shift kits in 3/4 ton trucks?

NeXuS1 · June 9, 2001

i went and test drove a 91 chevy 2500, for my dad today (he wants to keep his options open) and first thing.. 1-2 shift felt like a truck hit me from behind. then again from 2-3 same thing. and even into over drive. i asked the sales guy whats going on. "its a factory installed shift kit for towing" to me this seems like all BS, it shifted so hard i almost broke the bench. it felt like i was getting rear ended through the gears. soo.. any ideas on what was going on?

gmdieseltech · June 9, 2001

Sounds like BS to me. I know of no "factory shift kits" and what you describ is too firm. I have a 1995 with the 4L80E trans, even with a chip and a transmission controller from www.duramax.bizhosting.com it is like a shift kit but electronic (plug n' play) and even mine when the trans control is cranked up all the way does not shift that hard. Something is wrong with that one.

Happy Motoring, David

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June 9, 2001

My brother-in-law had one that shifted real hard until it quit shifting...

Jpshostr · June 13, 2001

The older trucks in that series certainly shifted a lot harder than the newer ones, but what you experienced is not right. We had a '90 K2500, and when we went to our '96 K3500 the shifting got a lot smoother. Now with this K2500 we have now the shifting is very slick.

I'd walk away from it, the salesman didn't know what he was talking about if he said it had a factory installed shift kit. Kind of makes you wonder what other things on it are broken and the excuse is they were "factory installed."

NeXuS1 · June 13, 2001

well after driving it i laughed at the guy and we went down the road and found a 95 2500 with all the stuff for 12k and a lot less miles. but it also had problems up in the front end. after a lot of searching we finally found the truck he wanted maybe i'll post some pictures of it in the picture forum.