Should it downshift?

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FlDart360

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Since I have never owned a car with this engine transmission combo I wasn’t sure if there is room for improvement here. Driving at 60mph should I expect a downshift from my 727 if I give it wide open throttle? My rear gear is 3:55 and I’m using an aftermarket Lokar shift cable. The car shifts ok under normal acceleration. My RPM at 60 is about 2800. Could I have missed something when installing the Lokar or is this to high of a speed to expect it to jump to second gear?

Thanks to all on this form for the help you have provided. It would be a long road without the information available here.
 
What year is your transmission? Early transmissions didn't have a part throttle Kickdown. I think it changed in 1968? I'll have to pull out my book.
 
I believe 1971 was the first year for part throttle kickdown in the V8
 
Indeed, if it does not have the part throttle kickdown valve assembly, it will not down shift. That's a nice upgrade to do to one and it's not difficult to do.
 
What year is your transmission? Early transmissions didn't have a part throttle Kickdown. I think it changed in 1968? I'll have to pull out my book.


Being the second owner of the car very little was passed on from the previous own. Here are some numbers i found on the tail shaft area of the transmission maybe they might help 4006830-3602 .
 
Being the second owner of the car very little was passed on from the previous own. Here are some numbers i found on the tail shaft area of the transmission maybe they might help 4006830-3602 .

The numbers you're looking for are on the side of the pan rail. I forget which side......just get them ALL and post them and one of these guys will decipher it for you.
 
Indeed, if it does not have the part throttle kickdown valve assembly, it will not down shift. That's a nice upgrade to do to one and it's not difficult to do.


The P O also told me that it has a cheetah kit. When i put it in drive it shifts hard going thru the gears but it does so on its own it's not a manual valve body or reverse pattern. Figured i should have mentioned this also.
 
The P O also told me that it has a cheetah kit. When i put it in drive it shifts hard going thru the gears but it does so on its own it's not a manual valve body or reverse pattern. Figured i should have mentioned this also.

That won't have anything to do with the down shift, I don't believe. Find those numbers and we'll know for sure.
 
Numbers should be on the driver's side pan rail, just above where the pan bolts on and below where the lines connect.
 
I seriously doubt you would get a downshift at 60 anyway unless you set your TP so high it would be annoying around town.
 
I talked to Tracy (fishy68) about this a while back, I had a 68 727 transmission, 3.91 gears that would shift at 4500 rpm at WOT. He said If it shifts into each gear at a very low rpm such as 4000-4500 the governor won't let it downshift at very high speeds. You can remedy this by installing a higher RPM governor set that A&A sells. That's the problem. If it shifts at 4500 at WOT it won't have much for kickdown down the road. I'd pick the governor that's closest to the rpm your engines power peaks at. He also talked about adding a part throttle kickdown and he usually puts them on every Mopar transmission he does.
 
I just remembered he had me change the 1-2 shift spring to so it would shift at the 5400 rpm governor I installed. So now both 1-2 shift and the 2-3 shift points are the same 5400 rpm at WOT. If you do not change the 1-2 shift spring, the 1-2 comes in lower than the 2-3 shift at 5400 rpm at WOT. I now have kickdown at 65-70 and down at WOT.
 
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Well I have been rained out on my attempt to get under the car. My garage is tied up with another project so my only option was the driveway and Mother Nature put an end to that. Maybe it will die down in a bit.
 
Since I have never owned a car with this engine transmission combo I wasn’t sure if there is room for improvement here. Driving at 60mph should I expect a downshift from my 727 if I give it wide open throttle? My rear gear is 3:55 and I’m using an aftermarket Lokar shift cable. The car shifts ok under normal acceleration. My RPM at 60 is about 2800. Could I have missed something when installing the Lokar or is this to high of a speed to expect it to jump to second gear?

Thanks to all on this form for the help you have provided. It would be a long road without the information available here.
That’s probably too high of a rpm. I dont think the Cheatah will down shift. I could be wrong though. Will it down shift a a lower speed/rpm? With it shifting that hard the line pressure may be too high for it to shift down. Kim
 
That’s probably too high of a rpm. I dont think the Cheatah will down shift. I could be wrong though. Will it down shift a a lower speed/rpm? With it shifting that hard the line pressure may be too high for it to shift down. Kim


You know Kim now that you brought it up I'm not 100% sure if it has down shifted before? This weekend i will road test and see what happens at a much lower speed and RPM. I am also going to hunt down the serial numbers on or near the pan rail.
 
Ok I was able to get something done today. I took the car out and punched it from 45MPH and yes it did downshift at that speed. Second I retrieved the serial number off the pan rail. PK432 9438 8666 6243.

Last weekend when I punched it from 60MPH and it stayed in 3rd maybe that might be normal??? I would still be curious what the serial number says about this transmission just so I might know a little more about what I have. Thanks.
 
Your transmission - 4329438
Is from a 1985 dodge truck
318 , 727 , non - lockup , HD , long Ext...

At least that's what my chart says.
 
Ok, so now we know the truck had way taller tires. So now the governor needs to be changed to a higher rpm so that the tranny will kick down. Ur little tires have the rpm’s too high for the kd to work at a decent speed. Check ur rpm at speed then call A&A and they will set up. Kim
 
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