telling tranny mods by driving

Hey green67,

I like your notchback! :D

Try putting your computer controlled car in park, or down to 1st while at speed, it will most likely shut the car off. Actually, don't try this in case it really doesn't!

With a stock torqueflite you are correct; it will not let you go into 1st at speed. You can move the selector to first, but the transmission will downshift to 2nd, and then 1st as you slow down. The transmission has a pretty good idea of road speed by receiving pressure from the centrifically activated governor that is mounted on the output shaft.

Full manual valve bodies will go into any gear you select at any speed. As governor pressure has no influence on the shifts.

It would be hard to tell what type of modifications are done to a certain transmission just from driving it. Some shift kits don't work properly, and some are installed incorrectly. A lot of times the shift kit will not address the "shift overlap" situation that plagues this transmission. A HARD shift may indicate "shift overlap", where the transmission is momentarily in two gears at once. This is what we want to avoid.

Hope this helps a little bit, thanks for writing.

Chris