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Shift Improvement for the A-413 Auto Tranny


Not to copy what's already out there on the web... this page is just to better illustrate the steps to accomplish your own "Shift Kit" for our FWD A-413 Auto Trannies. I used the diagram located at: The Shelby Lancer Pages to do the job. It worked well for me and I thought I'd add some pictures to help better illustrate... for the good of the cause! I am not a tranny specialist and this was the first time I attempted such a feat. But hey, if I can do it... so can you.

You are going to definately need a 10mm wrench/socket and a torx driver


Removing the Valve Body
First you need to get to the top of your tranny. Remove the battery, airbox, intercooling hoses, etc... what ever might be in your way. On the top of the tranny you need to get to the shift and kickdown levers. Disconnect the shifter cable from the shift lever and also detach the kickdown cable from the kickdown lever. They should just pop off. Next, grab a 10mm wrench and remove the small bolts that hold the levers on tight. Once you remove the bolts... carefully pry the base of the levers open and slide them off the top of the shaft coming out of the tranny.



Next, you drop the lower pan on the tranny and carefully drain out the tranny fluid. Once you remove the pan, you'll see the bottom of the valve body. As you look up at the valve body, you'll see the parking rod connected on the driver's side of the valve body (picture shows tranny upside down). It's connected to the shifter mechanism which is attached to the shifter rod and held in by an E-clip. Remove the E-clip, and pull the parking rod out (watch to see where the other end goes for installation). The last step is to remove the 7, 10mm bolts that fasten the valve body to the tranny. You should be able to get them all out without removing the attached filter (might as well remove the filter... gonna replace it anyways, right?). Once the 7 bolts are removed, carefully grab the valve body and begin to gently rock it as you pull downward on it. The main "hang-up" will be the long shift rod that sticks out the top of the tranny. Also be aware of the two small tubes with 90 degree bends in them at the rear of the valve body. These are the govenor tubes... they come out of the valve body easily once removed, so don't lose these. A little carefull tugging and you should be able to remove the valve body. DO NOT pry it out... you can easily damage the valve body.

Once you remove the valve body, find a clean bench to work on. There are three steps you'll need to accomplish before you put it all back together.

Step 1: Replace Shuttle Valve Spring with Rod



With the valve body on your bench, remove the plate that holds the shuttle valve in place (see picture). The shuttle valve is the one with a metal plug against the plate... the other two shift valves and the by-pass valve have a spring against the plate. Remove the metal plug to get to the spring. You can easily pop the plug out by pressing on the opposite end of the shuttle valve where you'll see it's spring loaded (secondary spring). Find the spring behind the plug. This is the one to be replaced by a rod (solid or hollow) measuring .25" diameter by 1.465" length. When reassembling make sure the rod is seated in the "cupped" backside of the metal plug. Reinstall the plate and press against the secondary spring of the shuttle valve to note how far it travels. It should only move a hair... but it should move. That completes step 1.

Step 2: Remove Steel Ball
This step is tricky. Flip the valve body upside down... be careful of the shift rod. You need to remove all the torx screws fastening the two halves of the valve body together(***note the two that are missing... they're the ones that hold the filter on). Once done, carefully lift the bottom half off(***note that the steel balls rest in the upper half so keep the valve body upside down... shift rod pointing down). Check the picture to see which steel ball to remove. Remove the steel ball and carefully reassemble the two halves back together remembering which two holes are left empty for the torx screws that hold the filter on. That's it for step 2.

Step 3: Crank Up the Line Pressure
With the valve body right-side up, find the allen-headed screw that adjusts the spring height that adjusts the line pressure. Clockwise lengthens the spring and decreases the pressure, while counter-clockwise shortens the spring and increases the pressure. Turn this screw 2.5 turns *counter-clockwise* to increase line pressure. That's it for step 3.

Reassembly
Now just put it back together. Don't forget the two small govenor tubes on the rear of the valve body as you reinstall it. And remember to replace the parking rod with it's E-clip. Happy Shifting!

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This is only a guide and is to be used at your own risk.
Author assumes no liability from it's use/misuse or the correctness/incorrectness of the material presented.