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Is it bad for the transmission to kickdown.

Evan Frucht

Evan Frucht

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I have a 64 Plymouth fury with a 727 torqueflite. TF-2 shift kit installed and was rebuilt a few months ago.

This is the pushbutton early style trans and requires full throttle for kickdown.

I was curious... if I'm going roughly 40 mph going on freeway and I floor it it will launch forward and kickdown. Is this bad for the trans ? Will the trans not allow me to kick it down if I'm going to fast already or is there no such "governor"
 
If it's working as intended, the governor will prevent it from downshifting at high speeds. Even at 60 it should still kick down.
 
I'm not sure about 64, but in the later factory service manual transmission section, there is actually a chart that shows the speed range and specs for downshifting. Those old books have lots of good little details.
 
As a teenager in the late 60s, my first car was a 383 Commando Sport Fury with torqueflite. it was an exceptionally strong 383 as supported by our Dodge technical rep who lived next door to my family and test drove it. Anyway, I quickly found out it would do a full throttle downshift to first up to 40 mph - above which it would instead go to second. As a teenager, that downshift to a screaming 4500 rpm or so in first at 40 mph with largely blown out glasspacks and the un-silenced air cleaner was truly startling. It was quickly followed by a stiff shift to second that would squeal the tires for a fraction of a second. The effect scared the bejeezzes out of many passengers and other cars who challenged me. I quickly learned that in a rolling street race I had an advantage if I could get into a 35 - 40 mph speed range before dropping the hammer as the first gear downshift, noise and quick shift to second really launched the car and made is seem a lot quicker than it really was overall to the other driver. Anyway - point is as a kid I did probably thousands of full throttle 40 mph downshifts in that old 383 for the 4 years I owned it and the transmission was still solid and strong when I finally sold it.
 
Sounds normal to me. Don't worry. The Torqueflite was (and still is) the best in the business and can take it.Before such things as high stall converters the racers used to neutral drop at the starting line. Kick down won't hurt it.My dad called it "Passin' Gear" back then.
 
Evan Frucht said:
I have a 64 Plymouth fury with a 727 torqueflite. TF-2 shift kit installed and was rebuilt a few months ago. This is the pushbutton early style trans and requires full throttle for kickdown.
Click to expand...

Just curious as I have a 63. I've heard the early 727's required the full throttle for kickdown to occur, and this was changed in later years. Can anyone else confirm this?
 
67 GTX said:
Just curious as I have a 63. I've heard the early 727's required the full throttle for kickdown to occur, and this was changed in later years. Can anyone else confirm this?
Click to expand...
Confirmed
Late 60's or early 70's TF's had the part throttle kickdown I forget what exact year it started
 
It was around 71-72 for part throttle kickdown, depending on particular trans. Leaning Tower of Power was first maybe.
 
Part throttle kickdown (PTK) was introduced in the /6 904 in '67, in '71 for the V8 727.
 
AR67GTX said:
As a teenager in the late 60s, my first car was a 383 Commando Sport Fury with torqueflite. it was an exceptionally strong 383 as supported by our Dodge technical rep who lived next door to my family and test drove it. Anyway, I quickly found out it would do a full throttle downshift to first up to 40 mph - above which it would instead go to second. As a teenager, that downshift to a screaming 4500 rpm or so in first at 40 mph with largely blown out glasspacks and the un-silenced air cleaner was truly startling. It was quickly followed by a stiff shift to second that would squeal the tires for a fraction of a second. The effect scared the bejeezzes out of many passengers and other cars who challenged me. I quickly learned that in a rolling street race I had an advantage if I could get into a 35 - 40 mph speed range before dropping the hammer as the first gear downshift, noise and quick shift to second really launched the car and made is seem a lot quicker than it really was overall to the other driver. Anyway - point is as a kid I did probably thousands of full throttle 40 mph downshifts in that old 383 for the 4 years I owned it and the transmission was still solid and strong when I finally sold it.
Click to expand...
Ya I basically asked because it is quite jarring to kick it down at higher speeds.

I havent tried to kick down at highway speeds over 40 yet because I wasn't sure if the trans would stop it from going all the way to 1st and I didn't want to break something or put unnecessary stress on the trans.

I did floor it while getting on the freeway to sort of test it out. I was going about 40 when it kicked down all the way to 1st and basically took off like a rocket. Was a very hard and fast shift... it might of chirped the tires but while accelerating that fast I forgot to pay attention. Scared my passenger as well, lol!
 
Last edited:
Evan Frucht said:
I did floor it while getting on the freeway to sort of test it out. I was going about 40 when it kicked down all the way to 1st and basically took off like a rocket. Was a very hard and fast shift... it might of chirped the tires but while accelerating that fast I forgot to pay attention. Scared my passenger as well, lol!
Click to expand...

That brings back lots of memories. :)
 
Evan Frucht said:
Ya I basically asked because it is quite jarring to kick it down at higher speeds.

I havent tried to kick down at highway speeds over 40 yet because I wasn't sure if the trans would stop it from going all the way to 1st and I didn't want to break something or put unnecessary stress on the trans.

I did floor it while getting on the freeway to sort of test it out. I was going about 40 when it kicked down all the way to 1st and basically took off like a rocket. Was a very hard and fast shift... it might of chirped the tires but while accelerating that fast I forgot to pay attention. Scared my passenger as well, lol!
Click to expand...

Yep, mine does that as well. I find it so weird that it does it. It'll slow for a split second to downshift, downshift, push me back and than almost immediately upshift. Would've actually been quicker to just accelerate without doing all of that.
 
Kicking down all the way to 1st at 40 mph is a consequence of the TF-2 mods, normally won't occur much above 35 mph.
 
My 64 Sport Fury would hit first up to 40 mph with a 3.23 rear. This was in 1968 and essentially stock motor except somehow it acquired a dual point distributor. I took frequent advantage of it.
 
.

Shift.png
 
Possibly my car acquired a 426 A727 in it's first 36k miles but it would go to 1rst gear from 3rd at any speed up to 40 mph - did it all the time as a teenager. Everyone who rode with me was always surprised/shocked when I nailed it at 38 - 39 mph as were a bunch of pseudo musclecars.
 
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