Homemade shift kit

[Bing]

After doing some reading and HaroFreak00 bringing up this option in an earlier post, I decided to go for it.
Heres the link:
http://www.midwest3800.com/forum/kb.php ... icle&k=187
I basically bought the parts as listed from the sources on the link.

The only little hiccup I had, was when I pulled the 1-2 spring out. It left the stamped spring base on the piston, just took some finagling but it came out. Other than that it went as described. I installed the firm shift kit, which really isn't that harsh just a lot quicker.

Heres all the parts laid out before starting this afternoon.

Bottom view of the car

This is the accumulator with the 1" spacers installed.

Heres that spring base I was talking about.

I bought 2 new 2-3 springs, figured the one has been in there for 100,000 miles good time to replace it.

Then after that I bolted the accumulator back together and reinstalled it. I then installed the new filter and filled the tranny back up. Ended up needing to buy 1 more quart of fluid to get the level just right.
Took it for a drive and what a difference it made. It cut my MS shift time almost in half. It's not really that aggressive of a shift kit, makes it just right.
So with this and the new tranny cooler done, I should be able to keep the tranny happy for a little while longer.

[douellette88]

i shouldve done this on mine when i dropped the pan a few weeks ago! grr.

how much it cost you for just the hard parts?

[Bing]

Spacers from McMaster-Carr 14.37 (shipped)

Ac Delco filter 30.00 (Picked up at store)

Ac Delco 2-3 springs (2 of them) 19.00 picked up at dealer, Gm Parts Direct wanted 22.57 (shipped)

[douellette88]

not bad at all, $30 for a filter is pretty expensive imo

[Bing]

Yea it is kind of expensive but the other alternative was a Fram and some other crap.
Was originally looking for a Wix but Advance Auto Parts didn't carry them. So thats why I ended up with the Ac Delco filter instead.

[douellette88]

i went with a napa, which is practically the same as a wix

[Bing]

Not sure about their tranny filters. Because when I went to my Napa and asked to look at one, it wasn't made by Wix. It was some other brand that I haven't heard of. Might just be a fluke with the store that I go to. Usually I go with all their gold line for filters, just not this time around.

[LeSabre in Buffalo]

Not bad! Seeing how you don't have bad problems yet, that'll help you avoid problems for about 40-50k more miles.

The filter isn't critical, since it's folded felt on the inside. It doesn't offer as much filtration as an oil filter does.

[daddyman]

Thanks for your write-up. I need to do a trans filter change and had been looking to do this while I had the pan dropped.

In looking at the write up from the link, the author also shows that he replaced the springs in the lower section of the accumulator, where the longer sleeves are placed. The part numbers for these are not included in his instructions, however. Would there be any reason to not replace these also? It also indicated he replaced, apparently, one purple spring with three (yellow, white, plain).

Enjoy!

Happy trails,

Keith

[Bing]

I wasn't sure what he was talking about to, when I was doing the shift kit for my car. I only did the upper springs, both with 2-3 springs and the spacers. As I posted earlier it shifts great and is worth the little extra effort it actually is. I checked with another site and in the write up they did the same as I did with springs and spacers.

Definitely would do while you got the pan down for a fluid change, kill two birds with one stone.