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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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#75 ·
Left the brake pedal shift interlock out of the Aussie shifter. The column lock microswitch I depinned the blue wire from the plug and spliced the black wire because of the multiple grounds on one pin in the plug. Spliced into the ground for the led lights.

Rob
 
#77 ·
Just wanted to clarify, rcpepper.
The Aussie shifter works, pulls towards driver now for manual mode, and the + - is reversed from stock? And only issue, which is fixable is the brake shift lock?

If so whats the part number and the price? To me it fixes everything that's wrong with stock Pontiac setup. Especially pulling towards you for manual.

Thanks
 
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