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I wanna invert the Manu-Matic shifter function....

20K views 76 replies 38 participants last post by  white09g8gt 
#1 ·
I have read here and the other forums that many of y'all feel as I do... that the function of the Manu-Matic shifter is bass-ackwards. The natural inertia of a car when down-shifted is to slow down, thereby causing all contents therein to be flung forward, and when a vehicle is up-shifted, the contents are generally moved rearward. Therefore, the shifter should logically follow these physics properties to be the most natural fit for it's functionality. Unfortunately, the powers that be (dare I say were) somehow decided that the opposite direction of the shift lever made more sense and made all our cars basically BACKWARDS! (BTW... GM is not alone in this error of perception... several other auto manufacturers have done it this backward approach towards sequential shift levers)

I would like to modify my car's shifter to operate in the more appropriate (in my mind) manner... i.e. PUSH to down-shift, and PULL to up-shift! This shouldn't be too difficult a modification to accomplish... RIGHT? Its just an electrical switch within the shifter base on either side that's activated when you either push or pull on the lever, RIGHT?? So shouldn't just reversing two wires down there accomplish exactly what I'm trying to do??? I can't think of any other actions or sensors that would be attached to the shifting action(s) that could get messed up by reversing those two commands. The only hard part is determining which wires need to be reversed. Hopefully GM in it's infinite wisdom didn't go and make those simple commands part of some CAN Bus data path..... or some other PWM micro-pulses down some fiber-optical angel-hair strand plucked from Goldilox's head before they be-headed her in the Pontiac massacre.

Does anyone here know anything about the wiring of the shifter to the TCM in our cars? Hasn't someone else already wanted to modify their shifting in this manner and had a bit more guts (or training/opportunity) than I and gone ahead and successfully made this mod?? One detail of it I'd kinda like to have would be the ability to switch it back if I ever needed to take it to the stealer for any related service calls. I did see how I could switch the li'l plus and minus icons on the shifter console so if I ever were to (horrors be!!) sell my car, the next owner wouldn't be confused!

It just seems to make so much more sense the other way and I am such a logical thinking person I s'pose. I'd also like shifting it manually if I were able to successfully modify this to where it should've been in the first place!!

Thanks for reading, and please chime in with whatever you can add. I'd rather not tear into my shifter console without some knowledge that it is indeed possible, or better yet, direct, confirmed procedures for making the mod work!


NTrails
2008 G8 GT
Panther Black Metallic
Onyx/Red leather
Premium and Sport Package
Varam CAI
Tinted windows
 
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#41 ·
GOT IT!!! I reversed it! No soldering no wire cutting, just a little good ol boy thinking. Ill post a video. It was actually not that hard. The video is taking forever to upload. Ill post it when its done.
 
#42 ·
All done! Feel free to laugh hysterically at how i secured the circuit board. I wanted to keep this completely reversible and the glue holds it very securely. The shifter icons (+&-) only took about 2 min on my bench grinder to get them to fit "upside down". Enjoy!






And of course a video of it working

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQmlddwzU5w&feature=youtu.be
 
#44 ·
All done! Feel free to laugh hysterically at how i secured the circuit board. I wanted to keep this completely reversible and the glue holds it very securely. The shifter icons (+&-) only took about 2 min on my bench grinder to get them to fit "upside down". Enjoy!






And of course a video of it working

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQmlddwzU5w&feature=youtu.be

dblaron, can you elaborate on how you actually accomplished this? This is how it should have been designed in the first place... I can't tell you how many times I downshift when I intended to upshift. I drive in manual mode 100% of the time... last car had the shift method in opposite position... can't get used to doing it wrong after doing it right for so long. Thanks.
 
#43 ·
excellent. and for once, timing has worked for me as I have a set of atari's to put in, can do both at the same time.

Thanks for taking the lead.

BTW, I did communicate with Chris White, he thought this could be done with coding in the BCM. Was willing to try, but it was cost a BCM flash+.
 
