Did they do it just because they wanted to give more of an incentive to go with 3.23s? I tryed the search but couldent seem pull anything. I ask because i plan on unlocking 1st but i just want to make sure i wont be doing anything that could hurt the car. (I always check now becasue last time i did something that seemed fine i ended up with a dead opti.)

 

How do you unlock 1st?

 

As far as I know, no reason. It was most likely done because that was the "option" gear and could take off quicker. 2.73's are slow, period. They can be fun, but 3.23's would be funner. The transmission is the same, the car is the same, everything is the same except the gears, and the shifter.

 

Carve a little notch in the shifter so it will slide back to first.

 

Yeah i was planning on getting new gears also. Dont know what ones im going to get yet but ill figure it out sometime. But yeah i was thinking the same about why they did that. Thanks for your responce!

 

<sigh> If you haven't read this...please do so, it answers SO many of the questions that are posted daily, I don't know why nobody seems to refer to it anymore?? The section you want is under transmissions at http://www.f-body.org/faq/4/index.htm but I've copied it here as well. Definitely take the time to read the entire document though, there's some valuable tidbits of information there.

Q: Why is there no selectable 1st gear for my automatic transmission?

A: On cars with automatic transmissions and the 2.73 rear (GU2) 1st gear can't be selected because in order to pass the Federal noise pollution tests, GM had to lock out selectable 1st gear. It has to do with downshifting into the lowest selectable gear at some speed as the car goes through the sound traps. With the 3.23 rear end, the required speed is high enough that the transmission won't allow a manual downshift all the way to 1st gear. But with the 2.73 gears, the car will downshift all the way to 1st when manually selected thereby increasing engine and exhaust noise. So GM had to prevent 1st gear from being selected on the 2.73 cars in order to meet the guidelines.

However, making 1st gear selectable on these cars is relatively easy. Lift off shifter cover, locate plastic (nylon) stop at the right side of the notched selector ramp, use a hacksaw or X-acto blade to remove the offending (square) stop. Then you will have first gear.

 

It was done for noise emissions reasons IIRC.


OOPS, more detailed post beat me to it

 

ONLY ON LT1's though. This isn't the case for LS1's w/2.73's. My car WILL shift into 1st gear, right from the factory. LS1's sound like pu$$ies from the factory though, so that's probably why they passed the sound test?

 

Noise?! WHAT?! The first thing most people do is get an exhaust or a louder muffler!! Wow...the brilliant people who makes laws in this country...

Wait...noise is a pollution? Even though it goes away in what? How fast does sound travel...something like 1127 feet per second?

 

I didnt know about that link. Thanks!

 

i have a 94 3.4 and my car wont shift into 1 either i thought i had 3.23 am i wrong does my car have 2.73 or is this forum only for the 8

 

Noise pollution is becoming the next big thing. Around my area, a loud exhaust or blasting your stereo system in town will get you a $120 ticket for, guess what, NOISE POLLUTION. I had some friends get a ticket for popping firecrackers last october (time when firecrackers aren't "in season"), but they chose to do 3 hours of community service (picking up trash) rather than pay the tickets. It's rediculous.

 

I pulled up next to a cop at a stop light, music loud as hell of course, and my exhaust is fairly loud. Windows down and t-tops off. He looks at me and I just give him a big smile (<-- like that).