Totally a hypothetical question ;)

Is this question really hypothetical?

  • Yes

    Votes: 2 16.7%

  • No

    Votes: 7 58.3%

  • I refuse to answer poll questions

    Votes: 3 25.0%
  • Total voters
    12
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dartnlo said:
Or your head is going to make a new hole in your window. Ouch!
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Fortunately those 2WD D50’s have no weight in the back. So all they do in that situation is break traction and wheelhop. 2500 pounds of V8 Truck and you can grab the rear bumper, lift the back tires off the ground and crab walk the truck in a circle.

Downside, there is no traction. Makes a nasty 3 Gear long burnout though.
 
Stupid question.....
If the kick down linkage is free hanging ie in full throttle position. Why would that have any effect on the trans except for shift point. Earlier someone said the trans pressures would be lower. This does not make sense to me, why would the trans be in low pressure mode during a full power situation? Seems it should be the other way around.
Again as i pointed out it is a stupid question.
 
I would say that all in all, if there was a rod and bracket link hooked up at all, then hypothetical dingleberry's transmission is okay, sounds like throttle valve linkage weight made it fall back to about 60-80%% engagement if the spring and linkage is set at the transmission properly. Then if wide open and long stud is present on the carb that engages the long slot link of the kickdown apparatus the link would get pushed on back... It's almost like it was engineered to fall back to this point if the spring broke as if it were perceived by the engineers to be a maximum safe low throttle pressure point for the transmission to operate at in case of a return spring failure... I've seen it happen more than once with no more damage than shifting early and only marginally firmer...
 
So, all in all I hope I learned this lesson without any pain. I now understand what that kickdown really does. I always assumed it just kicked the trans into a lower gear for passing and such. I thought without it you just would be accelerating in Drive instead of 2nd. I had no idea it altered line pressure. To say I don't know much about how an automatic transmission works is an understatement, but I'm learning. Hopefully I don't get to learn how to rebuild one anytime soon...
 
Garrett Ellison said:
I would say that all in all, if there was a rod and bracket link hooked up at all, then hypothetical dingleberry's transmission is okay, sounds like throttle valve linkage weight made it fall back to about 60-80%% engagement if the spring and linkage is set at the transmission properly. Then if wide open and long stud is present on the carb that engages the long slot link of the kickdown apparatus the link would get pushed on back... It's almost like it was engineered to fall back to this point if the spring broke as if it were perceived by the engineers to be a maximum safe low throttle pressure point for the transmission to operate at in case of a return spring failure... I've seen it happen more than once with no more damage than shifting early and only marginally firmer...
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Yes, at least for the 500 mile trip - it was installed, just not the kickdown return spring on the carb. I'm hoping you are right! After reading the horror stories of low pressure eating up a trans in a few miles, I imagine driving straight through 500 miles it wouldn't have made it and would have been slipping as I went through about 40 towns on the way home.
 
Absolutely should be okay, I presently have a 904 that suffered the same exact problem and it was the first item on the car I worked on, been over a year now with no problems and had quite a bit of road time beforehand... Now, if only they put something as robust as a torqueflite in place of the 7-1/4 rear end...
 
If it was mine (hypothetically) I would drop the pan change the filter and atf fluid check for any signs of damage hook up the lockdown and return correctly and drive it see how it works. If it changes gears and shifts smoothly you will probably be ok if not it is broke regardless so I dont see why it would hurt to try.
 
904 slipping in reverse on first startup of the day is sort of normal
 
Just to clear things up, the 500 miles did have the linkage on it, just no return spring. I also drove some in-town with it off without knowing. When last parked I was changing the trans filter and fluid, also working on the carb. That's when I noticed the kickdown was missing. At that time, it was no worse than when I picked it up and there was nothing to speak of in the pan. So basically I'm hopeful. Thanks everybody for the information. I've already hooked up the new linkage, correctly this time. When I get the interior back in next week I'll for sure test drive. It should shift better than it has since I started driving it!
 
dartnlo said:
Translation:

I drove 500 miles with the kickdown linkage not hooked up. Does this really hurt the transmission? :D
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If I read the story correctly and your upshifts were delayed to higher speeds, and downshifts occurred before stopping as well, then your kickdown linkage was keeping your throttle input higher than actual. That means you absolutely did NOT cause any additional damage or wear to the clutch packs on that 500 mile drive.
When the trans starts off in second or has lower pressure from lack of throttle input, that would cause clutch slippage, or damage.
Yours should be in as good of shape as it was before your trip, whatever shape that happens to be.
 
I have lost at least one Mopar trans to no kickdown/improperly adjusted kickdown and personally know of several more.

What happens is that the 2-3 shift starts taking too long and then slipping.
It gets progressively worse.
Eventually, instead of making that shift it just slips and will only be driveable if held in second.

If you absolutely have to drive a Mopar without kickdown, wire the linkage back so there is at least some pressure. This is kind of an art, because if you get it wrong, you can still lose the trans.
 
Mechanics Rule #2 - Whenever you drop something it will naturally fall to the the exact spot where it can do the most damage. ( Also known as the Law of Selective Gravitation). Examples: wrench shorts out the battery, screw goes down the carburetor, etc, etc, etc.
 
Dana67Dart said:
904 slipping in reverse on first startup of the day is sort of normal
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It is not normal for a trans to slip at all, for first start or after its been parked for a while, throw trans in neutral while car warms up, the torque convert drains when parked and the pump doesn't move much, if any, fluid in park, but pumps in neutral and gets torque converter filled before you put it in gear.
 
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gtsdude said:
It is not normal for a trans to slip at all, for first start or after its been parked for a while, throw trans in neutral while car warms up, the torque convert drains when parked and the pump doesn't move much, if any, fluid in park, but pumps in neutral and gets torque converter filled before you put it in gear.
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Yes, I've started doing this as I realized that letting it slip into reverse obviously was a bad thing. It helps quite a bit. I had gotten to used to vehicles that warm up in park.
 
TC draining is a thing, but not normal.

Replace or rebuild will fix.
 
gtsdude said:
throw trans in neutral while car warms up, the torque convert drains when parked and the pump doesn't move much fluid in park, but does in neutral
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That is the issue I was speaking to. if you don't do as you posted, at least my and a few others' transmissions slip in reverse. Perhaps the OP when he posted that his seemed to be slipping in reverse has this issue and nothing more.

just a thought.
 
And I can help you with the 4-speed thing,lol
As to the real man bit, that was decided at conception; DNA don't lie,lol. and not a good thing to mess with it, cuz the last time they did that, God flooded the the earth.
butyah, I got a kit almost complete.
 
Isn't putting a 4 spd into an automatic car like a sex change operation?
 
YY1 said:
I have lost at least one Mopar trans to no kickdown/improperly adjusted kickdown and personally know of several more.

What happens is that the 2-3 shift starts taking too long and then slipping.
It gets progressively worse.
Eventually, instead of making that shift it just slips and will only be driveable if held in second.

If you absolutely have to drive a Mopar without kickdown, wire the linkage back so there is at least some pressure. This is kind of an art, because if you get it wrong, you can still lose the trans.
Click to expand...
You are absolutely right, YY1. I have wired a transmission pressure lever in place when the kickdown was missing, and it definitely is "an art" because it is very sensitive to its position, so it is very hard to get it just right, and very hard get it to stay there after it is wired. To get the lever to stay in place, I finally ended up using a very small turnbuckle from the local hardware store, putting it between a hole on the transmission case and the lever. I set it to shift into 2nd at about 15mph.
 
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