i am transforming a racecar back to street duties. i have a 727 that was built with a turbo action manual VB with a brake... built together, installed and worked fine. i removed the TA-VB and installed a stock VB with a mancini kickdown cable,(checked and rechecked) now the only gears i have are PARK REVERSE AND FIRST,, it will not shift out of 1.. i tried a second stock VB, same issue.. could the trans. be modified in such a way the stock ones wont work? both stock VB long shelf life unused

What are you using for a shifter?

had scs cheetah, now has stock slapstick.. checked and rechecked

had scs cheetah, now has stock slapstick.. checked and rechecked

Has the govnor been removed?

Yep, the governor guts are usually removed when installing a manual VB. And, if the trans has a roller rear support you won't be able to use a stock VB.

The manual VB's are cool on the street. Why would you remove it? Put it back and shift it! You'll be much happier...

Agreed. Our Challenger has it and it's 100% a street car.

x3 nothing like barking tires in 2 and 3 if you can.

Yep, and you eliminate that Rube Goldberg kickdown linkage.

Im usually to drunk to concentrate on shifting, plus the wheel in one hand and my beer in the other makes it a bit hard

Even cooler if you push buttons to do it!

I drove a street car with a converted full manual VB (Chrysler instructions, separator plate, transfer plate) in 1970.
Hated it - got pulled over many times for smoking the tires on the 1-2 shift with light throttle. Couldn't drive it on wet pavement unless the steering wheel was centered or it would loop on the shift.
Same problem with my DD now (dangerous when wet), except it retains full auto upshift and kick-down.

I have a Dart with a manual shift and an 8" converter. I absolutely LOVE it! It isn't the quickest thing with a 3.23 gear but it is fun! It's all about how much throttle to give it. High gear asap and drive it like you would any other car.

I drove a Slant car on the street for years with a 10" converter and 3.91 gears. I rarely used first gear and most of the time just drove in high gear. RMVB's are not that difficult on the street.

If yours has LBA you'll quickly learn not to downshift into low while moving.

It can be done. I never down shift unless I'm on the throttle. So if I'm slow going up a hill or want to start in low instead of 2nd I'll throttle in second then click to first. Same coming out of a 25mph 90 only from high to second for a minute. If you are not hotrodding around just mimic how the thing would shift if it were full auto. It never down shifts without throttle pressure while moving. You definitely know it shifts! If you are on the throttle everyone else knows it by the chirp or fry.

I don't get the fascination with manual valve bodies.
Why not get a proper manual gearbox instead? 3 pedals are too confusing?

Had a reverse MVB in a mainly strip-only '71 Dart years ago. While it was 'secure' shifting on the actual strip, it felt cumbersome in every other situation.

Besides that, I can manually shift just fine in any automatic transmission I have, even the pushbutton ones.
Heck, I pretty much keep the A518 in my daily Dart in 2nd gear most of the time during city-driving, unless the situation lents to use 3rd or OD.
Whenever I don't like manual 'labor', I just put it in Drive and enjoy the ride evenso.

If you want sharper shifting, you need to install a TransGo Reprogramming kit that takes any slip out of the trans.

I have an A1 brake valve body for another transmission I might use. It has an LBA and after 20 some odd years of driving a non LBA manual valve body I am not sure how well that is going to go at first lol.

Around 1986 we got a bit more serious with my '71 340 Cuda street/strip car and installed 4.30's, 4200 stall and a manual v-body (no brake) in the 727, standard shift pattern with factory slapstick, we also drilled some holes in the clutch drum I think it was, can't remember exactly......wow, that shifted real hard 1st>2nd, not quite so to 3rd, it would chirp the tyres on the road, almost hurt your neck, but I loved it, got used to it and where to have the revs to calm it a bit, best of both worlds a manual auto.

if all your wanting is a mild daily driver just sell the race tranny and buy a used stock unit throw a refresh at it and call it a day