hey has anyone heard of a shift kit for a C4 tranny? can anyone explaine what this does because someone told me that this is better than getting a manual tranny.

 

I believe its essentially a manual with no clutch....you shift the gears when you want to....no clutch pedal.....i dono if thats totally right but its something like that.....

 

A shift kit changes the firmness of your shifts, some even allow the engine to wrap out to a higher rpm before it grabs the next gear. The kind of conversion where you essentially have a manual with no clutch is called a manual valve body. That basically means you have to shift the car yourself sequentially. Great for the drag strip, not so great on the street. With a regular manual tranny you have more control because you do have a clutch, for example you can push the clutch in to slow down or go through a corner. You can coast. Essentially you can do the same thing with a fully automatic transmission, you let off the gas and the car coasts. With a manual valve body you lock the car in gear, the torque converter still slips but it's not the same. It's not easy to explain, best thing to do is to drive a manual valve body car on the street and see how you like it. I would suggest getting a TCI shift kit for your C4. I use TCI parts exclusively and the quality is outstanding. Example: My 97 F-350 has a Garrett twin turbo set up, and I threw just about every go fast part from Banks on that 7.3 Powerstroke. She dyno'd out at 868 ft. lbs of torque at 1830 rpm. Real beast of a motor, the stock tranny puked it's guts out at 15,000 miles. Using a TCI built tranny I got about 50,000 miles out of the second one. With the third one I again used TCI components and installed a huge tranny cooler (10 quarts capacity) that tranny has been in for 90,000 miles of hard driving. Still lets me roast the tires at will. I had a 92 F-150 with a 351W a few years back, nice truck but the shifts sucked. Installed a TCI kit and it squaked the tires shifting to second and third at WOT. No mods to the engine. A TCI kit is also more forgiving if you do decide to run the gears manually using your column/floor mounted shifter. A TCI kit is pretty easy to install. For your first time I'd call it a weekend project. If you're ambitious get a C4 rebuild video and order the TCI transmission rebuild kit. It's the next step beyond a shift kit. The video will walk you through the process of tearing down and rebuilding a tranny. It's not hard, just takes patience.

 

I found most older Ford transmissions dont need a shift kit, they shift pretty hard as it is. BaldGeorge is right though, TCI makes good products and the C4 is a very simple trans, with some attention to detail, only a few special tools like O ring picks, you can rebuild a C4 on a workbench of in the back of a pickup if you have no other place and its clean. I did the pickup thing at the dragstrip, dont ask.. lol.

 

OK guys I'm wanting to make sure I'm looking at the right kits.

What is the difference in the 2 Pro Super Kits shown (they cost the same and state they are for the same application). And would you recommend the Pro Super or the Master Racing

http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...=egnsearch.asp

http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...=egnsearch.asp

If it is this should be a decent little job to do on a weekend.

Thanks,
pwhit

 

The difference in the two kits is that one is for a pan filled C4 and the other is for a case filled C4

 

Thanks,
I guess I should have read the application section of them. They state the years, etc. So the TCI-528800 states years 67-69 and the other is 70+, would you install the 67-69 model in a 65 fastback or is there another set that I shoudl be looking at?

 

What year car did the tranny come out of? Or is it the original?

 

I believe it is the original tranny.

 

I'd go with the 67-69 kit. To be sure though you can call TCI at 1-662-224-8972. I'm not sure if he's still working there or not but there was a John in the tech department that got me squared away on my F-350. Good guy, real knowledgeable.