Tuesday, Jul 05, 2005 at 14:37
Hi Chris,
Fitting a valve body kit or shift kit to your trans not only gives you quicker gear changes, but more importantly, it increases the line pressure in the trans to give you much stronger clamping forces on your transmissions clutch packs. This in turn will increase the load capabilities of the gearbox substantially as
well as running cooler. I fitted my TransGo shift kit for around $150 including gaskets, and although it didn’t improve the shifts as much as I would have hoped, it does drive much better without as much slippage.
Unfortunately the GQ boxes won’t lock their converters in first gear like the GU ones do, but the valve bodies are interchangeable if you want that feature. See this LINK. The great advantage of having a manual lock up, is that your engine braking will be no different to a manual and you have the advantage of being able to go back to first gear at virtually any speed. On more than one occasion I have had to pull it back to first in an emergency braking situation at over 40kph, and the car just pulled up without even locking the wheels or over revving the motor.
Autos with these features have no disadvantages over a manual and you have the option to drive them manually if you like or just drop it into drive and let the trans do the work.
Petrol GQ’s go
well and are bullet proof, good luck with it.
Chaz
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