I talked to Harvey on all of the three occassions that I had problems with mine. Seems like a real nice guy, but I know a lot of nice guys. I need a reliable transmission. Just like anything else, I may have gotten a "lemon", but I will stick with Jim Paquet from here on out.
Dad's C4's are killer...BUT none of them use transbrakes either. Seems that the C4's that I see with burned high clutches and/or broken one-ways are all transbrake'd C4's. Have run nearly 700 HP through C4's in the past footbraking, with nothing more than a stocker valve body with some more pressure and a few other mods to aid in shifting-and they last a good long time. What is funny about the point of this story is that a guy I know bought a $2000 name-brand transmission & converter, fully rollerized, blah-blah...it had an issue going into 3rd and he had to send it back...don't knwo what the shipping cost...got it back put it in and made a night's races and in the final it started doing the 2-3 flare again. Pulled it-sent it in (again, had to pay shipping), got it back...9 more passes and yet again 2-3 flare. Same deal the FOURTH time too. In the meantime he had dad build a "spare" footbrake C4...with dad's mods....and guess what? It's faster, more MPH, runs cooler and...well so far so good. $250 build is what dad charged him, IIRC. About a tenth of what this guy spent on that name brand C4 that was supposed to be bulletproof. Just goes to show that spending money isn't always the best way to get a good transmission. I do have a question. Do any of the transbrake valve body C4's apply the low band in low gear? Seems like the application of the low band helps make the one-way last longer-correct me if I am wrong. Reason I asked is because the few C4 major failures I've seen resulted in broken floorboards and/or holes in the doors, top, fenders, etc. Of those every one of them was a transbrake. Seems like a great opportunity to install a trans shield
I went from a redneck c4 to a super comp pa c4 after changing from a small block 351w (about 400hp) to a 521 big block (about 700hp). The redneck trans couldn't handle the torque of the big block but was perfect for the small block. So yes I think the PA's Transbrake VB better are better than the Redneck's VB. Hope this helps Justin
I have been running a Hughes Tranny with a Break for 2 years in my low 12 second car with no problem.