#47 ·
First, take apart the console to get to the shifter. I used this thread as a guide to get to the circuit board - http://www.g8board.com/forums/showthread.php?t=58833

Next, remove the circuit board from the plastic clips on the shifter. Take notice of the long vertical piece on the shifter housing that acts as a clip for the circuit board... I used this as a reference point to remount the circuit board.

Then spin the circuit board around 180 degrees. Hard part is finding the "sweet" spot of where to actually place the board to have it work properly. Also, if you look at the pictures above from dblaron, the wires for the circuit board go around the shifter housing. I did not have enough slack in the wires to do this so I ran mine through the shifter housing and did not have any clearance issues when actuating the shifter itself. So... how I eventually found where to place the circuit board was to brace the skinny end against that vertical post on the shifter housing (the one that clipped the board in originally) and the fatter end at the top I placed so the first resistor looking thing on the board was just to the right of the shifter housing. The circuit board also has to be mounted more up towards the ceiling and not resting on the bottom of the shifter housing. I used the hot glue method and piece of foam to secure the circuit board.

Been using it for a few days now and works perfectly. One thing I noticed during install that if you actuate the shift button while it is in the sport/manual position it may physically interfere with the circuit board. No need to push the button while it is in that position but be mindful if someone else drives the car.

As for turning the +/- indicator around... I just used a pair of wire cutters to trim the plastic tabs, put a spot of hot glue on the cover and reattached the indicators so they would not fall off during reinstall.

Hope that is a little more clear... you don't actually get it until you get into it yourself.
 
#48 ·
This is a funny thread! Coming from another car where the shifting was opposite of our car, it took me seriously, 2 years to get used to the shifter being backwards. I couldn't switch them around because it would probably take me another 2 years to get used to it.
 
#50 ·
Sure glad this is figured out. I never really used the manual mode much because of this goofy setup. I have upshifted more times than I can remember instead of downshifting.
 
#52 ·
I can't believe someone actually got this done. I agree with several posts, now I have to decide if I want to relearn this the right way. Took me three years to get used to it but I agree it has always seemed backwards to me also.
 
#54 ·
Man, I have been wanting/thinking about doing this for awhile. Aren't most race cars with sequential shift set up this way?
 
#56 ·
Was all over inverting the shifter until the paddle shifter mod came along... have not thought about it since
 
#61 ·
I am not brave enough to start hacking into the steering wheel wiring, but I am a little more confortable with fiddling with the console.
 
#59 ·
Question? Could you purchase the Holden version and just use that?
 
#63 ·
Again, anyone know if the holden shifter can just be swapped out into our cars? I like the idea of sport mode being on the driver side, and not rewiring and modding the symbols. Yes, in truth I am lazy. If there are any ideas of how to find out or where to find out, it would be greatly appreciated.
 
#64 ·
did I read this right that you just turn the circuit board 180 degrees? No rewire, nothing but placement? sorry, I am not a genius with wiring things.
 
#65 ·
Yepp!! It looks like the only "trick" to it is gettin' the odd-shaped board secured in the new, 180 degree rotated position. It's held in place from the factory with little plastic tabs that fit around the triangular-like shaped board... so when it's flipped around, you gotta gob up some kinda hot-glue or epoxy , or putty, or other adhesive of some sort to hold it in a position under the bottom of the shifter shaft, making sure the magnet attached to the bottom is close enough to the resistors on the board to register the movement over them. Some said they used hot-glue and a little piece of foam under the board to get proper positioning. Also the attached wires seem to be a li'l restrictive as they're kinda just long enough to facilitate placement in their factory position. Perhaps a li'l relief could be gained by snipping a wire-tie nearby ??

While I'm happy that my thread has provided an eventual solution here, I dunno when I'll be tearing into my console to do it... even tho' I find myself using the manual mode more and more lately, and it STILL bugs me that it's backwards. I really want to do it, too!! OK!! I'm gonna at least open it up tomorrow!!

