Hi Jim,
I have heard of some shift kits for
them back in the '70s, but I'm not sure if they are still available. As
for agressive shifting and durablity I gave mine some pretty extreem treatment
in my younger years, ie using the push buttons to hold & shift manualy in
street racing type events (getting rubber in all three grears) and nothing ever
went bad on me. Also in the '70s, I knew a guy who regularly took his '58
out to PIR on weekends for drag racing and without any modification, doing the
same thing to his transmission that I did on the streets to mine and he never
had any problems either . He also consistently won first in his class.
From my own experience and that of friends
(let's be honest here) abusing these units I personally have never heard of one
fail. Also from talks I've had with mechanics then and now, these
Torqueflites are about the most bullet proof transmissions ever made. They
may not be as silky-smooth as a Hydramatic as far as shifting goes, but they
were all but indistructable.
I'm not sure what your plans are, but
(aside from the age of the components) I'm pretty confident your transmission
will take just about anything you can dish out.
Jim L. in OR
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