Lost Kickdown

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Freezerman

Freezerman

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I have a 72 Dart with 5.9 magnum and 904 transmission. It has a Cope valve body a few years old that has part throttle kickdown on it. I have never been able to get the part throttle to work but the full throttle was working with a BPE setup. I changed the 1-2 shift speed spring to raise the 2nd gear shift RPM. After that I can only get downshift if I preload the throttle pressure arm so far that I can't get full throttle. Any ideas on what I need to adjust for that or why I never had part throttle kick down?
 
It sounds like a linkage problem. There should be no throttle pressure (kickdown) at idle but the lever should be full open at full throttle. If not, there is a mechanical advantage issue with the linkage. You didn't mention if you had manual linkage on the car. A mis matched pivot arm from a wrong application could cause the problem.
 
Thanks, I have the Bouchillon cable kit. I have had the mechanical, Lokar, now BPE. For my setup BPE has been the best. I did have full throttle kickdown until I changed the spring, without changing the linkage the kickdown changed. Now if I shorten the travel enough to get kickdown, I only get half throttle at the carb. I tried moving the pin on the carb linkage to make the kickdown lever ratio lower it still didn't help.
 
I'm using the bouchillon cable with my 727. Are you using the transmission kickdown lever that came with the kit? Try disconnecting your transmission cable and see if you can then get full throttle. If you can then the transmission cable is not adjusted properly and hanging up the throttle. You should get full throttle and the kickdown lever full rearward at the same time if adjusted correctly. That's all I got.

Here are the instructions for a refresher. Resources: Kickdown Cable Installation Instructions - Bouchillon Performance Engineering
 
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I'm pretty sure it is something with the valve body, I just don't know what. I am using the kickdown lever, spring, cable, bracket. It was working until I changed the 1-2 shift spring. It is a Cope modified valve body and I checked the stem of the TV valve was ground down on the end like a TF2 kit calls for. It is more like 7/32" instead of 9/32" though, would that cause problems being ground down too much?
 
Pulled the pan to check the valve body. Found some metal flakes which are new, never had any before, but what is more concerning is the metal piece. Any ideas what it is?

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Ouch.. Since it was determined earlier not to be linkage related and this is a CRT valve body I think the questions you are asking would be best directed to Cope now. Good luck!
 
Thanks. After looking at the valve body it is the bent tab part of the throttle valve lever that the limit screw hits. Got new lever coming from A and A. Going to put in a new governor kit from Sonnax too. The old one is ground to 7/32". TF2 kit says 9/32", going to leave it unground this time
 
Just to follow up on this. After replacing the throttle valve governor and lever the kickdown works again. Moral of the story, if you install a TF2 shift kit, do Not grind down the governor stem per instruction. It becomes too short to get good downshift.
 
Freezerman said:
Just to follow up on this. After replacing the throttle valve governor and lever the kickdown works again. Moral of the story, if you install a TF2 shift kit, do Not grind down the governor stem per instruction. It becomes too short to get good downshift.
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Glad u got it fixed. Or if u don’t grind it some it can shift down to soon cause there is to much throttle pressure. Kim
 
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