How Much To Install Paddle Shifters

| How-To - Transmission

Add Paddle Shifters To Any Motorcar!

You don't need an electronically controlled trans to have paddle shifting fun - learn how to use the trans you've got with this kit from PCS

Tell us if this has always happened to you: You pull abroad from the lite, expect a moment, and then stomp the gas. Right when you're expecting the rpm to soar and the 1000-force to push you lot back in the seat, the trans makes a perfect upshift (or two!)—right at 4,000 rpm. In some other scenario, yous're on the highway behind a tiresome loser, and you lot see a interruption in traffic to pass. You lot floor information technology, the engine lugs for an eternity, then begrudgingly gives up one gear instead of the two gears you needed yesterday. To add insult to injury, information technology quickly upshifts back into overdrive once you go far the passing lane. Ugh. Who's the loser now?

Those tools of convenience we call automatic transmissions have made our driving easy e'er since the first Hydramatic ii-speed was bolted to an Oldsmobile back in 1939, only equally nosotros come across in the examples above, they often put performance users at a disadvantage when the chips are down. At present that nosotros've got electronically controlled transmissions like the 4L65, 4L80, 6R80, and the 6L80, it'due south simply a affair of swapping out your old faithful Turbo 400, C4, AOD, or 700-R4, and bolting in a late-model multi-gear wonder. The toll of doing that, still, tin can exist prohibitive. And so is there some other respond?

If we face facts, it'due south probable that you've already spent good money on a transmission you lot'd otherwise like to proceed. Have for example the iv-speed automatic overdrive 700-R4 in Project Laguna. It's a perfect match for the 622hp solid-roller 427ci pocket-sized-cake Chevy in the car, and the 3.73-geared 10-bolt out back. Our trans—which can handle well over 700 hp and has the perfect torque converter already—no need to start from scratch. All nosotros wanted was command over the shifts, then when Powertrain Control Solutions (PCS) told us they had a perfect solution for our powertrain, we asked 2 questions: How well does it work, and how much is it?

PCS makes the GSM-5000, which basically shifts your existing transmission by animate being strength through a built-in shift cable on the box. One time programmed, it knows exactly where to find each gear on the transmission within thousandths of an inch, no affair what kind of trans it is. It could exist a C6, Powerglide, 727 TorqueFlite, AOD, Turbo 400, or a 700-R4 similar ours. It just doesn't care—it could be the trans on your riding mower. You lot tell it how many gears there are and where they can be establish, and allow information technology swallow. Better even so, the trans remains untouched internally throughout the process. Getting into the basic push-push button version isn't cheap at $1,149, merely it's way less expensive (and easier) than swapping your trans and converter for a more than expensive electronic trans, converter, and transmission command module. This is way cheaper than that, non to mention more fun. The GSM-5000 will let you to punch abroad at the gears sequentially using the push button-button controller, holding the engine up to its sweet spot any time you wish. A standard set of "PRND" buttons allows Clark Kent operation for when yous're not wishing to bargain out the thunder. (Of course, if you'd rather go the loftier-tech electronically controlled road, PCS has yous covered with a multitude of products, including its Simple Shift electronic controller, which takes the informatics degree out of electronically controlled transmissions.)

The production that nosotros fell in honey with, even so, is the optional PS-5001 paddle shifter. For an extra $425, it turns your GSM-shifted street machine into a juggernaut, capable of commanding any gear instantly with a satisfying tug on its two black-anodized brushed aluminum paddles. (The left paddle is for downshifts, the correct side is for upshifts.) The whole GSM-5000/PS-5001 enchilada reeks of covert military blackness-ops hardware; a bombproof control box with mil-spec connectors, strain-relief harnesses, weatherproof housings, precision CNC machining, non-reflective blackness anodizing, and piece of cake-to-read LED displays not only look the part, they are the real matter. PCS designs and builds powertrain solutions under contract for the U.Due south. military, so real lives are at stake. This stuff has to work perfectly all the fourth dimension, every time, and nether every conceivable status, or the wrong people can die. Oh yeah, and it's fabricated in America. As far equally nosotros're concerned, every GSM-5000equipped car deserves to have the PS-5001 paddle shifter selection—information technology's just that fun.

