A904 late shifting into 3rd gear

[7dart0]

So I've been driving my car around town trying to work out all the bugs since putting it back together. I have a Lokar kick down cable on it adjusted to there specs. What i don't understand is why the car wont shift into 3rd until 60 mph. Is this normal?

It's a 70 dart swinger with magnum 360, A904 from TCI, stock converter, and a 7.25 rear with i think 2;76 gears. once its in 3rd i cruise at 60 at 2000 rpm.

Any guidance as to what to adjust or fix is greatly appreciated.

 

[TrailBeast]

What is the 1-2 shift like?

Believe it or not engine tune has a lot to do with how the trans shifts.
I'm not saying this is what the problem is, but if you have to push the gas a lot to get the car to go then the trans thinks it should wait to shift until later.

If it shifts normal (like at 10 mph under normal cruise throttle) then you may have a valve body problem.

 

[7dart0]

1-2 shift is at about 25 mph i think. when i drive it home today from work i'll pay more attention to that.

Is it possible there could be things sticking in the transmission as it did sit for a bout a year.

 

[TrailBeast]

1-2 shift is at about 25 mph i think. when i drive it home today from work i'll pay more attention to that.

Is it possible there could be things sticking in the transmission as it did sit for a bout a year.

Although a 25 mph 1-2 shift is kinda nice sometimes, it is WAY to late for normal driving.
That's why your 2-3 is so late.
You need to back off the throttle pressure adjustment until a normal cruise throttle 1-2 shift is at about 10mph.
This should make your cruise/normal driving shift at about 35mph, but then later as the throttle is open more.

This of course assumes you have a stock valve body and governor.

It could be sticky, but usually the "sticky" varies and doesn't act exacly the same every time.
It sounds to me like the adjustment is just to high and needs to be backed down.
The instructions they give are just a guideline, but every trans is a little different on what it needs.
(and there's also personal preference that is different from car to car)

I like mine adjusted to be a little late for normal cruise and it shifts 1-2 at about 20 and the 2-3 shift at about 35-40 under light throttle.

 

[7dart0]

so should i give more slack in the line for the kick down cable for a sooner shift?

On the other hand if you have a tighter cable you get a later shift and its snappier?

I'm still trying to figure out how it works

 

[TrailBeast]

so should i give more slack in the line for the kick down cable for a sooner shift?

On the other hand if you have a tighter cable you get a later shift and its snappier?

I'm still trying to figure out how it works

Exactly on both counts.
Just back off the TP cable until you get it where you like it best.

I don't have a shift kit in mine mostly because it's a daily driver and not a hotrod, but I did drill the 1-2 oil port in the valve body, block the accumulator and add a part throttle kickdown kit.
I like a nice firm second gear shift (barks on occasion) with anything more than half throttle, and I like to keep the RPM's up as opposed to more throttle.

At normal driving around my car shifts 1-2 at about 20mph and 2-3 at about 45
Anything under 30 and it stays or drops down to second unless I am almost completely off the throttle.
If I am doing say 45 it only takes about half the throttle travel to kick down into second again. (due to the part throttle kickdown kit)
I also have freeway gears so that makes a difference (2.800 RPM's at 80 in third)

It's really close to the way I would manually shift it if it was a manual valve body, and that's what I am shooting for as an automatic shift.

Before long here I am going to drop the throttle pressure down a bit and take some weight off the governor valve because it shifts too early at wide open throttle. (about 3k) on the 1-2 shift.
I'd like it more around 4,500 or so wide open.

It takes a lot of time and experimentation if you want to be that picky about it.

 

[7dart0]

s i adjusted the kickdown cable a little more loose and the shift point came down. now the 2-3 shift is around 40-45 mph.

Thanks for the help.