Re: Finally bought a shift governor kit
The kit comes with a guide and the springs should be rainbow color coded from firm to soft. What does your existing governor look like? Mrweelr had a great thread in this forum with photos of his. The stock GM governor has very thin weights. GM must have calibrated the OEM trans for the low shifts in the valve body, because the thinner the weights, the higher the shift RPM (so it is unusual to me, that the stock tranny would shift low with such a lightweight governor). Regardless of what you have now, you need to add weight to it to bring the shifts down.
However, if you already have a heavy weight governor, the B&M kit won't do much good as all of its weights are very small and thin. My guess is they made it for high revving Small Block Chevys who are all trying to raise their shift points, quite the opposite situation than someone trying to achieve a 4400-4800 RPM shift for their 4.3 Turbo truck.
A tranny shop should have a supply of various governors and weights you could get, for me the best ones were extra heavy inners like what Mrweelr posted. I still had to try about 25 governor combos before I found what I was looking for. Tedious, annoying, messy!! The best tip is when you put the governor cover back on:
1.) Don't pound in the center, to avoid denting it inward (that would put the governor gear in misalignment)
2.) When testing governors, use datamaster to record WOT shift points and make notes and adjust.
3.) When you put the cover back on, don't tap it on all the way, because it's a bitch to get off, and if you are changing governors over and over, its a lot easier to remove when the cover is less than fully seated. The only drawback is a few drips of ATF every now and then, but it shouldn't take you more than a week or two to get the shift points set where you want even including trips to the trans shop.
PS: I give you "HELLA PROPS" for addressing this very critical performance issue! :tup:
