Guys Im Kinda new at this, what exactly is a servo, and what does it do?

 

If you're talking about servos in the auto trans, they are nothing more than a piston with a lip seal around the edge that fits in a bore, like an engine piston in a cylinder. When trans fluid acts on the servo, it most likely applies a band to hold a drum.

So in other words, it just applies linear actuation to something.

 

Great, but what exactly does it do to the transmission, performance wise>?

 

you have a band that surrounds a drum to turn it. a stock servo applies let's say 40 pounds pressure. a vette servo in the same application will apply 60 pounds pressure. thus holding the band tighter on the drum to reduce slippage. it does this by the amount of force and coverage area. sounds good. i think that;s about the best explanation i can come up with. there are some tranny guru's here that can explain it better.