4000 rpm's at 60, no 3rd?

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ToastToAlmost

ToastToAlmost

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Hey guys my cuda is a 440 with a 727. I feel it shift fine into 2nd but I never feel it shift into 3rd. I'm getting about 3000rpm's at 50 and 4000rpm's at 60. I've never taken it any faster than 60, so I don't know if it would shift at a higher speed. I'm not sure what stall it has and it's a 8 1/4 rear end.

The tranny was supposedly recently rebuilt. It's worth noting that reverse seems to slip some when you're backing down a hill - reverse on a flat surface is fine. Trannies and drivetrains aren't exactly my forte, but aren't reverse and 3rd connected somehow on those 727's?

So if 3rd was gone completely wouldn't reverse be gone as well?

I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with the throttle pressure linkage needing to be adjusted? You guys think maybe that could be the problem? If so, how would I go about adjusting it?

Thanks for any input
 
green1 said:
Can you manual shift it? Do you know the stall?
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Not sure what you mean by manually shifting it? If you mean manually going from 1-2 I can do that. Although it's hard to manually put it into 1 as the linkage needs to be adjusted some.

And I don't know the stall. The engine and torque converter are out of a motor home. I'm not sure what the tranny is out of but I know it's not the motor home tranny because that was swapped out due to the tailshaft.

avarageerod said:
mine does that when its low on fluid. you are checking fluid in nuetral, warm and running right?
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I'm checking it running, warm, and in park. I've always checked my cars that way. I'll check it in neutral and see if it's any different.
 
bumnround said:
when you put it in d is it in d or is it in 2nd?
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It's in d when I put it in d.

I checked the tranny fluid today in neutral and it said it was pretty much empty. If it was that low how would it be shifting at all though?

It always seems to shift into 2nd at 30mph

Looks like I need to get some tranny fluid...
 
UPDATE: Got some tranny fluid and filled it up. Took it down the road, seemed to shift just like it always had... Found out it does have 3rd. It shifted from 2nd to 3rd at about 5000rpms at 80mph. This means the kickdown linkage needs to be adjusted, right?
 
green1 said:
If that was full throttle, it is perfect.
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It was about 2/3rds throttle. I'd like it to be able to go into third at highway speeds. 4000rpms in 2nd gear at 60 isn't exactly good for cruising.

And I slowly worked my way up to 60, I didn't start getting on the gas more until 70. As soon as I hit it the secondaries opened up and about a second later it jumped up to about 80something and I felt it shift into third and it went down to about 3000rpms
 
Yeah you need to shorten the rod at the carb for it to shift sooner. It's pretty sensitive to adjustment so go one turn at a time until you get it.
 
fishy68 said:
Yeah you need to shorten the rod at the carb for it to shift sooner. It's pretty sensitive to adjustment so go one turn at a time until you get it.
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I adjusted the rod at the carb today. Now it shifts into 2nd around 25mph and shifts into 3rd around 55mph.

Now it can cruise at 60 at a nice 2500rpm's which is definitely an improvement, but isn't it still shifting a little too late? I adjusted the rod all the way in that direction, so there's nowhere left to go. :dontknow:
 
I also just noticed that when slowing down from 3rd it down shifts into 2nd gear at 45mph, and when it does there's a sudden loss of momentum, almost as though the brakes are being applied. Any idea what's up with that?

Thanks again for everything, this car is a dream and it wouldn't be possible without other mopar lovers out there
 
You may have gone too far the wrong way. As far as I can remember the longer the rod the higher it shifts, the shorter you go the lower in RPM and speed it shifts. There is a throttle speed rod or whatever it's called that the the carb/tranny linkage hooks to down below and that is what tell it what speed to shift. If you go way to far you won't get WOT and it will shift at super high RPM. If you take it completely loose the tranny gets no pressure signal and will almost immediately shift into 3rd and very quickly eat itself as it's a full mechanical system and will get no line pressure signal at all.
Many Chevy guys destroy Mopar transmissions by throwing away the shift rod linkage thinking it has vacuum modulators for line pressure and shift points like a GM.
anyways if you climb under the car and look where that linkage is hooked up you'll see how it works, all the way against the case is WOT and high shift points, all the way loose and forward is no pressure and super low shift points.
Once you figure that out you can adjust till you get it right, some books even have a way to line up holes in the linkage system to get it right on a factory setup with no mods or shift kits.
Once I knew which way the rod was supposed to be adjusted to go up or down I tweaked it till it shifted where I wanted it too within reason on my Dart.
I did have a Stage 2 kit in it for a while with 2.76 gears and WOT upshift was 5500 rpm 50 MPH to second gear Normal was about 25 to second and 35 to third.
With a stock or stage one kit it's about 10 to second and 25 to 20 to third when not pushing it and maybe 4500 WOT to second and normal 2.76 to 3.23 gears. If you have higher gears everything also shifts higher as well but the road speed might end up lower. I was doing 3600 RPM to do 60 give or take with 3.91 gears in it. The shift points were harder to get down as well with higher gears.
Good luck with it, if I'm wrong about anything I'm sure someone will jump in and correct things, it's been a long time since I had to touch the Dart.
 
69Dartman said:
You may have gone too far the wrong way. As far as I can remember the longer the rod the higher it shifts, the shorter you go the lower in RPM and speed it shifts.
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I thought the same thing too, but things didn't work that way with my set up.

Here are a couple pics of my set up before I adjusted it. In the second pic I loosened the bolt so I could adjust the rod. At first I moved the rod towards the back of the car, thinking I was shortening it and therefore making the car shift sooner. I had no results though. It shifted exactly the way it did before. So that's when I went and moved the rod all the way forward, which caused it to shift the way it is now: Sooner than it was before, but still not quite right.

100_1193.jpg


100_1196.jpg
 
That looks like a late model throttle rod setup, not the one a earlier A body should have.
I have the setup out of a 340 car and I'm pretty sure it's way different with a threaded rod on both ends so you have a LOT of adjustment.
Maybe you'll have to adjust it down on the tranny end to get what you need or try a different rod setup. I'll have to take a picture of what I have and post it, our Scamp uses a later setup too that is similar but doesn't have threads on both ends of the rod.
that almost looks like what was on my 72 satellite with a 318 and a TQ in it.
I'll get a few shots and post mine I guess.
 
69Dartman said:
That looks like a late model throttle rod setup, not the one a earlier A body should have.
I have the setup out of a 340 car and I'm pretty sure it's way different with a threaded rod on both ends so you have a LOT of adjustment.
Maybe you'll have to adjust it down on the tranny end to get what you need or try a different rod setup. I'll have to take a picture of what I have and post it, our Scamp uses a later setup too that is similar but doesn't have threads on both ends of the rod.
that almost looks like what was on my 72 satellite with a 318 and a TQ in it.
I'll get a few shots and post mine I guess.
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Yeah, the engine is a 440 out of a 77 motor home, so it has the throttle set up as such. I'm thinking I probably need to drop the tranny pan and adjust the clearance of the kickdown cam on the side of the valve body.
 
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