Shifting (A/T)

[Spades]

I am perhaps wrong on this, but my understanding of auto transmissions leads me to belive the first thing to go out on a auto trans for manually shifting it on the fly would be the Torque Converter or the "Sun Gear". The "sun gear" as it was explained to me, is the main gear behind the torque converter. If the gear looses teeth due to abuse (such as shifting it down gears or by dropping it from drive to reverse without letting the car come to a stop first) the teeth will go through your transmission and rip it apart.

On manual vehicles you have a clutch, this is differant than a torque converter. The clutch has the same job, but works differantly. By downshifting gears on a manual, you SHOULD step on the gas to bring the RPM's up to the speed you are traveling. Failure to do this will result in premature clutch failure. The torque converter is responsible for having to go between the speed you are traveling and the RPM's of the engine. This creates enormous amounts of strain on your torque converter, and unlike a $500 clutch, if the torque converter and sungear go bye-bye, you may loose the automatic transmission with it, and thats more like $2k+.

As I said, I may be talking out of my ass, that is just what I know. Again, play with your auto trans at your own risk kiddies.