[eschaider]

Karl,

The shifting problems that TKO500/600 transmissions experience are caused by the internal timing of the shift mechanism as you go through the gates from second to third and to a lesser extent fourth to fifth. Most people do not power shift fourth to fifth because vehicle speed is so high and if you haven't won by then fifth won't help.

As you come out of second you are moving a synchro slider from second to neutral and you do not want it to go into first. The internal locks in the shifter design provide this protection. Tremec erred on the side of abundant safety and at the same time created locks that prevent rapid shifts from second to third.

Liberty has a retrofit shift rail package that replaces the Tremec internals with aftermarket pieces that do shift fast. Forget the shifters and the black magic. The problem is in the transmission and the fix is at Liberty.

The Liberty pieces are not expensive at all and easy to put in if you have ever worked on any type of manual transmission. Download Tremec's service manual as your reference guide and you will be good to go.

While you are at it get a set of the carbon fiber faced synchros for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. First gear and fifth gear are usually not power shifted. On a road race vehicle I suppose you could make an argument for 1st gear. The synchros when I did mine were around $50 each. I think the whole package came to about $220

With synchros it should take you a Saturday morning on the workbench in your garage. When you are done you will not believe it is the same transmission — no shifter changes required!

If you do not want to do the work Liberty can do it for you. If they do, they can also machine the case to put in a superior front bearing for the countershaft — a good upgrade.


Ed