Posted by MoparNorm on Friday, July 04, 2003 at 0:11AM :
In Reply to: I agree with EdC on this one Joe......... posted by Chris Lube Lublin on Thursday, July 03, 2003 at 10:34PM :
Lube! You couldn't possibly drive anywhere near as hard as I drove that Van, or my off-road race trucks in the Baja 500, both with 727 automatics. You'll want to stay away from the electronic version AND the overdrive, too many weak links. The 727 is the most bulletproof trans when set up properly. That Van in the post pushed the power through a NP203 full time unit and towed, dragged and flat out hauled, hill climbed etc. A change in the shift circuits to allow true down shifting into 1st and second gear and compression braking does wonders for a 4WD, and everything that is good about an auto in mud is equally true for sand and rock crawling. With a B&M shift kit and a little tweeking, you'll never want or need a manual again. The only two things that a manual CAN do better than an automatic is pop-starting. Put an Optima battery in your rig and you'll never need pop-starting again. One thing that is an advantage in a manual is the ability to use an Optima battery to "drive" on the starter if you flood out your motor crossing a river. I "drove" 200 feet on my Optima once after drowning out the distributor crossing a river.
One thing that ruins manual driving is living in SoCal, 2 hours each way, every day, of stop and go, 20 mph drivng makes a manual, and driving with one, get old fast.
MN
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