I pulled this governor out of my tranny that had been rebuilt by Cottman years ago. This doesn't look like the GM governor I had in the car before they rebuilt it. Is there any way to tell (without actually seeing the car shift at W.O.T.) whether this is a high performance unit, or some replacement that shifts at 4,000 rpm? John
That looks like a TH400 governor from 71 on up. The 71 outer weights have a large hole in them as you can see in the pic. Can't tell shift points by looking at the external weights. Need to look at the inner ones. They are usually shaved down and are what makes the trans shift later. Switching a governor at rebuild is not uncommon as they are sometimes worn down from use and need to be replaced. The shaft must be a minimum diameter of .799 or pressure leakage can occur causing shifting problems. Also, your electric kickdown needs to be hooked up and working in order for the trans to shift at maximum RPM. A lot of guys don't hook it up and then wonder why the trans short shifts. Mark
It looks like it has the original "nails" to hold the weights too, not the replaceable pins that come with the kits that allow you to tailor the weights for different shift points.
Thanks, Guys. I think the governor that came in it from the factory had solid outer weights, if memory serves correct. I remember because the detent solenoid went out many moons ago and it wouldn't shift except under full throttle. Of course, I had to do a lot of troubleshooting back then to learn that it was the detent solenoid ou: John
Does anybody know if the procedure to modify your governor to increase WOT shift points is on the Web anywhere? I'm looking for some good representative pictures of how much to grind off to take a good first stab. Thnx, John
John, I don't think so. No modification is going to work the same in 2 different cars. There's no getting around it, trial and error, that's the only way. IMHO, the B&M shift point modification kit is a no brainer. If you make the modifications to a spare governor, you can always go back to where you started, and you risk nothing. Weight changes are easy with the kit. You just need to work slowly, and keep track of what you do, and the results. Grind off too much material, and you cant go back.
