I was wondering if any of you have experience with built AOD transmissions and manual automatic shifters, like those from B&M. As Im getting further along in my project car Im trying to figure which transmission to run. I intend to use the car on track, the drag strip and the street a little bit, I normally prefer manual, but for drag an auto is hard to beat and track a manual is almost required, I was just wondering if anybody has used those slapshifters and if they would be worth looking into, I also found a company that makes a paddle shifter conversion for 99-04, it just seems that a built auto that I could have complete control over would have some interesting advantages. All thoughts are welcome

 

I have a 4r70w tranny in my car and I love the fact that I don't have to worry about mis-shifts and such. B&M makes a hammer shifter for the mustang and it's a decent upgrade before you start going aftermarket and overkill. If you're not putting out insane amounts of power your best bet is to upgrade to a higher stall torque converter, as well as installing a shift kit and/or manual valve body(so you can actually go 1-2-D and D-2-1) also a tranny cooler would help alot. All of these mods aren't very expensive but will make your car a monster at the strip and the street.

 

well it would definitely have to be a built auto, I thought with the B&M you could select any gear?

 

Yes with the B&M you can... but you will also want to beef up the rest of your tranny with the torque converter and cooler.

 

I had a pretty stout auto in my 91 5.0 GT back in the day. I threw everything I could at the transmission and it never missed a beat. I had kevlar bands and heavy duty clutch packs put in and pretty much had the whole transmission redone from the inside out. Now that was back then but in the 99-04's they are pretty good up to more than 50 to 100 more horsepower to the wheels stock...any higher than that you will want to start thinking about beefing up the internals. I am going with a 3700 stall and already have 4.30 gears in so with that combo...on my drag radials will result in very pleasant results to the SOTPM!!!

You can go to a fully manual valvebody but then you lose the capabilty of the auto shifts if you need them down the road. Some of these things need to be determined on how you are going to use your car in the future...street/strip street only or just strip.

 

well can you still up and down shift?

 

yes you can upshift down shift... BUT with the fully manual valve body you can't just throw it in D and let it shift for you... thats like putting it in 3rd on a manual car and leaving it there.