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Transmission shop, IPT Upgrade, small work arounds

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Old 05-30-2006, 10:04 AM
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Transmission shop, IPT Upgrade, small work arounds

Hey guys, so I called this tranny shop in my area to drop my VBody and send it to IPT.

As I was talking to the guy he just started firing off things bam bam bam, he SEEMED to really know what he was talking about.

Supposedly there is some pressure regulator which has 4 notches and you can tighten that up which will up the PSI and render better shifting.

Then he went ahead and mentioned something about taking out a "bulb" or something out of the VB which he said would "make it shift so hard you'd think you were in a race car".

Im going to stop by their place tonight and see what they can do.

Anybody got any input on this?
Old 05-30-2006, 11:03 AM
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You can adjust the kickdown cable to get more pressure on the plates and thus firmer shifts. The purpose of the kickdown is to increase the pressure on the plates at higher engine speeds to minimize slippage.

The work that IPT does goes WAY beyond this... The kickdown cable approach is NOT a substitute for hot rodding the tranny.

Anyway, to try this... Pop the hood and look at the throttle body. You'll see two cables running to the driver's side of the engine. One is the throttle, the other is the kickdown. The kickdown will have a small bead on the cable, the proper adjustment is to have the front edge of the bead about 3/8" of an inch outside of the cable jacket.

Rotate the TB intake plate actuator and you'll see how the kickdown cable is pulled out as the throttle increases. To adjust this, grab a 14mm open end wrench and loosen the locknut - the cable assembly will free itself from the guide plate. Adjust the collar nut such that the cable will be pulled out more, put the assembly back in, and tighten up the lock nut.

You'll probably crank it out quite a bit to play with it, so the first thing you'll notice is that dropping it from PARK into gear will give you quite a jolt. This is why THIS adjustment isn't a replacement for the real work. You're increasing pressure _all around_, and that's not real fun to drive with on the trails when you're in & out of gear or shifting from DRIVE to REVERSE a lot.


Anyway... BE CAREFUL with this tranny guy. If he screws things up, it's basically impossible to buy JUST a new VB.
Old 05-30-2006, 11:20 AM
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Originally Posted by midiwall

Anyway... BE CAREFUL with this tranny guy. If he screws things up, it's basically impossible to buy JUST a new VB.
Wow I didn't know that. That's not very conforting as I get ready to ship one off to IPT. So should I insure it for like $2000?
Old 05-30-2006, 11:25 AM
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Originally Posted by mt_goat
Wow I didn't know that. That's not very conforting as I get ready to ship one off to IPT. So should I insure it for like $2000?
YES. If it's lost, you'll be looking for a tranny in a junkyard in order to get a repalcement.


Call John first... At one time he was looking to try to work out something where he had some VB's stockpiled so that he could offer an exchange program.

Johnny from Sea2Sky (weasy2k here on the forum) was looking to do that as well.
Old 05-30-2006, 11:38 AM
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Originally Posted by midiwall
You can adjust the kickdown cable to get more pressure on the plates and thus firmer shifts. The purpose of the kickdown is to increase the pressure on the plates at higher engine speeds to minimize slippage.

The work that IPT does goes WAY beyond this... The kickdown cable approach is NOT a substitute for hot rodding the tranny.

Anyway, to try this... Pop the hood and look at the throttle body. You'll see two cables running to the driver's side of the engine. One is the throttle, the other is the kickdown. The kickdown will have a small bead on the cable, the proper adjustment is to have the front edge of the bead about 3/8" of an inch outside of the cable jacket.

Rotate the TB intake plate actuator and you'll see how the kickdown cable is pulled out as the throttle increases. To adjust this, grab a 14mm open end wrench and loosen the locknut - the cable assembly will free itself from the guide plate. Adjust the collar nut such that the cable will be pulled out more, put the assembly back in, and tighten up the lock nut.

You'll probably crank it out quite a bit to play with it, so the first thing you'll notice is that dropping it from PARK into gear will give you quite a jolt. This is why THIS adjustment isn't a replacement for the real work. You're increasing pressure _all around_, and that's not real fun to drive with on the trails when you're in & out of gear or shifting from DRIVE to REVERSE a lot.


Anyway... BE CAREFUL with this tranny guy. If he screws things up, it's basically impossible to buy JUST a new VB.
Ahh he said something else about something underneath the truck where the tranny fluid drains, but I DO believe the general jist of his mod was to increase pressure through out the system.. The VB upgrade Im guessing doesnt do that?
Old 05-30-2006, 11:44 AM
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Originally Posted by JimmyK
Ahh he said something else about something underneath the truck where the tranny fluid drains, but I DO believe the general jist of his mod was to increase pressure through out the system.. The VB upgrade Im guessing doesnt do that?
I asked "What's in a valve body upgrade" a couple of years ago. John (here on YT as "Transdude") shared a partial answer in the thread:It's a lot more complicated than just increasing the overall pressure in the system.
Old 05-30-2006, 12:02 PM
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thats what I needed, thanks bud!
Old 06-18-2006, 02:43 AM
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Does anyone know if John @ IPT wants the solenoids removed from the VB or not when it is sent in to him? I'd like to get this boxed up today and he didn't return my call yesterday.
Old 06-19-2006, 05:35 AM
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For the sake of the archive... Dale got an answer from CustomTacos:

Originally Posted by thaulgor
Yeah they do, I sent them with the valve body but was told I didn't need to.
Old 06-19-2006, 06:32 AM
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Originally Posted by midiwall
For the sake of the archive... Dale got an answer from CustomTacos:
Well I got an answer there but it wasn't correct. I got hold of John just now and he wants the solenoids sent along with the VB so he can test them out.
Old 06-19-2006, 06:36 AM
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Originally Posted by mt_goat
Well I got an answer there but it wasn't correct. I got hold of John just now and he wants the solenoids sent along with the VB so he can test them out.
Interesting, I would have thought he'd want the solenoids out as well.
Old 06-19-2006, 06:59 AM
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Well I just called back again and was talking to this John guy and I thought something was up because he really couldn't answer some questions that I'd have thought he would easily know the answer to. Come to find out that he's only been there a year and doesn't do any of the actual work on the VB. He's said John Lombardo the owner doesn't answer the anymore. I really don't feel too good about this. The first time I called I asked if he was the Transdude on YotaTech and he said yes. I feel like he's purposely masquerading as John Lombardo

Last edited by mt_goat; 06-19-2006 at 07:08 AM.
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