That's where this no kickdown mentality came from. Chevy guys. That's the first thing they take off and throw in the ditch. I never understood why, because the transmission will still shift manually with it installed. Just because the Chevy transmission can live without it, doesn't mean it's a good thing.
It seems to cross over to the Mopar camp a LOT with newbie Mopar owners, too. I cannot count the number of Mopars I've seen come in without kickdown linkage. It's crazy. Every part on a car has a purpose. You'd think people suddenly became smarter than automotive engineers.
Yup, like Tracy said, under no circumstances run without the throttle pressure (kickdown) linkage. Also, it's not even recommended to wire the lever back. Here's why. Yup, we're fixin to learn sumffin. With the throttle pressure valve at the transmission wired all the way back, yeah, you got plenty of throttle pressure, but just all the frikkin time. This will lead to extremely harsh part throttle upshifts. So hard in fact, that I've seen a transmission break the front drum from it. So shifting manually does nothing and wiring the lever back is bad. Unless you have a full manual valve body, you MUST run the throttle pressure linkage, or the transmission will burn up high gear first, followed by second and finally first. The transmission line pressure MUST increase as throttle pressure is increased, otherwise there will be no fluid pressure to hold the clutches together as engine power increases and the clutches will fail, highest gear at the time. Oh yeah, and find another transmission guy......or learn it yourself. The Torqueflite is the easiest of all automatic transmissions to master, IMO. Even easier than the Powerglide.
