I have this thing about not messing with stuff that works. I think it comes from my Navy days and the "PMS" system. Preventative Maintenance System. Seemed like we would do some scheduled maintenance on some component that was working fine and after the maintenance it would have a problem. Probably because it was assembled in a controlled environment by experienced techs and then you have a bunch of inexperienced squids messing with it while underway on 5 and dime watch rotation. Anyway I digress.
Current plan is use the USShift Quick 4 setup. I want to change out the slip yoke on the NP205 to a fixed yoke so I can add a tone ring and sensor when I do that. My buddy Nate has done it a couple of times, so it shouldn't be a big deal. Worst case, I could also use a Dakota Digital VSS on the old mechanical sender.
I'll use the 4 settings to do a:
- Standard
- Tow/Haul
- 4Low Magnum
- 4Low NP205
There are a lot of neat things you can do with the USShift by setting up your own switches. You can set up push buttons to up and downshift in the Manutronic mode. Turn Manual mode on and off. Cycle through the 4 shift tables. Activate 4Low tables which has provisions to accomodate a Doubler or 3spd gear boxes. There are other things but I don't remember them because they aren't things I plan to do. A person could rig up quite the switch panel for the transmission.
I'm actually thinking about using shift knobs with buttons. I could put a knob on the trans shifter to cycle through the tables and another knob on one of the tcase shifters to activate the manual mode. Only concern I have with shift knob buttons is accidentally pushing them.
If I don't use the shift knob buttons, I would like to make a panel that's on my console so I don't have to reach for the dash to use it. Although I guess that's not a huge deal since I would need to use the buttons but infrequently to change shift tables. Unless I add the push button shifting - which does sound cool.
Or I could add paddle shifters to the steering wheel.
