I haven't seen anyone with an aftermarket shifter? I like they way they look and was interested. Should i steer clear from them for some reason?

 

As far as I know, no one is making an aftermarket shifter for the 4th gens. I had a B&M Megashifter in my 88 IROC and it was tricky to get to shift right, I was the only one who could work it.
I would love to have something like the hammer shifter B&M makes or even a quarterstick but trying to get them to work with the little black electronic shifter box is annoying at best and can be very frustrating to get to work right.

I really wonder sometimes why no one has made a good aftermarket shifter for our cars.

 

summit had some shifters that said fit a 4l60e so i figured it would work i didn't know it would be different.

 

Yeah I didn't think any were available for the 4L60E. I have seen a couple people who fabricated the B&M T-handle to fit. Just the handle though, not the stalk. I thought about doing it, but I think I'm just gonna get a T handle out of a firebird and use that.

 

My understanding is that the problem is that the 4L60E shifts are controlled electronically instead of hydraulically as on an earlier Hydramatic. So to work properly an aftermarket shifter would have to interface with the trans computer somehow.

I read somewhere that simulating an aftermarket shifter by shifting 1, 2, 3 instead of leaving it in D is bad because the controller will only use 'soft' shifts (the 4L60E has 'hard' and 'soft' shifts), and soft-shifting at WOT is hard on the transmission.

 

The main downfall of shifting the auto manually is that you can never ever shift as quickly as the auto can on it's own. So in a sense your probably actually going slower by doing so. Also there is a 1-2 second delay when shifting that way so you risk a chance of bouncing off the rev limiter unless you time it right. Guys with shift kits installed have this delay eliminated but I still think the auto can shift faster.