O.K. to remove kickdown cable from '89 3spd auto?

[Brian R]

My accelerator pedal is very difficult to press. It seems to me that the kickdown for the trans is the culprit. Is it O. K. to back it way off or even remove it and just kick down manually when needed? I put a Ford 302 with a C4 in a Mazda pickup a few years ago and ran it without the kickdown rod hooked up. It worked fine. As I recall, it would even kick down most of the time by the vacuum modulator. Does anyone know if this would harm the transmission?

 

[hdm48]

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER run a torqueflite transmission without the kickdown connected!!!!!! Did i mention you should never run a torqueflite without the kickdown connected?

Not unless you have a manual valvebody.

It will fry the transmission in a very short time. The K/D and governer controls all of the shift points and line pressure. Without it the clutch packs and bands will fry themselfs bacause they won't know how much power you are applying and how fast you are going.

Fix it, don't try to put a bandaid on it. If you HAVE to drive it to get parts, lock the lever at about 1/4 throttle. It will shift funny but it will get you where you want to go. This is short term only.



good luck --dave--

 

[Brian R]

Thanks for the info. It sounds like you saved me a great deal of potential grief. The transmission shifts great it's just that pedal takes so much effort to press. My wife drives the truck most of the time and I'd just like to make the pedal easier to press. Any suggestions?

 

[boatpuller]

Just a thought, not sure if it would work, but if you could find a light spring to mount pulling against the throttle return spring it would pull the throttle down, just make sure it wasn't to strong or you could end up going faster than planned.

Thinking more it might be easier just to try and find a lighter return spring.

Hope this helps,

Caleb

 

[bvanetten]

Find out WHY it is hard and fix that. Is it the spring, or is the cable just old and maybe rusty/dirty inside? If it's the cable take it off and work WD 40 or something similar through it. Might have to replace it. You really won't know until you dig into it.



Bruce

 

[Brian R]

It seems like the return spring for the kickdown is the culprit. I was told that this spring is in the transmission above the valve body. It sounds like this problem is not too common. I was hoping someone had encountered something similar.