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Added a Lokar kickdown cable but have a question.

BeepBeepRR

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I installed a Lokar cable but the question is should I add a spring to pull the kickdown back to the I guess you could call it closed position? The reason I ask is because the kickdown lever kind of floats between a half inch where it doesn't really feel like its doing anything. I also get hard shifts. Hard enough to make a bang sort of sound in the rear of the car. If I Set the cable to where the kickdown is all the way forward there is play in thee cable there is no smooth transition. Or is there a way to remove the play in the kickdown lever?

Did the same kickdown on my friends GTX and no issues smooth shifting. This is the kickdown in the Roadrunner. Its just acts different. Maybe I'll make a video of what I am talking about to clarify.
 
I installed a Lokar cable but the question is should I add a spring to pull the kickdown back to the I guess you could call it closed position? The reason I ask is because the kickdown lever kind of floats between a half inch where it doesn't really feel like its doing anything. I also get hard shifts. Hard enough to make a bang sort of sound in the rear of the car. If I Set the cable to where the kickdown is all the way forward there is play in thee cable there is no smooth transition. Or is there a way to remove the play in the kickdown lever?

Did the same kickdown on my friends GTX and no issues smooth shifting. This is the kickdown in the Roadrunner. Its just acts different. Maybe I'll make a video of what I am talking about to clarify.

I had a similar problem when I put lokar cables on my Charger and the simple thing that seems to work is putting a mild spring on the transmission lever that goes forward towards the bell housing to keep light tension on that lever. The cable pulls from the rear and the rod linkage was pushing from the front and also had a similar return spring on the throttle to make sure that transmission lever follows the throttle pressure and returns properly to control the shifting. Hope this helps you.
:luvplace: … Pictures are not very good but I wasn’t thinking about documenting so much as getting the cable working properly. :xscuseless:

3794FD08-D3C7-43DB-BCC7-94D5A023B2A2.jpeg B1D0DCB1-CD77-43F2-8D63-9408E22B46C4.jpeg 215F8F7F-92D7-41F1-AFF4-24CDD00111D0.jpeg 12E5FC7E-CD93-49D6-BE1D-4808B3BC42F4.jpeg
 
I believe that spring was to prevent the kickdown from sticking and keeping the throttle open it's pretty important
 
I believe that spring was to prevent the kickdown from sticking and keeping the throttle open it's pretty important

That’s what I was thinking and then it’s just putting the spring on the other end because the cable operates in the reverse on the lever.
 
Yea When I put the lokar cable in it just seemed to have a large amount of free play in the kick down lever. I figured a spring would help it return to the starting point.
I will make a video of what I am talking about when I get off my lazy *** and crawl under the car.
 
I have a spring on the Swinger's throttle lever to pull it and the cable back... been trying to find a picture that shows it..

Found one from pre car cleanup...
1969dartswingercleanup 028.JPG
 
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I got a long spring and tried it. But the spring was too stiff and it was harder to mash the go pedal. So I got out and stretched it quite a bit and now the pedal feels good and the shifting seems to have stopped the harsh shifting. Thank god. It was like 2nd to 3rd bang. Much smoother now.
 
I installed a Lokar cable but the question is should I add a spring to pull the kickdown back to the I guess you could call it closed position? The reason I ask is because the kickdown lever kind of floats between a half inch where it doesn't really feel like its doing anything. I also get hard shifts. Hard enough to make a bang sort of sound in the rear of the car. If I Set the cable to where the kickdown is all the way forward there is play in thee cable there is no smooth transition. Or is there a way to remove the play in the kickdown lever?

Did the same kickdown on my friends GTX and no issues smooth shifting. This is the kickdown in the Roadrunner. Its just acts different. Maybe I'll make a video of what I am talking about to clarify.
I installed a Lokar cable but the question is should I add a spring to pull the kickdown back to the I guess you could call it closed position? The reason I ask is because the kickdown lever kind of floats between a half inch where it doesn't really feel like its doing anything. I also get hard shifts. Hard enough to make a bang sort of sound in the rear of the car. If I Set the cable to where the kickdown is all the way forward there is play in thee cable there is no smooth transition. Or is there a way to remove the play in the kickdown lever?

Did the same kickdown on my friends GTX and no issues smooth shifting. This is the kickdown in the Roadrunner. Its just acts different. Maybe I'll make a video of what I am talking about to clarify.
I have a return spring attached to my kickdown arm as this is the way they say to set your linkage to wot removing the slack so as the carb pulls the kickdown arm moves rearward on the transmission increasing the pressure for kickdown as I understand it. My arm on the trans was longer than the edelbrock arm on the carb so I measured the distance on the pull side of the carb and drilled a hole in the kickdown arm to match the leverage making it a 1 to 1 ratio. This again as I understand it is exactly what the metal push rods did from the factory. 1 to 1 ratio...As far as the banging, did you rebuild the transmission? I'm not sure but doesn't the accumulator valve have something to do with hard shifts in the spring load?
 
I have a return spring attached to my kickdown arm as this is the way they say to set your linkage to wot removing the slack so as the carb pulls the kickdown arm moves rearward on the transmission increasing the pressure for kickdown as I understand it. My arm on the trans was longer than the edelbrock arm on the carb so I measured the distance on the pull side of the carb and drilled a hole in the kickdown arm to match the leverage making it a 1 to 1 ratio. This again as I understand it is exactly what the metal push rods did from the factory. 1 to 1 ratio...As far as the banging, did you rebuild the transmission? I'm not sure but doesn't the accumulator valve have something to do with hard shifts in the spring load?
Its a Hughes performance transmission. It didn't shift like that with the kick down linkage. It was not until I put the Lokar on it. I do not know why or how it made a difference but it did. When I put the spring on it made it much smoother.
 
I have a return spring attached to my kickdown arm as this is the way they say to set your linkage to wot removing the slack so as the carb pulls the kickdown arm moves rearward on the transmission increasing the pressure for kickdown as I understand it. My arm on the trans was longer than the edelbrock arm on the carb so I measured the distance on the pull side of the carb and drilled a hole in the kickdown arm to match the leverage making it a 1 to 1 ratio. This again as I understand it is exactly what the metal push rods did from the factory. 1 to 1 ratio...As far as the banging, did you rebuild the transmission? I'm not sure but doesn't the accumulator valve have something to do with hard shifts in the spring load?
How far down the arm did you drill the hole? Mine doesn't seem to pull enough. I have a Sniper with the Lokar throttle cable, trans cable and Lokar carb bracket.
 
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