dnellans
Active Member
- Joined
- December 20, 2002
- Messages
- 97
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Salt Lake City, UT
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '92 XL
I recently decided to jump in and try the B&M Shift Plus on my 92 XL to attempt to make my shifts more "positive and firmer" as the B&M website states it will.
The kit arrived and looked fine untill I went to install it. The vacuum line T they provide is the wrong size for the stock vacuum modulator hose (7/32). You have to go to the store and first get a vacuum T that has two 7/32 barbs and one 1/8th barb for the provided line going to the B&M module as well as a foot of 7/32 vacuum hose (you can cut it down to size later). Cost $2.... Pain in the ass... Large
After you wiggle your hands up there and get it all connected (which is pretty simple if you have a haynes manual to know where it is). For those of you who don't it is behind the heat shield for the tranny right next to your cat, so its a tight squeeze getting your fingers in there but not a huge problem.
After I got it all installed, guess what you can hear the module that you keep inside your cab leaking! It is obviously a vacuum leak with the "hiss" you love to hate. A little silicone around the fittings makes this go away but I'm sure almost every unit would leak like this because of the crap design. Cost $2 for silicone... Pain in the ass.... Large due to ANOTHER trip to the store and messy silicone.
So now everything is finally working as it should, with the valve closed there is no hiss and with the valve open the vacuum is sucked in via the second hose and little filter.
How does it work? Like crap. There is no noticable change in "firmness or positivity" of the shifts at ALL. however the thing that did change was the shift point. The every gear on the tranny now shifts at a higher rpm than it used to. While this might be good for performance, it does not change the "firmness" of shifting at all which is what it is advertised to do.
Overall I am very disappointed with the B&M shift kit because it just plain doesn't do what it says it should. I know for $30 i shouldn't be expecting to much but this thing is a real hunk of junk =( I guess there is no harm in keeping it in but it will do nothing significant to help your tranny's life as far as I can tell and may give you worse gas mileage due to the higher rpm shift points.
Any thoughts, questions, comments are appriciated. Maybe I've done something wrong? But I suspect this is exactly what it was intended to do and nothing more.
dave
The kit arrived and looked fine untill I went to install it. The vacuum line T they provide is the wrong size for the stock vacuum modulator hose (7/32). You have to go to the store and first get a vacuum T that has two 7/32 barbs and one 1/8th barb for the provided line going to the B&M module as well as a foot of 7/32 vacuum hose (you can cut it down to size later). Cost $2.... Pain in the ass... Large
After you wiggle your hands up there and get it all connected (which is pretty simple if you have a haynes manual to know where it is). For those of you who don't it is behind the heat shield for the tranny right next to your cat, so its a tight squeeze getting your fingers in there but not a huge problem.
After I got it all installed, guess what you can hear the module that you keep inside your cab leaking! It is obviously a vacuum leak with the "hiss" you love to hate. A little silicone around the fittings makes this go away but I'm sure almost every unit would leak like this because of the crap design. Cost $2 for silicone... Pain in the ass.... Large due to ANOTHER trip to the store and messy silicone.
So now everything is finally working as it should, with the valve closed there is no hiss and with the valve open the vacuum is sucked in via the second hose and little filter.
How does it work? Like crap. There is no noticable change in "firmness or positivity" of the shifts at ALL. however the thing that did change was the shift point. The every gear on the tranny now shifts at a higher rpm than it used to. While this might be good for performance, it does not change the "firmness" of shifting at all which is what it is advertised to do.
Overall I am very disappointed with the B&M shift kit because it just plain doesn't do what it says it should. I know for $30 i shouldn't be expecting to much but this thing is a real hunk of junk =( I guess there is no harm in keeping it in but it will do nothing significant to help your tranny's life as far as I can tell and may give you worse gas mileage due to the higher rpm shift points.
Any thoughts, questions, comments are appriciated. Maybe I've done something wrong? But I suspect this is exactly what it was intended to do and nothing more.
dave
