Would it be possible to interupt the electrical signals that cause an automatic transmission to shift up or down and insert like one of those video game shift ***** (ya know, from like the arcade style Cruisin USA that has the square shaped shifter) and make it control what gear you're in? kind of like the manumatics they have in 350Zs or Ferraris? I was ridin in a friends 350Z and was thinkin how cool it would be to have one. Or maybe I could just use paddles behind the steering wheel?

I basically just wanna know if it's possible and if it is how much it would cost.

 

lmao.

anythings possible, its how much money youre willing to spend...

 

Why don't you just manual shift it between gear? Works for most of us Redneck drag racers! LOL Although with my ranger I couldn't do it better/faster than keeping it floored and letting the tranny shift. Now down shifting on the other hand that worked great, but how often are you road course racing in a Ranger, Well maybe D. Does?

~HJ

 

Expensive!

 

Well, I am an electronics tech, so maybe if I look at the schematics for the tranny cpu I could do it myself. I imagine it's just 4 signals while it's in drive, and all i'd need it a four position electric shifter from an arcade (i can get that on ebay) and then wiring it. If I'm missing something, please let me know.

 

I know there is/was a company... Quaife, I think, that made dog gears and sequential transmissions.

You can probably call a company that makes the auto floor shifters and find out if it fits our transmissions, since they are a variation of the C4s and they will bolt up , btw!

 

Okay, I've been doing some research and have come to the conclusion that it is very possible to convert my auto to a manumatic 3-SPD with OD being the "4th gear." All i have to do is interupt the signals sent to the servos in the tranny. there are only two servos, but with those two servos there are four "combinations" of HI and LOW signals sent to those servos. With a four position shifter like one frequently seen on Cruisin USA, or just a normal joystick using only four positions, I can select which signal to send to the servos, therefor telling the tranny which gear to be in. The column shifter will still be operational since the manumatic shifter will only work in Drive. With a little more research, i hope to start doing this as soon as I get the shifter. I will try to make a how-to if anyone else would like to do it.

 

all new acuras have those now...

 

so do 350Zs and many other new cars. I will most likely wire it so that a switch will turn the option on or off. that would be great.

 

well it's an interesting thought! I'll be curious to see how it works out.

 

You drive a truck and you trying to make it into a sports car, umm ok.

Its a unique idea, but totally wrong application.

Maybe if you truck had a 5.0 or something bigger than a 3.0.

 

My Mini has the paddles, and the tap stick.

 

The 300M I was driving for a while had the auto-stick.
When you came to a stop it would auto-matically go to 1st gear.
Are you going to incorperate a system like this? Or will it be complete
manual operation?

 

I will most likely make it completely manual with a kill switch so when I don't wanna use it it can be turned off. and I'm not trying to make my truck into a sports car, I'm trying to do something unique. Plus I've always wanted a manual truck, but I don't have the time nor the money to convert it.

 

I actually don't think it will be as easy as your trying to explain. In addition to the electrical signals from the ECU (I don't think the tranny has a separate brain), there is also a lot of hydraulic logic going on in the trans. You'd have to overcome that aspect too. When the shifter goes from "1" to "2" to "D", there is actually a linkage moving to the trans, that probably move a lot of valves. I guess what I'm saying is that the ECU only has so much control over our type of trans. On a lot of cars, the ECU COMPLETELY controls the trans based on sensors in the trans that tell it load, speed, rpm and such.

I wish you luck though, and I would certainly try and copy your mod if you get it to work well.

-

 

See, that's what I was researching. On Wikipedia, it says that my tranny (the 4R55E) is fully electronically controlled. The C3 on the other hand, was both mechanical and electrical. The year of your truck, and what engine you have determine which tranny. Therefor, not everyone can do this mod (if I can even do it). Like I said, I still have a lot of research to do before I attempt this.

 

i think it would be totaly cool ! even in a truck the paddle shifter could be great . I had an s-10 with an auto and used to shift it manualy all the time when driving in the mountains . One of the biggest bummers i see with auto trucks is they don't come in 5 speed auto with paddle shifters that can be turned on and off and the shift time adjusted . They also don't have diffrent driving modes like subaru for instance has economy , normal ,or sport i believe it is . This adjust the shift points etc. or you can switch to manual. It would be awesome if that was available on a small truck !good luck !

 

I think that you should put the auto trans selector on the floor like the old rangers and then you could shift it like a stick or just leave it in drive

 

I plan on incorporating the shifter into my center console, so it will be right by my right arm whenever I want to use it.

 

well if your not going to do it via linkage and use an electric switch wy dont you just make it push button lol ive seen that done once or twice

 

Well, I kinda like the idea of actually having shift positions and an actual shifter. besides, I don't want people getting in my truck and hitting the buttons going "whats this do?" and screwing up my tranny. If it's a shifter, they will know not to touch it unless they are driving. (and they won't be)

 

or you could do it like a sequential and just bump the shifter up and down to shift and put a button on the **** to go to neutral

 

That's how most cars that come with manumatic nowadays have it. If I did that I would need a computer to keep track of what gear it's in, and those are like $400. If i just had a four position shifter, it would be a lot simpler.