to @CudaFactHackJob
Bottom line;
That was the mid to late 70s so I can't tell you what exactly I all did or in what order, but the end-result was, IMO, pretty slick
===============
As for the governor:
This story begins in about 1976, and I was 23 and totally ignorant of autos.
But I was working as a manual-trans rebuilder, and was friends with all the team of other specialists, so I jumped right in, expecting that they could bail me out if I screwed up.
I had just bought this 69 Barracuda and just replaced the oil-burning pig in it. The car had 2.76s and a 225, so it was a bit of a turd IMO. I wanted to keep the hi-way gears, and since I worked at this rebuild shop, the owner made me a deal on what was at that time called, a "Dirt-Jerker" TC; which turned out to be a 2800 behind my new slanty.
And I rebuilt the A904, with HD parts and a TF-III/full-manual shift kit.
But I got real tired of having to shift all the time so converted it to TF-II/semi-automatic status right quick.
Of course with 2.76s in the back the governor pressure did not match what the TC was doing. Since this was a hiway car, the 2.76s were staying.
So I had to learn about governors, and how to fine-tune them to make them do what I wanted it to do.
What I learned was that line pressure and governor pressure are always battling for supremacy. If the governor wins, you get a shift. If line pressure is augmented with throttle pressure from the KD adjuster, then the governor loses..... for a while, until the driveshaft speed bumps the governor back up into supremacy.
So really all I had to do was get the Governor flyweight into the ballpark, so the KD mechanism could be adjusted for the right Throttle Pressure.
You probably know all about this part.
At this time I had never heard of a PT downshift valve.
So you can guess how that went.
I could get the system to work pretty good over a narrow throttle setting, but the trans would often downshift one gear, when I really didn't need or want it to.
So then I started playing the line-pressure off the throttle pressure; but quickly discovered that the line-pressure adjustment range was very limited. And it was too easy to make the trans bang into gear with too much pressure when stopped, and I didn't like that; remember I'm 23, just shacked up/engaged/or married ( can't recall), and this is my first real job, so no future to speak of, and I better not break this trans.
(BTW, for those who want to know; I didn't get saved or baptized until 1993 so shacked up was not a big deal to me at that time.)
So that wasn't gonna be the best solution for me.
I really needed that PT valve, but hadn't yet heard of it.
The way I figured it, that KD mech should have been designed differently, with the first portion dedicated to throttle pressure and the second portion to KD; so I set about to see what I could do in that direction.
of course the miles are piling on, time is ticking, and the boys in the shop are rebuilders not Hot-Rodders or not into Mopars, so no help coming from them.
By this time I had figured out that I didn't like the Accumulator defeated so I hunted up a few springs from the shop trash bin and found something I liked, then moved on.
What I ended up doing is; I disconnected the KD mech from the throttle-arm, then tied the KD lever back about 75% of the resistance range NOT the travel-range, then worked on the governor until I got that working the way I liked it. Then clipping the tieback and reinstalling the KD, and voila.
Now I could floor it and get 4500rpm automatic upshifts,
or I could signal an earlier upshift by lifting, or
I could still hold it to 5000 with a manual shift, or,
Not at WOT, I could let the trans do it's thing, albeit with slightly higher rpm automatic upshifts than might be considered normal.
Then I happened one day, to be driving my buddy's babysitter home, a young boy, just old enough to have a driver's license, and he freaked out and was very keen to have this car.
Well I knew he had no money.
but I knew he had recently totaled his 340 Duster,
So I made him a deal for parts, and that "Warm-Rod" went down the road.
I liked that Dirt-Jerker so much I went and got me another for my next car, a 73Swinger 318/904/ and you guessed it 2.76s. But those were very soon replaced with an 8.25 with 4.10s. And this car, had the PT valve in it Now we're getting into the 80s.
Bottom line;
That was the mid to late 70s so I can't tell you what exactly I all did, or in what order, but the end-result was pretty slick ....... IMO.
