Manually Shifting an Automatic

[jlawrence613]

Good/Bad/no difference at all????

[J]

Good question. I dont believe it hurts anything. I know ive been doing it for awhile with no issues (that im aware of). Also, if you look into things like the 'Hammer Shifter' this allows you to manually shift an auto through a downwards or upwards clicking motion.

The best way to do this would be to get a manual valve body installed :)

[jlawrence613]

Yeah didnt think it would hurt anything either. For instance, at a stop light, I'll pull into first gear when stopped. At the green light, accelarate to about 3000-4000 rpm (i usually just listen for the sweetspot, i used to have a manual car) then i'd go to 2nd. 3000rpm again and so on and so forth until after 3rd gear, id put it into (D)rive and cruise as normal. I FEEL like the accelaration i get is better than what the computer gives me. i dont get into the engine braking or anything like that. The thought of downshifting and hearing that engine literally makes me cringe.

[91GT347]

It wont hurt anything.

[Nicoleb3x3]

I shift mine all the time :) and I love my hammer shifter
it sucks I have an AOD car through, I don't have 2nd position in my shifter pattern...so I can't really shift into 2nd unless I'm over 28 mph, so mostly I don't bother with manually trying to hold 2nd.

They say the 1, d, 1 shuffle to hold 2nd in an AOD car is bad, but that's for a different reason. normaly up shifting/downshifting is fine :)

[69MustangProject]

Well I know its a chevy, but my first car was a Cavalier. I used to power shift it (thats what we called it) when I was "racing" (if thats what you can call it in a cavalier). Then one day it wouldnt shift into reverse, or drive. I took the tranny out and took it too a guy who has done autos for about 40 years. He said that he had never seen that bad of tranny in his whole carreer. I told him that I had been power shifting it, and hes like ahhh ok thats why, dont do that again lol. So yeah there is a bad side to it. but it took 160,000 miles to do it.

[crimsonblack]

The difference here is that the mustang with a stronger automatic than what a 4cyl cavalier would be working with.

I use to shift mine too. No reason for having stopped. I hate not having second gear too. sucks ass... At least when I had a chevy I could shift through all the gears.

I prefer an automatic these days. But the missing second gear is enough to wish for manual...