Hi everyone I am new to the board so go easy on me. I am a newby to the mod game I have a chevy 1977 4x4 lwb with 4speed automatic. I have been kicking the idea of convering it to a manual tranny for a while now, I cant stand not being able to do my own shifting. But just yesterday I saw something about installing a manual valve body onto the tranny and you can do all the shifting manually minus the clutch. Can someone explain what that's all about and how it works? Would I be shifting manually through all the gears and doing all my (downshifts)? Also how would this be possible because I have the old funky column shifter and bench seat. Would I have to cut a hole in the floor for the shifter,how much of a project is it?? Hey any .02 would be greatly appreciated thanks alot.
manual valve body
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Welcome to the board. :thumb:
You can easily convert it to a manual shift. What it means is that you will have to do all of the shifting and it will stay in the gear that you pick. If you pu it into 3rd gear it will take off in third gear and stay there no matter what untill you select a different gear. Its basically a modified shift kit that you can install from the bottom. You dont have to make any external changes. You would just be using your column shift a lot. the benefits of this is that in some off road situations you my want to take off in second gear to avoid wheelspin if you have a stong motor. Does that help any? :mrgreen:
You can easily convert it to a manual shift. What it means is that you will have to do all of the shifting and it will stay in the gear that you pick. If you pu it into 3rd gear it will take off in third gear and stay there no matter what untill you select a different gear. Its basically a modified shift kit that you can install from the bottom. You dont have to make any external changes. You would just be using your column shift a lot. the benefits of this is that in some off road situations you my want to take off in second gear to avoid wheelspin if you have a stong motor. Does that help any? :mrgreen:
Welcome to the site. :grin:
If you do it, make sure that whoever else, if they do, drives your truck knows how to shift it. I've heard of people frying a transmission real quick because they let someone else drive the truck. They didnt know any better and started out in high gear.
If you do it, make sure that whoever else, if they do, drives your truck knows how to shift it. I've heard of people frying a transmission real quick because they let someone else drive the truck. They didnt know any better and started out in high gear.
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3,267 Posts
manual valve bodies are a piece of cake to install, all you do is drop the pan and unbolt the valve body and bolt up the new one with fresh gaskets, making sure not to lose any of the checkballs!! One other thing that is common is installing a reverse pattern manual valve body, this works the exact same as the other one except the shift sequence is reversed. Rather than shifting PRND321 you would be shifting like PRN123D. I think personally that unless you are an extreme wheeler and I do mean extreme, it is unnecessary. you would be better off just getting a lower stall converter in your rig instead. but again, that's just my opinion. :thumb:
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