The trans. works very well with all the mods except for the rear servo and check ball removal.
Under normal driving the trans. shifts nice and firm ( not neck snapping ) the converter will stay locked up a little better
(doesn't come out of lock up when just accelerating moderately like they normally do ). There are two different PR springs in the kit, white and blue, I started out with the white
which is the softer of the two, but I am using the blue spring now, I had to do a lot of adjusting on the TV cable to get the shift points where they should be while using the blue
spring. I will probably go back to the white PR spring when I do the rear servo deal. The one thing that I don't like about these trans. is that whether you shift them manually or let
them shift automatically, they will go to the next gear when they dam well please ( only under WOT ) this is where the PR spring selection is very important. The white spring will let
the trans. shift at a lower RPM, compared to the blue. If you use the blue spring and leave the TV cable adjusted as it was before anything was done, the thing shifts very good until
you are at WOT, then things get a little hairy, unless your engine will turn 5500 rpm this thing isn't going to shift. You can adjust the TV cable to get the shift points down but this
will hurt the quality of the 1-2 shift ( 2-3 will stay the same ). On the other hand leaving the blue spring in and doing the servo step just may be the ticket. Transgo suggests using
the blue spring with the adjusting screw turned in 6 turns for off road and competition, this would never work on our Dakota's, but if the white spring is used and the shift points
nice and firm but to low you then can up the spring pressure to get the desired shifts ( spring adjustment of the white spring is all the out against the spring plate) by adjusting it
in a little.
The PR spring can be adjusted with out removing the valve body but of course you are going to go through a lot of ATF if you need to do it a few times. It is worth all of the trouble
though
Everything is the same whether the trans. is an A500 or A518 other than putting an extra plug in the case on the 518's.
Also use a brass filter in place of the felt one that most parts stores sell, ( flows better ).
Bottom line is that the Transgo TFOD-2 vavle body kit is a winner!!!!!!
Hope this helps
Colin H.
droopie wrote:
> Yep the trans. in these things do have a lot of overlap in the shifts, but that
> can be fixed. I have a TRANSGO TFOD-HD2 in my 98 5.2 sport and after playing
> with it a few times ( pulling the valve body off two or three times ) to get the
> kind of shift that I wanted I am very happy with it. Boy does it make a big
> difference in performance. You can make it shift very very hard in 1-2 by adding
> the supplied spacer and replacing the spring in the rear servo and by doing this
> it allows you to remove a check ball in the valve body. I have done everything
> but that final mod. but I will be taking it back down and doing that to it soon.
> The 2-3 and 3-4 shifts are great either way you go. I drilled the spacer plate
> holes to the max. size ( I started small, drove it a few days then went all the
> way, no regrets )
> Good luck
> Colin H.
>
> How is it with all the mods except the check ball? I want to firm my 4x4 shifts up, but since I drive it 3,500 miles a month for work, I don't need neck snapping shifts at 15 mph.
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