Can you tell me, anyone who has gone in there... where are the "sticking points"?? i.e. the clips that don't wanna let loose, or plastic parts that don't wanna come apart without breaking or will rattle and/or squeak after re-assembly?? If I am aware of these pouints before discovering their "stubbornness" I'd feel better about the whole operation!! Also.... what's your estimation of difficulty for this, onna scale of 1 to 10?? I'd be comfortable doing it no problems given it'sa 7 or 8 TOPS!!!

Thanks everyone who's posted here, and I'm looking forward to having my G shifting so much more logically soon!!

Mark D.
'08 G8 GT
PBM - tinted glass - Volant CAI - DBA 4000 brakes - Bone Stock otherwise!
 
#66 ·
I know its been a little while, but I have a holden shifter now in my possession. Noticed everything to include the circuit board is labeled either r/h or just r. Circuit board reads holden ve-r where yours reads holden ve-l. Gonna get it installed to see if it will work.

Rob
 
#67 ·
This would be so awesome if it works. Can't wait!
 
#68 · (Edited)
The only issue I see that may be an issue is there is no brake pedal shifter lockout mechanism. May have to find a way to install the one from the stock shifter.

Rob
 

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#69 ·
I wouldn't mind if the Shift-Brake Interlock was disabled.... in fact my last ride (a '99 GTP) had the whole shifter assembly "re-worked" (read Hacked By A Total MORON) by the P/O. I had the dreaded "Can't remove my key" issue in other Grand Prix's I had owned and was able to fix all 3 of em without hackking it up as bad as this moron did!!! I found he had even shoved an 8 penny nail into the solenoid in the column in an attempt to remedy the situation! The BEST part of his mis-adventures was the shift Brake Interlock was disabled!! One BAD part was that the P R N D L indicators on the dash were dead... and un-repairable by my several attempts at it. I had a long time computer related issue with that car, which I always thought was possibly attributed to something he had done in these areas.. That issue being the car needed a CASE Learn procedure performed onnitt, as he did tell me when I bought it that he had replaced the harmonic balancer onnit. I asked why he did that, he said "Cuz it broke"!! But after numerous attempts at running that procedure, it would never complete!! It would hang at like 95% complete, displaying "Waiting for Full Throttle".. even tho I tried it myself... revving past red-line, doing it slowly, fast... EVERY way possible!! So after I bought my G8, I took it to the (now Chevy) Stealer, figuring it'll cost me a bit more, but at least it'll get it done, RIGHT??? Well... after a few GM Factory Engineeers had visited the dealership (nott one of 'em were even CLOSE to a solution, and most with ludicrous possible causes/solutions), numerous parts replaced (the CPK Sensor itself, the TPS, the ECL, the ABS module {another long running issue})and 7 months time passed, the dealer's mechanic happened to buy the latest Snap-On scan tool (like $5,600 retail!!) for his own personal use and brought it to work one day, he did an "Evasive Re-Write" of my ECL and MAGICALLY, it was then able to complete the CASE Learn!! Man, was THAT an animated phone call from the (newly hired after my old Service Manager was fired) Service Manager!!

So anyway... the Shift-Brake interlock is nott something I would even worry about mann!!!


NTrails

'08 G8 GT,
PBM, Onyx/Red lthr,
Varam CAI, Tinted Glass,
Bone Stock otherwise
 
#70 ·
O BTW... I still haven't attempted to reverse my shifter board ....
 
#72 ·
It works, back for up, forward for down. Brake pedal lockout could be transferred as the Aussie shifter base has all the necessary slots and clips. Decided against. Did have to transfer the micro switch for the column release so I could get my key back, but again, direct transfer.

Rob
 
#74 ·
It works, back for up, forward for down. Brake pedal lockout could be transferred as the Aussie shifter base has all the necessary slots and clips.
Is strange; I thought that I post this morning that I have an Aussie Shifter in my garage waiting for the weather and time (work) to be on my side to do the swap.

If I understand, there are 4 nuts that has to be removed from the bottom of the car for the assembly to be pulled out? My other concern was the microswitch for the Shift Release when you step on the Brake Pedal. Nice to know, thanks.
 
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