A727 Kickdown Linkage in 70 Duster

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AlaskaJeff

AlaskaJeff

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Mopar 904 318 2 Barrel Kickdown Linkage 1967-1972 A B C E Body Dart Duster | eBay
Could this work/fit my 70 Duster with a 360 & B&M Floor shifted A727? My Duster didn't have a kickdown of any kind when I got it. I just pulled the pan and the valve body seems to be an OEM Mopar one, not a manual aftermarket valve body.
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And from 3 PO's dating back to 2000 it's NEVER had kickdown linkage and the trans is still working. How is that possible?
 
AlaskaJeff said:
Mopar 904 318 2 Barrel Kickdown Linkage 1967-1972 A B C E Body Dart Duster | eBay
Could this work/fit my 70 Duster with a 360 & B&M Floor shifted A727? My Duster didn't have a kickdown of any kind when I got it. I just pulled the pan and the valve body seems to be an OEM Mopar one, not a manual aftermarket valve body. View attachment 1715707222 View attachment 1715707223 View attachment 1715707224 View attachment 1715707225
And from 3 PO's dating back to 2000 it's NEVER had kickdown linkage and the trans is still working. How is that possible?
Click to expand...

no it won't work without modification.. the trans could last without a kickdown if someone wired the leaver back so the trans has higher line pressure...

to me the easiest way to do it is just run a lokar kit. screw piecing a stock style all together.


.
 
abodyjoe said:
no it won't work without modification.. the trans could last without a kickdown if someone wired the leaver back so the trans has higher line pressure...

to me the easiest way to do it is just run a lokar kit. screw piecing a stock style all together.


.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice. And NO, the kickdown lever on the trans was not wired back. It was just flopping around when I inspected it. I've heard almost everyone say that you WILL fry a trans in short order if you don't have the kickdown working. But from what I can see and have heard from 3 PO, none of them have ever had one on the car. AND it was driven from Denver, up the ALCAN all the way to Delta Junction, Alaska without one hooked up!?
 
who knows. maybe someone cranked up the line pressure.. how was the car driven? problem with no kickdown is low line pressure all the time. so in many cases it will fry a trans on the quicker side. if it was babied then i can see it lasting much longer..
 
By the part numbers, the 904/318 assembly is different from the 727/340 except for two pieces; slip link, throttle lever on bracket (upper bell crank).

That said, the ones that are clearly different are:
The 904 lever for the transmission. That part should be correct.
With a dual plane intake, will need a throttle rod that has a rise in it.
With a high rise dual plane like the LD340, the bracket needs to hold the throttle cable higher.
- That you could modify/adapt.


A transmission with a manual valvebody or a reverse manual valve body does not need a kickdown linkage.

Is that a billet filter mount? if so, there's a clue someone may have changed things.
 
Mattax said:
By the part numbers, the 904/318 assembly is different from the 727/340 except for two pieces; slip link, throttle lever on bracket (upper bell crank).

That said, the ones that are clearly different are:
The 904 lever for the transmission. That part should be correct.
With a dual plane intake, will need a throttle rod that has a rise in it.
With a high rise dual plane like the LD340, the bracket needs to hold the throttle cable higher.
- That you could modify/adapt.


A transmission with a manual valvebody or a reverse manual valve body does not need a kickdown linkage.

Is that a billet filter mount? if so, there's a clue someone may have changed things.
Click to expand...
I know it's NOT a reverse manual valvebody because the gears are not backwards. How's a guy to tell IF it's a manual valvebody? Can you modify an OEM valvebody to be manual? From what 've seen after pulling the pan it's a OEM stamped valvebody. It's got an aftermarket deep pan so thus the need for a filter extension.
 
Is it possible some one installed a 66-71 valve body. That would require flooring the pedal for kick down.

Tim
 
A manual valve body requires the transmission to manually shifted all the time. Some manual kits still require the kickdown to be hooked up (TransGo TF3) while some do not. I'm not aware of any automatic valve body kits that would allow the throttle pressure valve to be left disconnected and still function properly. Throttle valve pressure primarily raises the line pressure to provide more holding power on the clutches and bands, but it also balances out (overcomes) governor pressure to raise shift points.
 
Garrett Ellison said:
A manual valve body requires the transmission to manually shifted all the time. Some manual kits still require the kickdown to be hooked up (TransGo TF3) while some do not. I'm not aware of any automatic valve body kits that would allow the throttle pressure valve to be left disconnected and still function properly. Throttle valve pressure primarily raises the line pressure to provide more holding power on the clutches and bands, but it also balances out (overcomes) governor pressure to raise shift points.
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Since I won't be able to drive it for quite some time due to winter here in Alaska is NOT letting go anytime soon would it be a good idea to button things back up AND wire the kickdown lever back. OR leave the lever loose as it was before? Then when the weather cooperates take it out for a test drive and see how it shifts or doesn't shift with it in Drive?
 
AlaskaJeff said:
I know it's NOT a reverse manual valvebody because the gears are not backwards. How's a guy to tell IF it's a manual valvebody? Can you modify an OEM valvebody to be manual? From what 've seen after pulling the pan it's a OEM stamped valvebody. It's got an aftermarket deep pan so thus the need for a filter extension.
Click to expand...


have you driven the car? its its a manual valve body with a forward pattern then the "D" position would be 3rd gear. you should be able to tell if that was the case and the car never shifted.
 
abodyjoe said:
have you driven the car? its its a manual valve body with a forward pattern then the "D" position would be 3rd gear. you should be able to tell if that was the case and the car never shifted.
Click to expand...
I did drive it home around 50 miles in November. That was it. It seemed/felt like when I put in in D I never really did feel it shift through the gears though. At a stoplight I put it down in 1 and manually ran the gears, and could feel it shifting then for sure. I wasn't quite in tune to diagnosing an issue I never knew about as I was driving, since everything about the car was new to me. I was too excited being back behind the wheel of a Mopar Muscle car since the early 80s to be as aware of what the tranny was/was not doing. I did ask one of the PO's if he ever knew anything about it being a manual valvebody and he said that he remembers it shifting through the gears in Drive. But that was back in the 2000's.
 
sounds like pulling the trans and going through it and be sure what you have is in order. or you'll have to wait till good weather and drive it and see what happens.
 
AlaskaJeff said:
It seemed/felt like when I put in in D I never really did feel it shift through the gears though. At a stoplight I put it down in 1 and manually ran the gears, and could feel it shifting then for sure.
Click to expand...
I believe this is your answer. It sounds like it has a B&M TransPack or similar shift kit in stage 3, or manual shift only mode with all automatic function overridden. Does it shift hard and chirp the tires on shifts? It should if it’s been modified as such. If it does and you can live without the automatic function, shift the car manually and don’t worry about the kick down. It would have been disabled as part of the “upgrades”.
 
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