Hey, I recently got my Camaro and the previous owner installed great stuff in the car and that included the B&M shifter. problem is the indicator plate does not show which gear im in. Im all good when just going park neutral Reverse and drive. but when i switch to the Ratchet mode?? I don't know what gear im in. Could someone just give a run down on what is going on when i bring the handle all the way down and in the Ratchet mode...ie what gear does it automatically go into and would slamming up be going up a gear? because for some reason when ever i fool around with it slamming back always seems to go up a gear....or so i think. Thanks for any help.

 

Is it a 700r4 tranny? If so I think when you get it into drive then ratchet it back toward the rear one time it will make it so it only will shift up as far as 3rd gear, it won't let it go into overdrive (4th). It still will shift down into 1st and 2nd automatically as needed. Then ratchet one more time toward the back and now it will only let the tranny get up into 2nd gear. It will auto shift down into 1st if it detects the need to (i.e.: you come to a stop and then give it the gas it will start out in 1st and then shift up to 2nd but go no further up). Now, ratchet one more time to the rear and this locks the tranny in 1st. So, if you want to control all of your shifts up just come to a stop, ratchet it back as many times as you can (3 from drive) and you are locked in 1st. Start moving and when you want to shift up to 2nd just slam it forward and let go. It will now let it shift into 2. Then when you redline 2 slam it forward and let go. Now it will shift into 3rd. Redline that and let off the gas a bit and slam it once more forward. Now the tranny is in "OD". If you're driving along in "OD" and want to manually kick it down just slam it back once and let go. This just locks it out of overdrive. Want to shift down manually one more gear just slam it back and it shifts it down to 2nd. It will still let it go down to 1st if the tranny detects a need for 1st.

These directions are based on my guess that you have a 700r4 with a standard forward pattern valve body. If you have something else then this is all wrong. Hope this is correct and helps you. You should be able to pull off the console plate and see what happened to the indicator hardware. There is supposed to be a plastic window along the left side of the plate that has the "p r n od 3 2 1" letters/numbers on it. There is a red indicator that slides up and down under the plastic window. There is a small cable that runs the indicator up and down and attaches to the shifter mechanism. I would think you should be able to stop at a good speed parts shop and take a look at a B&M shifter in the box and see what parts you're missing and order them. Good luck.

 

Hey, i reall appreciate all that explanation. I do have a 700r4 tranny. I looked under the plate and it is missing the mechinism that indicates what its in. I wanna get that fixed cause once i get my fresh paint beginning of next month i wanna take it to the tracks and see exactly what the car has. Ive never realy raced except for knocking the white off the **** in my town and a few T- birds and BMW's but how do i really race? Don't baby step me through. just some major tips for the track. where would be a good place to shift with a 7k tach? look at my sig. to see what i got. I also have a 3" dual cat back exhausts set up i just didn't know i had it till i looked under the car and then asked the guy what exactly he did under there. Felt kinda stupid for not knowning oh well.