I've been looking into a gear vendors unit, however, nothing I have read has said how you go about shifting. Can it be full auto? Do you have to hit a switch between every gear (i.e. 1st, hit button to 1 1/2, shift lever for 2nd, button for 2 1/2, shift to 3rd, button to 3 1/2)? I have searched the archives and have not found anything on the actual operation of the unit. People seem to love them and it seems like a better alternative than an OD trans swap, but...how do you shift it?

It won't gear split on it's own other than shift into 4th (3rd over) at 43mph or whatever it's set at. You need to split manually which I have only tried a few times and with my setup it would be insanely hard to hit them all, not to mention I don't think it would shift fast enough to satisfy me. The shift into 4th at cruise is excellent and very crisp though, but I haven't tried under WOT. You can leave it on (OD engages automatically) or set to manual and do it yourself, which is what I have been doing. I didn't care for having two dimmer switches so I have a lighted painless wiring rocker/toggle switch in my console and love it. The dimmer switch may be faster for splitting though

Hope this helps.

I don't see splitting bieng that benefitial. JMO

One of my accounts here has a 67 Firebird with a 455. He is running a TH400 and a gear vendors. On his old combo he was geared 4.56 for motor passes and would use the gear vendor for nitrous passes. Ran 10.0s and he said the shift from the GV is the firmest one the car makes. He has since changed his combo to a roots blower and 3.70 gears I am sure he would or could still use his GV on the track.

I like using it on the dimmer switch or similar foot toggle deal, and I only use it for a 4th gear. Splitting is a PITA imo.

Sometimes,I'll split 2nd gear.First gear really isn't worth the trouble.I mainly just leave it in auto mode and let it shift to OD at 45 mph.

FYI, the winner of this year's HOT ROD Drag Week was a 3,300-pound, 7.60-second car. It had a Gear Vendors in it for the highway, but it lived fine on the track. There was also a 9-second Mach 1 there with a GV. So they can take the power.

The GV company speaks a lot about the benefits of gear splitting on the track. If anyone here has clean A/B testing with splitting gears on the dragstrip I'd be interested to hear about it.

DF

How does 6 gears over 3 make a car faster at the track, and what makes 2 gears, like a Powerglide, faster that 3?

I've got a 4.10 dana and a 500Hp 440-6 {3000 stall converter}with the GV unit...There's no way I could ever split the torqueflite's 1-2 or even 2-3 and gain anything as fast as the shifts come off.. I honestly don't use the unit on the strip...It's just another toy for the highway using the overdrive drop-out as a passing gear... I'm sure other combos are different...

don't know on the 4.1 but on the 3.23 with 530HP I would have enough time to use the 2-3 GV overdrive shift... you have a big RPM drop from 2 to 3 (about 31%), shifting with the GV I could think would help to keep the engine in it's powerband. The converter (mine at least) got a stall fo about 3500RPM, but I shift at 6200RPM. With the GV it would shift down to 4800RPM vs. 4300RPM with the regular 727 shift. PLUS, you got also more torque on at the rear wheels because of less shift ratio.
If it's possible is another question, I worry specially about the 2OV to the 3rd gear. You have to turn it off and shift into 3rd, but if you turn it off BEFORE you are shifted, then KABUUM!
I was thinking to install 1 big switch on the GV solenoid, no electronic, the GV electronic is junk. So you can turn it on and off when you want, not when the bad electronics want...

I love the gear splitting. In my 71 Satellite w/ 340 & 3.23s, taking 1st to redline and then kicking in to 1st-O/D is an awesome experience. Once the O/D kicks in, it knocks the rpm's down from the HP peak (5800 or so) to the torque peak (4000) and the car pulls strong for another 20 mph. Getting to non-O/D 2nd is a little more challenging, but in my experience the 6 gears allow me to keep the car in the peak power band at just about any speed.

- Jim

that's what I also think! But how do YOU make sure that you don't turn it off before you shift to the next gear on the 727?

I was thinking with a shifter and a shiftplate maybe you could make with some switches somehow an automatic shift, that if you shift into 2nd that it would turn it off automaticly and you would need to turn it on manually again..

oh well, I always got many ideas but no time to do it!

I had this wacky crazy idea, I'll try to explain, bare with me:

I was thinking about the GV overdrive, when something pooped into my head when i was watching that boyd hot rod show, where they used a programmable shift solenoid/linear actuator. That got me thinking, how cool it would be (and quite easy) to remove the shifter, install a linear actuator, and make a controller to upshift mechanically the shifter, then upshift the GV, then shifter, ect.....all using steering wheel paddle shifter!!! F1 style. It would be quite easy, actually you could leave the stock shifter in the console (b-body) and fab this system up, use it fully auto, or in paddle shift mode. it would be quite easy to make, heck it could even be done using relays, and could be turned off and just use it manually as stock. Everything would be hidden, under the console, all there would be is the paddles on the steering wheel. That would make it easy to hit the shifts and not have to manually move the shifter, then hit the button/dimmer switch, ect.....the more i think about it, if you had a ratchet shifter it could be done using door lock solenoids. i can picture it now......

what you guys think?

"But how do YOU make sure that you don't turn it off before you shift to the next gear on the 727?"

I tend to be extra careful, so here's how I get from 1st-O/D to non-O/D 2nd:

Move the shifter into 2nd
Let it upshift into 2nd-O/D
Immediately click the button to take it out of O/D

It ends up being in 2nd-O/D for a fraction of a second, but I'm not risking hitting 8500 rpms.

- Jim

I know it's been a while and this may or not be new info, but I was reading on the GV site:

Gear Vendors makes an AutoShift Sequencer that automates the split. You still command the overdrive in-shifts but when you move the lever up to the next ratio the sequencer looks at the command and the tach to pick the appropriate moment to out-shift the overdrive.

I'm about to purchase a GV and I would love to hear from someone who has used this sequencer. I would love it even if you could only use it as a final overdrive, but if you could get some automation and more of a true six speed, that would be absolutely killer.

Quote:

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Gear Vendors makes an AutoShift Sequencer that automates the split.

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I talked with the Gear Vendors rep at a Good Guys show about the AutoShift a while back. If I remember correctly you need a way to let the AutoShift know what gear is selected. A while later I installed a Dakota Digital dash and realized the dash computer has outputs that may work with the GV AutoShift. The sender outputs an analog signal to the digital dash computer and the dash "learns" so the correct gear is displayed. I think there are digital outputs from the dash computer that maybe could be used by the AutoShift.

Heres a pic, a potentiometer is connected to the little rod that is connected to the shifter's gear indicator -



The computer learns the gear selected and displays the info on the dash. You can see "park" displayed through the wheel opening on the left -