In the months since we've installed ours, nosotros've had the pleasance of pounding on the PCS system in a multitude of situations. I've got a C6 Corvette daily driver with the A6 trans and paddle shifters, and it has proven to be nowhere almost as fun as the Laguna with the PCS paddle shifter. The 'Guna has another 220-plus horsepower over the Vette, but it's half a ton heavier, then its solid-roller small-block really needs the rpm to keep it in its happy place. In the past, we nearly never experienced the sugariness vocal of the .680-inch lift cam at concert book. We had tinkered with the throttle-valve (Tv set) cable length and governor weights in the trans, only the bulletproof 700-R4 wasn't letting u.s. play. Now that we can hold each gear to redline, we are blown away by all the fun we've been missing. Having the ability on tap with a light squeeze of the hand is only part of it; hearing the redline snarl of the solid-roller small-scale-cake and Flowmaster 40s ricochet off concrete makes you feel like you're at Daytona or Talladega. Long, lurid burnouts without the trans burping out a Barney Fife upshift is icing on the cake.

So now y'all're wondering what's involved with putting one of these PCS paddle systems on your auto. We invited Jay Rohrback of PCS to come out to the PHR tech middle in Irvine, California, to show us what'southward involved. In our two-day wrenching mission, we captured information technology all in pics and video for the 23-minute video, and we deem this an easy weekend driveway/garage bolt-in. Nosotros nonetheless haven't figured out exactly where to put the push button-button pad, but we're kind of glad we didn't mount it right away because nosotros desire to alive with it for a while first. Otherwise, this was straightforward wrenching. The instructions were clear (even though we had the inventors in our midst!), and everything was included, with the exception of a five-bolt steering bike. (We ordered a fourteen-inch Grant GT wheel from Summit for $95.) The hardest office was running through the shift detent scale, whereby you lot move the cable in and out with the "+/-" buttons on the push-push controller.

We're yet awestruck that such a simple mod similar a paddle shifter can brand such a huge deviation in the personality of a car. Nosotros're finding new ways to terrorize import drivers every day, and information technology's only past the grace of God we haven't been locked upward. Get this paddle shifter, and you lot likewise will be looking for excuses to drive your hot rod everywhere. Moreover, nosotros are prepared for it to unlock a new world of fun on the dragstrip, autocross, and route course when the opportunity knocks. The sooner, the better!

More Video Online!

Want more details on the installation of the PCS shifter? Want to come across it shifted in action on Project Laguna? You can take hold of all that past going to the video page, or clicking on YouTube.com/PopularHotRodding, and watching the video titled "PCS Paddle Shifter Installation."

Installing PCS Paddle Shifters Recap

1. Powertrain Control Solutions (PCS) tin convert whatsoever automatic transmission to push-button operation
2. The center of the GSM-5000 is the command box
3. The push-push pad attaches to the GSM-5000 controller via a harness
4. The beginning job is to discover the correct location for the GSM-5000 control box
5. The cablevision route is adapted while the control box position is finalized upward acme
6. PCS includes an electronic speed sensor
7. PCS includes a new cablevision mounting bracket and a shift lever that supervene upon the stock pieces
8. Follow the keypad prompts for selecting the number of forward gears
9. The final operation is verifying on the push-button control panel that the speed sensor is working
10. The PS-5001 paddle shift option is wireless
11. In that location is room for personalization on the PS-5001
12. This pocket-sized harness attaches to the former horn power wire and plugs into the paddle shifter excursion board
13. Y'all at present have total command over your gearshifts

Source: https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/powertrain-control-solutions-paddle-shifters-kit/

Posted by: staffordworty1954.blogspot.com

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