With my talks of doggish power when I put down the pedal while in drive above 30mph I’ve been looking into motor upgrades but someone asked me about my tranny and if it dropped down when I floored it. Turns out it doesn’t drop down into a lower gear so I checked out the kickdown lever at the tranny last night and the lever only has about a half inch rotation(counter clock) with the cable removed. Is that normal? All I know from previous owner is it has a 2 stage shift kit.
Factory carb/manifold or aftermarket?
On my 69 XR 7 351W with FMX and Edelbrock carb/manifold I wasn’t getting kickdown because the rod wasn’t being pushed far enough. I got an Edelbrock kickdown extension kit and installed it and now the kickdown works.
Aftermarket Holley I replaced from an edelbrock. From what I understand we don’t have a separate cable to the carb.
More like an inch is normal. You may not have enough travel to reach wide open throttle which could be the real problem.
Pursuant to Royce’s point, I thought I’d post where I have my own similar combination connected on the carburetor bellcrank. The linkage on our '68 302 cars is readily traceable and adjustable while on your back under the car (on jackstands). I’ve got full throttle (primaries vertical) and the kickdown working.
Thanks. What I’m saying though is under the car with the cable and spring disconnected, physically moving the kickdown lever at the transmission only rotates back and forth about half an inch. A video won’t work but basically there’s a pretty audible click stop each way but if I force it down past the stop(clockwise) it’ll move a bit more but grinds. Trying past the stop clockwise it won’t move/grind any further past the stop/click.
What I’m saying though is under the car with the cable and spring disconnected, physically moving the kickdown lever at the transmission only rotates back and forth about half an inch. A video won’t work but basically there’s a pretty audible click stop each way but if I force it down past the stop(clockwise) it’ll move a bit more but grinds. Trying past the stop clockwise it won’t move/grind any further past the stop/click.
I was afraid that was what you meant. Mine’s in storage so I can’t go crawl under it to get ideas. Does the shop manual speak to what might limit travel internally in the C4? If uou don’t have a copy I’ll look in a while.
Update: The most relevant section I found starts on page 7-26, but did not say how to address restricted movement of the downshift lever. Sorry!
Thank you sir for looking into it. I pulled the pan and modulator box yesterday and found the internal part of the kickdown lever in the “box” wasn’t engaging the control valve but simply hung up on the valve box body.
I still need to get the cable and components setup correctly and dump a river of TF in for testing.
If I get it right I’ll add pictures if folks are interested
Update-
I’ve been fighting with trying to get the kickdown to engage. There’s too much slack in the cable/assembly(no more adjustments) and I can’t get anymore throw from the accelerator shaft. I took my linkages to a local mustang guru and he’s saying that the accelerator shaft is likely bent. I tried removing that whole assembly but I can’t get the pedal off even with the help of liquid wrench.
I’m wondering if I need to install an aftermarket setup?
So, just something to think about- But the gas pedal is supposed to be about 3 inches from the floor. That distance will affect the adjustment of the accelerator linkage rod. The picture shows it is bent ‘out’ away from the carb. You don’t have the right throttle return spring on the carb. I’m not trying to be nit picky, just that these short measurements can add up to a lot of linear distance. Also, what is the length of the cable from the trans to the connecting point on the bottom of the accelerator gas pedal? My understanding is that is should only be like 12 3/4 inch. I have read of many other people having a wide range of length, usually too long to work effectively.
Thanks for info- I have adjusted the pedal/throttle linkage and hooked back up the kickdown assembly but still wouldn’t engage. I just tightened the cable as far as I can so I’ll see if that’s the difference after a test drive.
Looks like I finally got it! Oh and by the way, the kickdown cable assembly is around 10” long. Thanks for all the help everyone
