way to go while maintaining a stock appearance. You can go with a factory Buick Turbo 350 or 400 floor shift assembly and add an available "slap shifter" that will keep the factory shift pattern and still let you speed shift with no danger of overrevving or hitting reverse.
For the short duration I drove my Olds F85 with a reverse manual valve body on the street, it was very enjoyable. You felt very in control of the car, but not as much as a 4 speed, of course.
As long as you don't get confused....I like all my cars with forward valve body.....my little brain can't deal with backwards.
I have thought about that, I'm a knuckle dragger so I fear the same thing. I fear sending it in to neutral as well
I can't even keep my Winters and Cheetahs shifters in line....different gates even though forward. I forget which car I'm in....sometimes.....
Most manual valve bodies eliminate the intermediate band, and don’t use the reverse band in 1st gear. If you are happy with having your feet and toes attached to your body, don’t drive (or let anyone else drive it) unless you know what your doing! Without getting too technical, the direct drum is spinning almost 2.5 times output shaft speed in first gear. For most cars, that’s a maximum of 40-50mph. Now imagine how fast that drum is spinning at 120mph? The stock drum was never designed to spin that fast, it will literally explode. I wonder if a trans shield or safety blanket would catch all the shrapnel. The intermediate band is designed to hold the drum from spinning in manual gears. Without the band, in 2nd gear there is nothing to prevent to drum from over revving. Same thing in first gear, I have seen people on the street going say 15-20, let out of the throttle (the car “relaxes”, basically the transmission is in neutral) then smack the throttle. I guess the guy got a thrill from the shock as the transmission goes from freewheeling to locked up. The roller clutch will eventually fail, as will the intermediate sprag if the same driving practice is done in 2nd gear. Unless the valvebody is set up to allow engine braking, don’t EVER downshift a transmission a manual valve body while the car is moving. Obviously, people can and do drive a car with a manual valve body/transbrake. You just need to know what your doing, and more importantly what not to do. These are Torqueflight transmissions, but the same thing happens to 400/350 transmissions, must for different reasons. I can’t find the video of the 400 explosion I saw a few months ago. The floor had big holes, windshield shattered, holes in the roof of the car, dash tore up. The guy was very lucky, once he changed his underwear I hope he bought a lottery ticket before his luck ran out.
Mine is full manual,, but forward with trans brake.. I dont recall if mine has engine braking.......I know the band is still in there but will have to look to see if its fully functional. But im pretty sure it is. I drive in the pits in 2nd gear and don't recall any coasting feelings, when I let off the gas.......I do know my directions say to not downshift into 1st at any speeds above 5........I did it once at like 2 and it was very harsh. Never again...I will be stopped b4 going into 1st gear. But the shift from 3rd to 2nd is smooth. The only other thing I notice with mine in if the back up and slide the column lever to 1st, I need to wait a second.........if not it rolls about 6 inches, locks up for a slight instant than goes......iys like its trying to shift into every gear all the way down and I need to give it a slight pause......like 1 second or 2 to clear itself out. My brake also works in 2nd gear........did that once too...shifted into second in the burnout and forgot to pull it down......hit the brake found the 2step and launched, just a half second slower in the 60ft. Lol
Who made that valve body? I have never seen a forward pattern with a brake, that would be great for guys who want to keep the factory shifter.
That's why I bought it to keep my column shifter. I'm debating about listing it for sale to allow me the chance to put an air shifter in........with 60 foot times getting into the low 1.40s its getting really hard to keep the shifts on time
