Reverse pattern manual valve bodies in everything I own. Daily driven. Never missed auto function for a second.

The RMVB is fun with the correct shifter. Fond memories of 440 Challenger with Cheetah VB and B&M Mega shifter. Whats the other deleted function- engine braking? That was eliminated too. Pure enjoyment.

Good discussion here. A few years back a local guy had a 62 Plymouth with a poly in it and a cast iron 2 X 4 intake manifold with Eddy's on it (which he was convinced were Weber carbs). The carbs were hooked together and opened simultaneously as you drove.

He wanted someone to change out the intake setup to something a bit for street friendly. To his credit, he realized the setup was pretty impractical for a family cruising car. He didn't care what went back on the car, he just wanted it to be more manageable.

When I looked at the car I told him he needed kickdown linkage too as it was gone. He replied "but the car shifts so smooth you can't even feel it". I've no idea how long it had been operating like that but tried to explain things to him. I guess he thought I was trying to fill him full of BS.

Anyway, I did the intake conversion for him and installed 65 vintage kick down linkage I had sitting around. I just put an original poly 2 barrel setup on it, fresh carb, painted things up, etc. Played with adjustments a bit. The car drove and shifted great. Completely different car. Responsive, crisp shifts, immediate throttle response.

When he came to get it, I had him take it for a test drive before we settled up. He came back just grinning. "Can't believe how great it runs. It actually seems faster now." He was so happy he gave me a bunch of extra 62 parts he'd originally gotten with the car. I got the dual quad setup as payment for the job. We were both happy with the outcome.

Initially I was tempted to just let him drive it till the transmission gave up, and then buy the car from him as I really liked it. My conscience would have bothered me.

It definetly needs to be correct if you don't want to have the trans clutches get worn out very fast. I also prefer to run reverse manual valve bodies in my muscle cars as I love to shift it when I want it to shift and I do race my car sometimes. I had a friend a few years back bring his 340 Challenger to me that he said would not shift right. And he was right as it had a Holley carb on it and linkage to the trans throttle pressure for who knows what. Once I got it set to shift ok the car was way off from full throttle as it was lucky to have 3/4 throttle. But the trans linkage was all messed up with a bunch of parts from different cars. I told him I need to get the right throttle pressure rods and linkage or get a good aftermarket setup to work right. He took it anyway that day as I set it to have good upshifts and shifted fine but no full throttle. Ron