727 pump pressure arm at idle

[Mike Z]

The new intake and Holley is on. I have Locar cables. The throttle and the trans arm are set but at Idle on a 727 should it be at all the way bottomed out foreward or a little on it. At full throttle all the way back. Just checking with the pros. I Hate to burn her up. Thanks in advance,
Mike Z.

 

[Garys1969RR]

There is a light spring that holds the kick down linkage all the way forward on the slot in the linkage arm when the throttle is closed. Then I set mine with the carb wide open, then the linkage is pushed back all the way, except maybe 1/8 inch clearance so that it dont prevent the throttle opening up all the way. Hope this makes sense. LOL

 

[dpstark2]

The kickdown lever at the transmission should be all the way toward the front of the car with no throttle pressure... AND all the way to the back at full throttle. This is where the Lokar units have trouble. I have an Edelbrock carb and Lokar cable, and the cable travel at the carb did not match the amount required at the transmission to use the lever appropriately. If I set it up for full throttle, shifts came in very late. If I set it at 0 throttle, shifts came in early. A Holley will be different, but this has bit numerous people.

I ended up drilling the transmission lever and moving the attachment point for the cable toward the pivot in order to get the throw just right. It took some measuring and trial and error, but it works now.

There are two other things to keep in mind: There is a little slack in the kickdown lever inside the transmission. This generally goes away with the car running. If you're exploring this under the car with the car off, make sure you push the lever all the way to the front before measuring. You should have at least a 90 degree swing on the lever front to back.

Second, the factory linkage would actually push the lever forward when you returned to 0 or light throttle. The cable cannot do this. Therefore, it's a good idea to add a spring down at the transmission (a light one) to pull the lever back. The friction in the cable can really add up, and doing this helped mine behave a lot better.

 

[Mike Z]

Dpstark,
Would you wat the spring to pull foreward on the arm?
I notice that it really has to wind up some to get it to go into third or you have to let out of the throttle to get it to go into third. 1 to 2 is good but 2 to 3 is irratating?
Thanks Guys.
Mike Z.

 

[mattsinger]

The kickdown lever at the transmission should be all the way toward the front of the car with no throttle pressure... AND all the way to the back at full throttle. This is where the Lokar units have trouble. I have an Edelbrock carb and Lokar cable, and the cable travel at the carb did not match the amount required at the transmission to use the lever appropriately. If I set it up for full throttle, shifts came in very late. If I set it at 0 throttle, shifts came in early. A Holley will be different, but this has bit numerous people.

I ended up drilling the transmission lever and moving the attachment point for the cable toward the pivot in order to get the throw just right. It took some measuring and trial and error, but it works now.

There are two other things to keep in mind: There is a little slack in the kickdown lever inside the transmission. This generally goes away with the car running. If you're exploring this under the car with the car off, make sure you push the lever all the way to the front before measuring. You should have at least a 90 degree swing on the lever front to back.

Second, the factory linkage would actually push the lever forward when you returned to 0 or light throttle. The cable cannot do this. Therefore, it's a good idea to add a spring down at the transmission (a light one) to pull the lever back. The friction in the cable can really add up, and doing this helped mine behave a lot better.

Any chance your have the measurements how/where you modified the throttle arm to help others of us??

Thanks
Matt

 

[Garys1969RR]

On Mine you have to let up on the gas a little before it will go into 3rd on part throttle. Was wonderin if the trans was developing a problem. And I'm running stock kick down linkage.

 

[dpstark2]

If you add a spring to your kickdown lever, it should pull the lever toward the front of the car (a very light spring!).

So I'm no expert, but I have monkeyed with my trans to get it where I want it. Regarding the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts- on a non-hemi car, you usually get the 1-2 shift in a bit earlier than 2-3. At WOT for me, that was 4-4.2krpm vs. 4.5-4.6krpm. I installed a 1-2 shift spring from A&A to correct this. WARNING: it has side effects. I would simply live with that situation with what I know now. Without going into hydraulic details, the 1-2 shift spring also controls automatic downshift when slowing. This spring now puts my car in 1st any time I slow to about 12 mph.... Annoying.

But I digress- if you're running a cable and having issues, try a spring. Also, measure cable travel at the carb level (0-WOT). It's easy to do. Disconnect the linkage and measure from the lever to the cable sheath mouth at 0 and WOT and subtract.

Then, measure cable travel of the lever at the trans by manually pulling the cable and measuring how far it moves. Now you know what you want (first measurement) and what you have (second).

So, yank your trans lever off the trans, and measure from pivot point to the current cable attachment point. Do some geometry and work out your current angle through with the lever travels. Then work backwards to figure out what the pivot-to-center distance should be to get the first measurement.

Or guess! I made two mistakes before getting mine right! I don't have exact measurements and it will be different for every setup, but I ended up with my cable attaching about 1-1/4" from the pivot on the trans lever. Less than half what it was originally...

Garys1969RR: I can't comment on your situation much, but I would shorten your kickdown lever and see if 1-2 changes (hopefully not) and 2-3 comes in correctly (hopefully so). "All the way back" and "all the way forward" are subjective in this situation and there is play in the lever. These things take fiddling to get right in my experience. Even things like fluid type can have an effect (especially if the trans is wearing).