In a message dated 2/2/2004 6:43:10 PM Pacific Standard Time, rgg14@cox.net
writes:
> I would put an adjustable stop on the side of the transmission to keep it
> from going (bam) into second gear instead of drive. Any N.O. push button
> switch in line with the shifter to engage in park would work. Preferably
> inside to keep it out of the salt. A floor shift out a GM with a 350 might
> work better than the Hurst but still use the gates for safety.
>
> Ron Gibson Omaha, NE
For those of you running C-4's this experience we had might save
someone some trouble.
In 2001 we experimented with some closer gear ratios for our C-4
in the King$ Ran$om, installing a set made up by a guy in the
L.A. area named John Kilgore from Turbo-350 planetay gears. This would
improve the 2.46 & 1.46 C-4 low and second to something like 2.06 &
1.33 in low and second.
We installed the unit a couple of weeks before Speed Week 2001,
fired the engine, tried the tranny in Park, Reverse, Neutral, Low, and
Second, then put it into Third and the wheels stopped, then reversed.
We pulled the tranny pan and valve body, activated the bands with
air pressure, and the thing passed all tests but still wouldn't do
Third gear at all.
In desperation we pulled the engine and tranny and switched C-4's
with the Dragster. That one tested fine and we went on to get my son
Brian a "Hat" at Speed Week as well as put up a number in the blown
gas class.
In preparation for the November 2003 El Mirage meet we had the
tranny shop examine the close-ratio C-4 (he couldn't find anything
wrong), then re-installed it in the roadster only to have the same
symptoms as before in high gear. By then I was tearing out what
little hair I have left.
We removed the valve body and had the tranny shop look at it for
problems, all to no avail.
Keeping in mind that normal tranny shops don't regularly deal with
reverse-pattern manual valve bodies I sought out the advice of a local
NHRA Super Stock competitor who is considered an authority on
C-4's. He suggested that since the C-4 has no external positive stops
on the case linkage many people using Hurst shifters that are made for
the Torqueflight and the C-4 get into high-gear trouble because the
Hurst shifter pushes the internal valving of the C-4 past the
high-gear position and into "never-land", a position the valve isn't
supposed to be in. We had been setting up the linkage using Park as a
reference point, figuring that all the other positions would therefore
work correctly. Not so. ........ It had happened to work correctly
with the Hurst shifter in the dragster but not the LSR car.
We then readjusted the shifter using High as a referance point and things
started working correctly.
This is kinda "wordy", but for those of you running C-4's with
after-market shifters, consider installing positive tranny case
linkage "stops" on at least the High-gear end and preferably on the
"Park" end of the shift pattern. We are running a reverse pattern
valve body.......Ardun Doug
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