As background, I am someone who appreciates "walking" my automatics through the gears manually; removing all load from the clutches on each upshift transition. Less wear, lower temps, and better power control/delivery across the board are the end goals.
On that point, I was wondering if there is a modification which might be known to allow for simple, exclusive manual shifting of the AW-70L? All automatic shift functionality (apart from converter lockup) could be eliminated to achieve this end: I wouldn't miss it one bit.
As a "quick fix" I have considered disconnecting the kick-down cable and locking it into a "closed throttle" position to allow better overriding manual control of upshift points. However, I have some concern about also reducing final lockup pressure on the clutch packs by doing this; resulting in slippage after final engagement. I might be wrong to worry here (it's happened at least once before
): perhaps someone could shed some light on this type of scenario, too.In sum, I would appreciate knowing:
- if there is a throttle body (or other) modification which will allow permanent, selective manual shifting of the AW-70L/A42DL; and
- if running this transmission with the kickdown cable permanently slackened simply changes shift points and "softens" the shift transitions, or if it will also cause a reduction in hydraulic pressure on the clutch packs when fully engaged.