So I just replaced my transmission. After getting scammed by a mechanic who said he could rebuild it but just took it apart and took a bunch of my money (long story, but that's the short version), I purchased a "quick ship" e4od from Monster Transmission, and found a trustworthy, experienced guy to install it. It was supposed to be a standard, off the shelf e4od, nothing fancy. But after it was installed, my mechanic took it for a spin and informed me it has a manual shift valve body. Sure enough, it needs to be shifted 1 to 2, 2 to Drive. From there it seems to shift automatically. Looking at Monster's site, this seems to be a mistake; it looks like that's a custom thing. My mechanic says don't worry about it, it's actually a good thing. He claims it will last longer. I've gotten used to it pretty easily so it doesn't bug me. But it confuses me. Number one, what is the advantage of a manual shift valve body in an automatic transmission, and number two, will it cause me any issues in my '91 E350 short bus? Someone suggested that it's not really a manual shift valve body - it's just not shifting right. And I guess that could be but it seems to move pretty smoothly from third to fourth on its own once it's in drive. Thanks.