Cobra Valley Ultra-Shift

[eschaider]

Originally Posted by Dwight

Cobra Valley Ultra-Shift I've used it and it does not work!

Call Liberty Gears or some of the other companies that do street / strip upgrade work on TKO 500 & 600s.

Most (not all) TKO shift notchy and rough. I put 10,000 on mine and it did not shift much better than the first day.
I contacted Liberty Gears ( about 4 years ago ) and they gave me a list of parts to remove from my 600. I shipped them to Liberty and they modified the parts. Shipped them back and I installed them.
Hugh difference, I could not miss a gear. I could speed shift, not use the clutch, not miss a gear. It was fantastic. ALL TKO should be shipped from the factory like that.
I think I paid $360 plus a little shipping. Big bargain.

Dwight is spot on!

I bought the Liberty upgrade kit and installed it myself eight or so years ago. Similar pricing. If I remember correctly it included carbon fiber synchronizers, new shift rails with a modified timing and interlock system, new countershaft front support bearing assembly (required some machine work on the case) and probably some other items I have forgotten over the years.

The TKO transmission family has two significant impediments to good shifting, one is its large diameter gears with old fashioned brass synchronizers. The big gears are good for strength but bad for quick, smooth shifting especially with five decade old brass synchronizers.

The second problem they have is an abominable shift rail timing and interlock system. Without trying to be pejorative, the stuff was likely based on or sourced from their truck line of transmissions. The poor shifting manners are equally attributable to the shift rails and interlocks as well as the brass synchronizers and large gears. The why question while interesting, is not particularly relevant. The answer and $5 will buy you a coffee at Starbucks.

I have attempted to explain this phrnomena multiple times over the years. It is all but impossible. Consider how you might explain the color blue to someone who has been blind from birth. It is impossible! He has never seen blue or any other color for that matter and has no frame of reference to help him appreciate the color.

Explaining the Liberty TKO upgrade package to someone who has never driven a car with one of the modified transmissions is very similar to trying to explain that color blue to the man who has been blind from birth. The TKO owner's only frame of reference is his bad mannered TKO.

While superior lubricants can mask parts of the design shortcomings, they can not correct a design shortcomiing. The lubricants are certainly less expensive than addressing the transmission's shortcomings but they are no substitute for correcting the mechanical design issues.

If you want T-56 quality shifts you need to get a T-56. Even a modified TKO will not shift like a T-56 with its double and triple cone synchronizers — the two different transmission designs are separated by two, possibly more design generations.


Ed