I'm having the A4 transmission for my '97SS transmission built by ProBuilt . I'm getting the Limited setup with the Road Race features added. I was speaking to the builder,and discussing how I wanted the transmission to shift fully manually when the shifter is in anything but OD. The reason for this is that I like to AutoX, and I want to keep it in 2nd gear after the initial launch. If the car downshifts into 1st, it unsettles the suspension, and slows down my time considerably.

He said that the only way to do do this without going to a full manual valve body (which I don't want) would be to program it into the computer. Is this true, or is there a different way to achieve this? Is what I am requesting impossible?

 

Even in stock form, if you select 2nd gear, the transmission will STAY in 2nd gear from take-off 'til redline. Unless the LT1's were setup differently than LS1's? I know with my car, it WILL NOT go into any other gear than 2nd, if that's where I've got the shifter.

 

If I go into a turn where I have to slow down, and then get on the gas to exit, the trans will shift down into first. Maybe the icemode start is my only option (starting the car in second). That would kill my launch, though.

 

so what your saying is that your concern is the down shift. if thats the case all you need to do is get someone to go in the shift tables and zero out the down shift side.

the way the tranny shift tables work is that it has a 1>2 shift also has a 2<1 shift and it works by mph. if you tell the pcm to tell the tranny to shift at from first to second a 25 mph it will, but the second to first shift works the same, if the shift table say 2>1 at 20 mph, what happens is when the car slows down to 20 or below it will down shift, so all you need to do is tell the pcm not to down shift until say zero mph then it will stay in that gear until zero mph. now if you hit a straight away it will then shift to third. but since the table says that first and second and third gear will not down shift until zero mph all you have to do is pull the gearshifter down to the next gear, and then the prosess starts all over agian. when you hit the sthe straight away it will shift in to third but you will have to pul down to down shift. note there is another part to the shifting table you also have to reach a rpm for it to upshift. but i dont think will give you a problem.

 

thats becuas eyou rcar came with 2.73s stock. if you pull the shifter console apart you can remove the thing that blocks the shifter from going into first.

 

No, LS1's came with a selectable 1st gear, regardless of 2.73's or 3.23's. Also, the way they're programmed is that if the shifter is in 2nd, the transmission will start in 2nd, and stay in 2nd.