Ratiotek Transmission Shift Kit

[bjowett]

Here’s a great little product I wish we all would have known about sooner. Ratiotek kits RT-AB60E and RT-AB60E-PRD (heavy duty version) are available for roughly $50 - $60 if one shops around. The RT-AB60E kit recently found a home in my Tundras valve body, and the results, while subtle, are a refreshing upgrade that I suspect many around here will appreciate. The whole process of moving up and down through the gears is sharpened up, shift speed is increased noticeably with very slightly firmer engagement, I wouldn’t even use that word to describe it, but these things are subjective… nothing even close to harsh or annoying. The laziness is reduced substantially. I have no experience with the HD PRD suffix kit, but suspect it will be less daily driver friendly.

The kit contains a handful of springs and two drill bits for enlarging valve body main plate holes. While I’m tempted to call it one of the best bang for the buck mods out there, many will scoff at $50+ for what easily fits in the palm of your hand. Also consider that the installation requires removable and disassembly of the valve body, requiring multiple hours of work, and keeping track of a high number of small parts… it might be considered a tedious job, even for the experienced. Those that need to pay a shop for install can expect, my best guess, 3 - 6 hours of labor depending on installer experience. Anyway, it’s still pretty high up on the satisfaction list of mods I’ve done. While I’m not going over the install in this thread, there is an excellent thread at Tacoma World showing the install of a similar, but not identical kit, into an A750F Transmission. FYI, the AB60 transmission is heavily based on the A750, so it gives a great general idea of the work required. Also note that various other valve body wear parts may require attention while in there, Sonnax and TransGo are great in their offerings here.

RatioTek transmission upgrade how to

Here is a good do it yourself upgrade to your 5 spd automatic transmission on your Tacoma. The kit is by Ratiotek and cost about $30. It increases...

www.tacomaworld.com

 

[Moby]

Too bad there isn't one for the 8 speed, the transmission shifts in the 8 speed are my biggest pet peeve.

 

[bjowett]

If such a modification is appropriate for the more modern AE80F, we could probably figure out which passages to enlarge in the main plate. It’s unfortunate that it saw such limited use in the 200, and Toyota chose not to include it in the Tundra.

No love or questions for this mod? It’s certainly one of the most rewarding mods I’ve done in quite some time. I recently drove my wife’s 4-Runner w/ A750F and was reminded just smooshy and slow the shifts once were in the AB60F.

 

[dudemancool1904]

Man I’m old enough to be reminded of the 4R70W “J-Mod” shift kit when hearing about this

 

[TomEf]

Is the idea that it bumps up the valvebody pressure across the board?

I've had a couple factory stock, unopened 6L80's that, with a tune, would shift extremely firm. Like bark the tires on a 2-3 shift type firm. Interesting that Toyota didn't allow these to make that much VB pressure.

 

[bjowett]

I had to look up the J mod. Looks similar to what many of these shift kits accomplish.

Not entirely sure if pressure increase is across the board. I know that enlarging the hole diameter in the main plate increases the apply rate and thus speed of the shift, which we have with this kit. It’s obviously a mild increase, as one of the pitfalls of this mod is harsh shift because the hole diameter was increased too much. It also claims increased holding power for the Torque converter clutch, and I would imagine the remainder of the clutches, too. Line pressure is controlled by the ECU on this dinosaur of a transmission, so how the larger holes and springs override that is not known.