2nd to 3rd shift delay

[Sterling]

I am helping a friend with his 69 Dodge Dart. He has had the car for years, and been restoring it for years also. He had someone rebuild the original transmission, and they installed a manual valve body. I finally drove the car, and it feels to me that it has a shift overlap from 2nd to 3rd gear. It feels to me like it’s in 2 gears at the same time. I have never had this problem before. With out knowing what valve body is installed, or the internal parts used, I couldn’t come up with an easy solution. Any one have a problem like this before ?

 

[Syleng1]

IMHO:
The unit needs to come apart and fully inspected as there could be multiple issues especially when there are so many unknowns.
Syleng1

 

[Sterling]

That is what I thought, will be a winter project. I told him to drive it for now. He has been waiting for at least 10 years to drive it

 

[Darter6]

That was a common complaint with the very early manual valve bodies.
My first was 1975 and was a do it yourself using the steps from Direct Connection.I hated the delay into high.
Cheetah, A&A,Cope didn't exist yet but I believe Cheetah was first with their design that cured the problem.
As you said who knows what that manual valve body is.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

Home built valve body caused this Death. Don't take the chance. Throw it in the trash.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

You all should try this with your automatics. Floor it in low and wind it tight and shift second. Feel the overlap.

Then floor it in drive, After the car starts moving pull it to low and then shift second when wound tight ,You will see a totally different and better shift.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

The wrecked Demon worked good after the shop did the valve body under normal driving. The first time he wound second tight and shifted drive the trans went into 2 gears at one time. Meaning it never came out of second when it shifted third.

How do we know this? The trans was installed in this blue 340 challenger. It did the exact same thing. But the car didn't hit anything. If you don't have the means of pressure testing your work leave your fingers off for a street car. Its usually to late when you find out on a test drive. The man got lucky with the Challenger.