Hey there fellow AMC'ers

Has anyone out there in Magna-land ever modded the gear selector on the 5 speed auto tippy gearboxes.....
so that instead of pushing forward to go up gears and pull it back to go down , to pull back to go up gears and forward to go down...

Reason why I ask is that it seems more natural... and another reason.. (which I've read that a few others have done here too)....when not paying much attention, I push the stick forward (when it's in "D" not tippy mode) and end up in neutral.... usually at 4000-5000rpm???
No crunching or anything.... seems that the auto won't let it engage till the revs drop anyway..
But for safety.. like turning in traffic... helps if the box doesn't go into neutral!!

I'm thinking they're electrical micro switches that if reversed you'd have the desired effect...

And it'd be easy enough to swap the "+" and "-" symbols behind the chrome panel.

Soooooo has anyone out there attempted this mod?? If so how did it go?? easy done or not worth the 15 hours of sheer hell that is the gear selector???

Cheers

Steve

there is a thread around hear somewhere that shows you how to do it, i think all they done was change switches around in the gear selector

edit: http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37686&page=2&highlight=triptronic

Hey there fellow AMC'ers

Has anyone out there in Magna-land ever modded the gear selector on the 5 speed auto tippy gearboxes.....
so that instead of pushing forward to go up gears and pull it back to go down , to pull back to go up gears and forward to go down...

Reason why I ask is that it seems more natural... and another reason.. (which I've read that a few others have done here too)....when not paying much attention, I push the stick forward (when it's in "D" not tippy mode) and end up in neutral.... usually at 4000-5000rpm???
No crunching or anything.... seems that the auto won't let it engage till the revs drop anyway..
But for safety.. like turning in traffic... helps if the box doesn't go into neutral!!

I'm thinking they're electrical micro switches that if reversed you'd have the desired effect...

And it'd be easy enough to swap the "+" and "-" symbols behind the chrome panel.

Soooooo has anyone out there attempted this mod?? If so how did it go?? easy done or not worth the 15 hours of sheer hell that is the gear selector???

Cheers

Steve

why is it more natural. Traditionally gearboxes are 123D.... with 1 at the bottom so you work your way up a gear change moving the selector forward, and down a gear backward. Wasn't it something Ford used in australia to simulate a v8 supercar changing it the other way?
Of course to each to their own.

why is it more natural. Traditionally gearboxes are 123D.... with 1 at the bottom so you work your way up a gear change moving the selector forward, and down a gear backward.When you accelerate, you're getting pushed back into your seat, so it's more ergonomic to pull the selector back with you. The opposite for braking.

I don't see the difference personally, it'd just be whatever you get accustomed to.

Should've bought a manual...

Yup. Towards the rear of the car is the way it really should be.

The indy cars used to run it that way (not sure if they still do), hence, its right thing to do :)

If you want to change gears, buy a manual.

Yup. Towards the rear of the car is the way it really should be.

The indy cars used to run it that way (not sure if they still do), hence, its right thing to do :)

this is my point...they aren't indy cars etc.


When you accelerate, you're getting pushed back into your seat, so it's more ergonomic to pull the selector back with you. The opposite for braking.

I don't see the difference personally, it'd just be whatever you get accustomed to.

Should've bought a manual...

I didn't think the gearshift was so far away. You would pull it towards you if you want to overtake. Maybe the auto is preferred over manual for its more specific use of daily driver. Anyway OP the link is there for the taking. Doesn't sound like a huge task if you do it.

I'm thinking maybe it something to do with manuals.
I mean, from first to second (probably one of the most used gear changes in a manual car round the city) you pull it down. Pushing up the gears always felt kinda of unnatural to me, even in the manual car i drive (yes the gearbox is fine lol) but yeh. I can understand it.
goodluck with the mod mate, just my 2c

~twiggy~

OK, changed my tippy around so it operstes down for up and vice versa.

Notice anything different about the pic

besides the +/-????

Thanks heaps guys!!

So much for using the right search key words!! :nuts:
Didn't find much at all when I looked...Durrrr:redface:

I wanted a manual...VR-X and looked for 9 months for one.... but the ones I looked at had way too many k's and the others were pretty poor examples.... figured if I was going to spend some $$ on a nice daily driver I might as well buy the one that made me happiest...

Having said that.... 2 weeks after I bought mine a beautiful white series 2 VR-X in 5 speed manual came up.... had 35,000k's and it was the same price as what I paid for mine at 61,000k's.....:rant:

I'm gonna give it a shot...

as for the replies that asked why? I always used to play on my playstation with the gearshift that way.... and another way to put it it does feel more natural to me... when accelerating it's more "laid back" way to shift gears

Thanks again VERY much!!!

Steve

OK, changed my tippy around so it operstes down for up and vice versa.

Notice anything different about the pic

Thats awesome, good to know you can do this, I would defiitely do it if I had a tippy :doubt:

Was it an easy job? (to change the + and - )

Ollie

Thats awesome, good to know you can do this, I would defiitely do it if I had a tippy :doubt:

Was it an easy job? (to change the + and - )

Ollie

Totally.... except for dropping a couple of screws down between the carpet and the floorpan!!:rant: God bless the person who discovered magnets!
In fact that's what took the longest amount of time......

My micro switches (TJ S2 VR-X) were slightly different than the ones pictured in the other thread.

two were set together for the gear shifting signal, where the third (the one that tells the box it's in tippy mode) is in a different area.
Undo 3 screws and cut a zip tie, unplug the harness and the whole lot comes out... helps when working on it, as I have rather big hands.

What i did though is take the plug off and with a really small screwdriver (jewellers) unclipped the retainer that holds the spade in the plug, slid the spades out of the plug itself and swapped the yellow and white wires.

Dead easy, no cutting or soldering.

Even did the "+" and "-" thing too.... had to file it down quite a bit to fit into the cover properly... but looks dead set awesome....my car has the EL lighting... I just slid out the +,- thing and trimmed one end off and filed it on one side to make it fit the cutouts.
If you took one apart you'd instantly see what I mean.

And it feels heaps better to drive!!!

So thanks again everyone..... yet another mod that costs nothing but improves (IMO) the way the car drives.....:D

Steve

Thats awesome, good to know you can do this, I would defiitely do it if I had a tippy :doubt:

Was it an easy job? (to change the + and - )

Ollie

Was a bit.
Under the tippy surround there are two strips of black plastic used to direct the light for the shift. Once you remove this you then remove the piece of clear plastic used for the +/-, this is covered by a black type sticker.
now the clear piece of plastic is quite largeand cant simply be turned around.
Heres the tricky part, it has to be trimmed down so it can be turned. Becareful as if you go at to fast you might break it. The sticker also has to be cut to suit.
All that is to do is put it all back together in reverse order.

Simplelol

That's awesome guys - well done.

Always hated the direction of the +/- on the Magna Tippy.
This is definately on my mod to-do-list.

Nice work, I also hate that the tippy feature is away from the driver, i'd prefer it to be on the drivers side of the shifter, so it is closer to you when you want to use it, rather than further away. that's not something easily changed though and it seems most manufacturers are doing it the same way.