KICK DOWN CABLE

[olzook]

If my Auto box is kicking down too early, ie with a bit too much vigour, do I need to tighten or slacken the kick down cable ??

I was thinking about this and have now got totally confuddled.

Help please.

Cheers

[davew]

There is a collar crimped onto the cable at the factory, when the throttle is closed the crimp should be approx 1/8 of an inch from the end of the adjuster. The collar may look like some sort of stop but it is actually crimped there to "calibrate" the cable. You should then feel the "click" of the kickdown at around 95% throttle.

Tightening the cable will make it kick down earlier and hang onto gears for longer. It is possible that a harsh kickdown is caused by the kickdown cable being either too slack or too tight. If it's too tight than the kickdown is too early and, due to the lower revs, it may change down more than one gear. If it's too loose it'll kick down when the engine is at full power which, in turn gives a harsher change.

Don't makle the mistake of assuming the kickdown cable only adjusts the kickdown, ithe kickdown is the small area after the "click", for the rest of the throttle range the cable adjusts the hydraulic pressures inside the box so effects all gear changes and the lock up.

[olzook]

Cheers Dave, will check later.

[Matthews]

The settigs for the diseasel are different to the V8 but as a reference I've got mine set so you can feel the extra little resistance of the cable operating the kick down valve just before the pedal hits the floor/pedal stop, this seems pretty good, I could probably fine tune it a bit more but there have been other priorities to deal with.
Matthew