Trans-go questions

my98GTvert

New Member
Jul 6, 2003
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I just got my trans-go kit installed today. I told the shop to put it on the second setting. After getting it back, I took it for a drive and I think they may have left it on the least aggressive setting. I read that many of you are able to chirp or bark the tires on a 1-2 shift and sometimes on the 2-3. Mine would not do that, even with aggressive shifts. I spoke to the individual that installed it, and he said there was some wear on the clutch(s?), and didn't recommend making the shifts much more aggressive. I currently have 61k miles on my car. I thought the shift kit along with being fun, also helped extend the life of the tranny? Do you think it will be safe to have them go a little more aggressive, and is it normal for the shifts to cause the tires to chirp. Also they said that my serpentine belt was slipping when it shifts.

Yes, I know that I should have gotten a stick if I wanted really aggressive shifts and to chirp the tires, but my wife can not physically drive a stick anymore, so that is out of the question.
 
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I have the Jerry mod shift kit and when I had my stock good years, I could chirp them when going from first to second gear. When I got my Bridgestone Potenza S-03's, that more or less went away but you could still feel the hard shifts.

Whats puzzling me is how would they know you have excessive wear on your clutches ? As far as I know, shift kits only revolve around the valve body and associated areas such as accumulator pistons and solenoids. Maybe you had excessive metal grit in your fluid and at the bottom of the transmission fluid pan.

What mainly extends the lift of your transmission is to have it serviced properly, keep the proper fluid in it(mercon V or better), and proper cooling. If you do not have one, I strongly advise getting a transmission cooler. It will help to keep the transmission fluid cooler. Heat is what causes breakdown of the mercon in transmission fluid. Mercon, the key ingredient in transmisison fluid, is what keeps friction levels down within the transmission.

Wether or not the shift kit will extend the lift of your transmission, is going to depend on how the shift kit is setup. I dont know the specifications of the shift kit but I know Jerry Wroblewski(The same ex-Ford engineer who designed the Jerry mod shift kit)stated the trans-go shift kit was a good shift kit. I also know many people on here have used them without problems.

Here is what I recommend. If they say you've got excessive wear on the clutches, ask them how they know. If they say they found excessive amounts of metal grit in your pan, then that pretty much means you do have clutches wearing out or somethings going bad. If thats the case, then stick with the setting its at for now. Then, prepare for a transmission rebuild down the road. I recommend getting an overhaul kit if you decide to go through with the transmission rebuild. While your there, a new torque converter would help out as well. It all depends though on how much performance you want and how much youre willing to pay. If you have the specifications for the Trans-go shift kit, please share them with me and I'll be able to better tell you if it will damage something.
 
Ive never had my belt slip during shifts. If it were to slip, its because the belt sucks. I think this "myth" got started because of the quick changes in rpms during a shift with a shift kit. Its nothing to worry about though.
 
jimfitzgerald said:

Hey jim, have you had any trouble with your OD band? Mine has gone through it's now 4th od band (which was kevlar) and some say the shift kit is to blame. It was installed properly and my tranny was overhauled last dec. I'm getting tired of taking it back to this guy to work on and I'm not putting down that much power so I'm wondering if you had any ideas?
 
Dark Knight GT said:
Wether or not the shift kit will extend the lift of your transmission, is going to depend on how the shift kit is setup. I dont know the specifications of the shift kit but I know Jerry Wroblewski(The same ex-Ford engineer who designed the Jerry mod shift kit)stated the trans-go shift kit was a good shift kit. I also know many people on here have used them without problems.

I have to disagree on this part, based on information in a thread currently going on over at mod depot...

Originally posted by SCT Guy
Having helped design and worked on the trans that's in your GT, probably working on it before most on this board had drivers licenses, and being the Jerry of the Jerry Mod, I think I'm qualified to pipe in here and add my 2 cents....

I dont' care who recommends what, TransGo=bad. Here is why.

Once upon a time, oh 10 years or so ago, a higher up at the Blue Oval mandated to us that we make the transmission shift out of manual low gear into 2nd even if you didn't move the shifter. Kicking and screaming we complied. Starting in the late 90's we were able to change this back due to early retirement packages.

Along comes TransGo trying to be hero. They are going to change a whole bunch of stuff in the valve body to prevent the trans shifing out of manual low. All the shift valves get replaced, the solenoid pressure regulator valve, the manual valve, etc. All of this is done in an attempt to prevent it from shifting out of manual low and a few things like that. They are trying to take the control away from the EEC and put it in the trans. If you want to do this, buy a manual valvebody and be done with it.

Here's the problem.

