I am rebuilding my 1973 camaro and it was recommended to me by a friend that since the trans has been sitting idle for the last 5-6years that i should take it to a trans shop and have it cleaned up and also to install a shift kit. What would that do for me and/or what is its purpose?

Also they recommended putting in a stall converter instead of using original torque converter. Also what would this do and what is its purpose? Thanks

It depends on what you are after. If it is bone stock engine-wise, there is no real need to do anything to the tranny except fire it up, and see if there are any leaks to deal with. If you have some mods to the motor, then you may want to look to improving the shift quality and if you have a cam/heads/etc. that do not have a good low-end response, then look to a higher stall speed to take advantage of the engine's power band.

The term "shift kit" is a tradmark name of Transgo. I guess it's kind of like a cresant wrench or vise-grips. A good name becomes a standard. For a street vehicle I'd recommend a transgo (also known as Gil Younger kits).

What a shift kit will do is correct many of the "problems" associated with various transmissions. For example, turbo 350 transmissions ran too long in 2nd, down shifted too easy, and had a soft mush shift. The transgo kit includes springs to reprogram the shift and modify fluid pressures for better performance and life. They also modify shift timing to make it crisp. On the other hand, B&M kits tend to bypass many of the shift dampening features. Examples are removing check balls which control clutch apply timing and bypassing accumulators (or weakening thier action) to harshen the shift. A "shift kit" will greatly improve performance and extend the life of the transmission. On the other hand, the less high-tech mods some kits use, will make a harsher shift without fixing what was wrong to begin with. A very harsh shift will take it's toll on the transmission and other driveline parts.

-dnult