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B&M Electronic shift imporver??

1K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  dirtyd0g 
#1 ·
I was browsing on the net and i saw a electronic shift improver by B&M, i'd like to know if this would "improve shifts" like it says it does, i've never seen one of these kits in somebodys car so i wanted to hear some feedback on it. (this is not the shift improver kit that requires actually working on the tranny.)
 
#2 ·
Let me be the first to tell you to RUN AWAY VERY FAST!!!!!!!!!

You don't want it!! Do a search and you will find out why.
 
#3 ·
#5 ·
its amazing their are allowed to produce this crap. And then they say it helps your transmission when it actually destroys it, they should be sued for false advertising.
 
#6 ·
I have one in my truck and didn't have any problems for over 80K miles with a freshly rebuilt transmission. Then again, my truc ksi a GM product. :rolleyes:

Really all it does is turn up the line pressure if thats what your wondering.
 
#7 ·
95greenbird said:
Let me be the first to tell you to RUN AWAY VERY FAST!!!!!!!!!
:uppoint:
You don't want it!! Do a search and you will find out why.
This is funny since my name is kevin and i am about to tell you the same thing, DONT GET IT!!! i had it before i found out about this amazing site, and it was the cause of my original tranny exploding into a million small bite sized peices! its a waste do the j-mod or get the PA Valvebody, and invest in the SCT tuner or chip!
 
#9 ·
I've got the B+M electronic shiftplus installed on my T'bird. It's been on it for over a year. I've not had a single problem with it or my tranny. The car has over 175,000 miles on it. I leave it on in the first position all the time. the 1-2 shift is quite firm, in fact, the tires will chirp under hard throttle. The remainder of the shifts are firm as well. Shifting it manually gets a little better response, but these systems work best if you let it shift on it's own. the second position is much firmer and I would use that only if you were at the track. It's really not needed in less you are in a race situation. Ford had a problem with the range sensors on these trannys. If the motor sometimes seams like it's missed a shift,or revs. like it's out of gear, have it checked. If you do decide to have one installed, I would go ahead and have your tranny serviced at the same time. Make sure that the shop is using Mercon fluid. Any other type will cause you problems. Good Luck!!
 
#10 ·
I have it and have no problems. You have to own it to know what it does not read articles IMO. It takes away the LONG stock shift and makes it shift shorter. Say the stock shift took 5 seconds to shift into 2nd gear. Well the BM would shorten it to about 2 seconds eliminated the sloppy mess. I would do the JMOD though. The JMOD would make it shift better.
 
#11 ·
if you read jerrry's article in the tech section he explains in depth why these things are complete crap and are harmful to your tranny. and yeah everytime this comes up someone says "i've had it on a gazillion miles with no problems". well to you i say your the lucky one. personally i believe the word of the man that helped engineer our trannys to that of a bunch of money hungry monkeys. how much money has jerry made off of the "j-mod"? none, you can do it with his directions and oem ford parts. if the j-mod is too much for you then go with a PA valvebody. :zsoapbox: rant off
 
#13 ·
well like i have said, my bird had 112k on it, i put the little electronic kit on, and i was happy it shifted nice on both setting, but then after a while i was getting a whistling sound from the tranny, thought nothing of it, then a month later, boom, the tranny explodes, for anyone who has this on their bird, all i have to say is just wait :cbones: , ive had many of problems with my trans in the past year, its finally in good shape, also they say you get what you pay for, i payed 45 for that kit, and got just that a 45 dollar paper weight. the same goes for all the shift kits out there, the only exception is the J-Mod, cause your only paying for parts for the conversion, i went for the PA Valvebody, more expensive but to me well worth it, always chirping 2nd with little effort. so in response to the B&M Shift Improver Plus a big Thumbs DOWN! :thumbsd:
 
#14 ·
Franky-5-Fingaz said:
seems like B&M are putting out some not so quality parts for the Thunderbird cause i've heard nothing but bad things about their tranny parts.
STAY AWAY FROM ANYTHING ELECTRONIC!!!!!!!!! They will burn your tranny up.
Now, if you go with anything from B&M...get their mechanical plate mod one.....where you drill holes in the seperator plate. That's ok.....it's what I';ve been runnning with forever. Of COURSE.....the J-mod is better , but the B&M mechanical kit isn't that bad........just don't go ELECTRONIC!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
#15 ·
It has been proven time and time again that the only 100% safe transmission mod is the j-mod. Anything else you use for a "shift kit" and you run the risk of having your transmission :zpuke:
There are people running different setups with different levels of success. But if you look at what these companies are doing, they are either mostly copying the j-mod and adding their own changes or simply doing things differently. That is fine for an AOD, but the 4R70W is different.
Do it right and only do it once.
I have never messed with the electronic controlled setups, so I have no valid input there.
 
#16 ·
so the electronic shift improver kit is out of my mind now, in estimated time, how long would doing the J-mod take? and will it require me dropping the tranny? (yea i guess i should just go read the article in the tech section).
 
#17 ·
Franky-5-Fingaz said:
so the electronic shift improver kit is out of my mind now, in estimated time, how long would doing the J-mod take? and will it require me dropping the tranny? (yea i guess i should just go read the article in the tech section).
Labor time will depend on the person and experience. If you ask how long it will take give yourself about 3 hours to get it right. Find one of the guys who have done it a bunch of times and they can probably have it going out the door in about an hour. Do yourself a favor and read the whole article then reread the parts you will be changing. You don't really have to drop the tranny unless you are going to upgrade internal parts(reverse drum,clutches,planets,etc...) Don't forget the deep pan it is very important to these transmissions.
Alan

Edit: you have a 97 so it should already have the deep pan.
 
#18 ·
The J-MOD isn't the only safe tranny mod.....BUT it is the BEST. Like I said earlier, I'm running with a B&M shift kit......and have had it for about 6 years......BUT the J-MOD is the BEST way to go. Also, the AOD and 4R70W are different, but not by much.

Oh.....and to help improve your shifts FRANKY, you can also replace/remove the return springs in the 1-2 and 2-3 accumulators....that helps also.
 
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