Reverse manual valve body pros and cons

Looking at getting a car with one.How street able are they? I assume you have to upshift and downshift Everytime you stop.How practical are they for a fun cruiser?

If you have a good shifter and high stall converter the reverse manual VB is pretty easy to use on the street.
I tried converting my slap-stick shifter to reverse pattern with the shift-R-gate kit, but I think I need to go back and re-check everything because it is real notchy / stiff.
The high stall converter likely takes some of the harshness out of the part throttle shifts and down shifts.
The Pros would be better for racing (higher transmission pressures), and you don't need kick sown linkage.
The Cons would be needing to shift, and the harsher shifts. I would not use RMVB with out a good shifter.

The Trans-Go TF-2 shift kit for original forward shift is a great option if mostly street driving with some trips to the track.

I don't know if it is a con per se but the trans operates at full line pressure all the time. Some extra wear and tear on the pump and drive plus it generates more heat so a good cooler would be advised.

Kevin

Full manual VB is FUN. Eliminates kickdown linkage which can be a plus for some. Example: Running a carb intake/ intake height that deviates so far from stock its a pain to make the kickdown work.

Having 2 cudas and 1 cuda with this is excellent, sure beats just putting it in drive and going. it gives you that clutch-less shifting and keeps your arm moving..I love mine.but you need a good shifter and after awhile it gets to be normal driving, you can shift normally at the right times or you can get on it with a more aggressive shift..It sure beats the same old thing, plus it will not need the kick down linkage.

If you keep the kick down linkage the VB can be changed to use it for softer shifts but you still have to shift each gear. The forward pattern type can still use stock shifter

I just put a RMVB in my car. More race than street. It definitely hits harder. You can hear it bark the tire on both shifts on the track.

Some have poo-poo'd it, but I really like the Turbo Action fwd pattern mvb. It shifts pretty firm but works really well in a street car that's more oriented for performance.

That said, I've built quite a few with the Trans-Go TF-2 kit and it works well for milder setups and retains the "kickdown" linkage. Very pleasant for around town driving and yet hits pretty hard when you stab the loud pedal.

I've driven over 7,000 miles with a manual valvebody using a Hayden cooler in front of the radiator. Never any issues with pump wear or fluids. We put a lot of power (between 600 and 850 depending on spray level) and no problems. I keep a close eye on it and pull it apart every couple of years as preventative maintenance.

Reverse or forward,manual, you really need the right shifter with a reverse lock-out and gotta watch the neutral. Just as important is whether or not the RMVB has braking in low or not. If not, it will be easier to hurt the sprag on the street.

I had one on my street Challenger and it was fun for a while. Chirping the tires when it shifted made people wonder if it was a stick. But it got tiresome in heavy traffic.

I was also told the the constant hard manual shifts may not be good for the bands & clutches, especially if they are still OEM material. A good trans person should be able to figure out the best line pressures. Naturally higher for performance applications, especially with aftermarket bands & clutches. But it doesn't have to be as high as a trans-brake application.

Ddepending on how the vb is set up, a lot of times the "barking" the tires on the shift is actually overlap where the trans is in 2 gears at once for a short time. That's where the damage comes from.

The only time you could have overlap is on the 2-3 shift unless you have a VB that has rear band on. Even then things would have to be pretty screwed up to get overlap.

hi

if you run a manual valve body you should have a trans shield for your own safety and others spectaters or passengers !

Not necessarily if you have a valvebody that incorporates low band apply.

What The Frick are you talking about?
I've used reverse manual shift valve bodies on the street and strip going back to the late 1960s with no issues ever
727 started exploding when trans brakes were invented and installed

RMVB has nothing to do with sprag/over running clutch failure except if the valve body doesn’t have low band apply. Really any valve body can have or not have low band apply. If you run a stock drum 727 you should have some style of containment regardless of any other part in the transmission. Low band apply make it a bit safer? Yes. I crushed a sprag in my 727 with low band apply. Due to the tire I run, I pedal the car a BUNCH in first gear. I believe the low band apply and to a lesser extent that the rollers were crushed and had locked the low reverse drum in place stopped it from going BOOM. It still cracked the case. Had to use long bolts in the tailshaft holes to push the low reverse drum out of the sprag! If it had shifted into sec……..ouch. No drum explosion, but it could have locked the tire or broken the low reverse drum free. I felt something in staging and while rolling into the burnout box and didn’t make the run.

Crunchy

TF's were exploding long before anybody ever heard the term "transbrake".

i remember the famous picture of the 64 dodge pushed back, exposing a "few" expensive parts on the ground covered in transmission fluid.
that was a ways before transbrakes were invented.

It really depends on how you're going to drive the car and if anyone else is going to drive the car. I had a manual valve body in my Duster and it was kind of fun to shift gears all the time but that was a hot rod. In a daily driver I'd prefer to just put it in D and not worry about it. The more "hot rod" the car is then the more likely you'll like a manual valve body. If it is a cruiser that your wife drives then maybe stick with a full automatic.

Do you remember the name "nuetral starts" also?
I do and if my memory is correct the picture your talking about was caused by a "neutral start"

And it had the rear band on in low too.

oh yes ! we called them "neutral drops" around here. it's amazing none of us got out feet blown off, as many as we did growing up !
and there was also what we called "J-Hooks", where we would go as fast as we could in reverse, then jam it into low !
the longest "Hook" was the winner. or "wiener", thinking back on it now.........

and i believe you are correct about that picture being caused by a neutral drop or start.

The driver never did neutral drops. Ever.

Didn’t have to. Car ran more than 4 tenths under the record.

More internet B.S.

I've seen cars (of all brands, not just Mopars) due neutral drops or starts at Orange County drag strip, the old Irwindale 1/4 mile strip. The first time i saw was at Mickey Thompson Fontana Drag City in Fontana, CA in 1964.
Have you seen the picture of the AA/Fuel altered dropping, blowing, the complete crank assembly and the bottom of the block out of a early blown fuel Chrysler firepower hemi at Orange County drag strip in the late 1960s
I wish I had found and bought a copy of that one, but I didn't
it was an excellent picture, you could see the oil coming down with the parts. I was told it had a clucthflyte in the car also, you could see the flywheel on the back of the crank also : work:

BBC

But burnouts in 1st gear were common then with no LBA. Same possible result.

The biggest contributor to ORC failure is roller spit back under power.

The other contributors are cam movement in the case, excessive race to drum clearance/runout, excessive drum to support clearance/runout.