Is the kickdown linkage set up right?
The spring with the red arrow pointing to it in post #13, about the fourth pic down, should be removed; it does nothing except reduce the effectiveness of the throttle return spring. The spring attached to the front of the kickdown rod is OK other than being too heavy, and yes, on some Mopars that is where the kickdown spring is attached, and, although the factory drilled a hole for the spring, it can work without it. Here's the spring setup on a big block.
As for the bolt mentioned above, it appears to me that its purpose is to compensate for the kickdown rod being too short. Probably will work, although it's not a particularly elegant solution. It also effectively shortens the slot and therefore the free travel of the rod, but earlier kickdown linkages (like on my 64 Dodge) just hook on directly and so provide zero travel independent of the movement of the carb. I'm not sure why the change to the slot setup, but would guess that it's so that if the trans linkage hangs up for some reason, the carb can still return to idle. (If you look closely, you can see where I lengthened this two barrel kickdown rod to work with a four barrel, and also raised up the cable bracket to put it in a workable spot.)
The spring with the red arrow pointing to it in post #13, about the fourth pic down, should be removed; it does nothing except reduce the effectiveness of the throttle return spring. The spring attached to the front of the kickdown rod is OK other than being too heavy, and yes, on some Mopars that is where the kickdown spring is attached, and, although the factory drilled a hole for the spring, it can work without it. Here's the spring setup on a big block.
As for the bolt mentioned above, it appears to me that its purpose is to compensate for the kickdown rod being too short. Probably will work, although it's not a particularly elegant solution. It also effectively shortens the slot and therefore the free travel of the rod, but earlier kickdown linkages (like on my 64 Dodge) just hook on directly and so provide zero travel independent of the movement of the carb. I'm not sure why the change to the slot setup, but would guess that it's so that if the trans linkage hangs up for some reason, the carb can still return to idle. (If you look closely, you can see where I lengthened this two barrel kickdown rod to work with a four barrel, and also raised up the cable bracket to put it in a workable spot.)