TransGo doesn't realize there are things called production tolerances and stack ups. About one in every 20 TransGo kits won't shift. I have talked to some people on this board that have had this problem. Why doesn't it shift? They cannot account for all the variances in the valve body when trying to do something mechanically that should be done electronically. This is bad, very, very bad. A 5% failure rate is out of control. How lucky do you feel?

Next issue with TransGo. They put a TV pressure blow off valve in the valve body right under the main regulator valve in the cover plate on the bottom of the trans. They claim this is to prevent TV pressure spikes which occur in the trans. I bet I have personally done the post morteums on 500 trans's and looked over a few thousand others. I have taken more pressure data than can be imagined. Guess what? I have NEVER seen an excessive TV pressure spike, ever. The main reason I think they did this is because again, they are trying to change something that should be changed electronically. They change the main regulator valve spring to have a "flatter" line pressure curve based on TV pressure. The problem with changing that spring, you make so much line pressure that you will explode the clutch cylinders. So they add this blow off valve to keep TV pressure to some set limit. Two issues here. One, this should be done electronically by asking for more pressure (there are reasons why this is bad, but I'll get to that later) and not trying to override the electronics. Two, if you ever take the pan off of a trans, even one that functions well, you'll see friction material in the pan, totally normal. What happens when one of these little pieces of material lodge in the blow off valve and have it bleeding off because it doesn't seat? I can answer that, you get your trans rebuilt.

While this may be enough to convince you, I'll give you one more.

Anyone out there with a transgo kit notice that when you are in 1st gear and mash it, about half way through low gear the car seems to really take off (this would be mainly on blower cars, not N/A cars), almost like a turbo kicking in? Ever wonder what this is? It's the freaking trans slipping from the shift kit.

There is a circuit in the valve body to feed the torque converter. Under certain conditions, high pressure demand, lower RPM (<3000) the production valve body will reduce the flow to the converter circuit to keep pressure to the clutches. TransGo gets rid of this nice feature. So you feed the converter circuit full bore all the time. While this is great if you have enough pump flow, but you don't until you really get the pump spinning. So what happens? The line pressure, hence the pressure to the clutches, drops and is not what it should be. In fact, in many cases it drops enough to make the forward clutch slip.

Do you know nothing in the valve body causes shudder? It's a breakdown of the oil/friction interface in the converter causing a stick/slip condition? How do you fix this in the valve body? You rape the converter clutch circuit to slam it on. That way when shudder does happen the friction is so fried you need a new friction disc. You can lock the converter faster electronically. Change your trans fluid ever 21k like you should and you'll never have shudder.

Still want a TransGo? If you think PI knows more than I do then go ahead and get one. I didn't see any of them sitting next to me in the early 90's when we were designing this.

In all honesty it's not that hard to do. You remove two springs and drill about 4-5 holes, that's it.

I agree that the Jerry mod is the best kit out there, I've done 5 of them over the past 2 years. You can set it up from slightly over stock to ripping 2nd and 3rd gears, whatever you want.
And as far as the "myth" goes, I have experienced that as well... though I agree maybe a brand new belt would help cure the problem. Some people don't notice it because they have louder exhausts and it drowns the squeal out. Edit: I should add that only on 1 car did I experience this, and that the more aggresive you are with the kit, the more likely it is to happen. It doesn't happen to everyone.
 
Over at mod depot, they're saying that the od band failure is due to shifting in and out of od at full throttle. Something that can be changed electronically.

Now, theoretically speaking, if I were to want to go to the jerry mod, I would need to replace the valves and springs that I took out. I have no idea what the part numbers are but I do know where they go since I installed the shift kit in my car.

If I can find out the part description, can anyone get me the part numbers? I'd be willing to go to the jerry mod if the transmission shop can't alter the od shifting.
 
The valves and parts inside the valve body aren't individually sold - so if the tranny shop doesnt have yours, youll want to just get a 99+ VB... see if maybe you can get one from someone who upgraded to a full manual VB. sure beats paying full price for a new one from Ford. Put a Jerry mod on that VB, get a tune from the right people, and you shouldnt have any more problems.
 
FastRedPonyCar said:
Hey jim, have you had any trouble with your OD band? Mine has gone through it's now 4th od band (which was kevlar) and some say the shift kit is to blame. It was installed properly and my tranny was overhauled last dec. I'm getting tired of taking it back to this guy to work on and I'm not putting down that much power so I'm wondering if you had any ideas?

I know I'm not Jim, but ... Holy chit man! What the he11 are you doing to your poor tranny ... seriously?? :shrug: I've driven my car pretty hard sometimes (even before the shift kit) and never had any problems. The one thing that I've always done since day one is let off the throttle completely (or use VERY light throttle) when shifting into O/D. I also force the car to downshift on it's own first (with the throttle) on a downshift BEFORE I lock O/D out. Do you ever do either one of those?