Making kickdown lever for carb

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thebearded1

thebearded1

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I'm working on hooking up a kickdown cable to a Stromberg WW carb. The car is a track roadster (build thread here) I'm building so that's why I'm using the kickdown cable versus the stock setup. Does this look like something that should work fine?

IMG_20230106_144016207_2.jpg

The yellow piece will be a 1/2" wide (not to scale on high-tech blueprint above) 1/8" thick steel. I will drill a hole at the top of the yellow piece to fit over the ball mount for the throttle cable. At the green dot i will drill through the yellow piece and the carb lever and add a rivet to hold it in place. The rivet will not interfere with anything behind the carb lever through it's full range of motion. I assume the distance from the pivot (blue dot) to the throttle cable ball and to the kickdown cable attachment (red dot) should be the same. I may have to clearance a little of the bottom of the throttle stop on the carb body that is just above the red dot.

Thanks for any help
Gene
 
  1. Does the lever on the trans need to move forward or back to operate correctly?
  2. Is your cable coming at the trans from the rear or from the front. It will determine if you need to pull the cable or push the cable.
  3. The center to center on the trans lever would dictate the center to center of the lever on the carb. If the carb is 1.5 inch CL TO CL and the trans lever is 1inch CL to CL the trans lever will stop before the carb is at WOT.
  4. The carb lever will work best if it starts at 8 and goes to 4 or visa versa. That gives you the most liner movement of the cable.
  5. The trans end should do likewise

I would look at kits that are for sale on line and reproduce what they have done.

Best chance of a good outcome
 
Dana67Dart said:
  1. Does the lever on the trans need to move forward or back to operate correctly?
  2. Is your cable coming at the trans from the rear or from the front. It will determine if you need to pull the cable or push the cable.
  3. The center to center on the trans lever would dictate the center to center of the lever on the carb. If the carb is 1.5 inch CL TO CL and the trans lever is 1inch CL to CL the trans lever will stop before the carb is at WOT.
  4. The carb lever will work best if it starts at 8 and goes to 4 or visa versa. That gives you the most liner movement of the cable.
  5. The trans end should do likewise

I would look at kits that are for sale on line and reproduce what they have done.

Best chance of a good outcome
Click to expand...
the cable needs to be pulled to operate the kickdown lever on the trans correctly so this lever should work. I will crawl under the car later and take a measurement of the kickdown lever on the trans but estimating just now it was about 2.5" unfortunately i won't have enough room at the carb to make the lever that long. I will read up on lokars kit and see what they suggest too. I had it hooked up before on the 1 barrel carb with about a 1.5-2" lever and it worked alright as long as i set the tension right. I believe the lokar setup instructions said put the gas pedal to the floor and then set the kickdown cable to fully move the kickdown lever on the trans
 
Are there intermediate belcranks on the /6 OEM linkage?

You might have 1.2 at carb 1.2 to 2.4 at belcranks, then 2.4 at trans.

Just a thought!
 
Looks like the Lokar kit uses a gap in the cable to make up for carb vs trans lever ratio differences

Screenshot_20230108-141411.png
 
Thanks for the info fellas I'm going to make the peice this week and maybe I will try to ad multiple holes in case I need to adjust it. I read up more on the Lokar set up instructions and the main thing is to set the cable tension so at WOT the trans kickdown lever is pulled all the way.
 
thebearded1 said:
WOT the trans kickdown lever is pulled all the way
Click to expand...
Correct, but the cable on the carb slips thru the front keeper till it hits the stop then starts moving the cable and the trans lever. Without the slip the cable will kink, maybe not enough to be an issue but???
 
well this has become more a of PITA than I expected! I guess the lever on the carb is stainless and I can't manage to drill a hole in it. I can not take the lever off so I have to use a cordless drill, I put a block of wood between the lever and the carb body so i'm not putting excessive pressure on the shaft or trying to bend the lever, using low drill rpms and using oil. Need to drill an 1/8" hole i tried using a 1/16 as a pilot but broke the bit pushing too hard even with the bit all the way in the chuck so only 1/2" was sticking out. I can't figure any other way to add the lever i need either for the kickdown.

I'd love to just ditch the 904 and have a manual but i can't imagine where i'd put the clutch pedal in my little roadster
 
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diymirage said:
going back to stock should only be a last resort
Click to expand...
Yup also not sure if the stock setup would even work as I'm using a Stromberg WW3 carb I bought from Slant six dan. I believe it was intended for a 318 but works better than the Holley 2280 I had.
 
diymirage said:
thats hotrodding for you


see if these guys can help you out (if not, it may give you an idea on how to design it)


Stromberg Linkage Kits Archives - Lucky's Speed Shop
Click to expand...
Yea it would have been simple if it was an easy metal to drill into haha. This stromberg is different then those but i will look to see if i get any ideas. The big issue is i can't take the lever off since it's rivets to the shaft or else i'd just make another lever and add it to the shaft
 
thebearded1 said:
Yea it would have been simple if it was an easy metal to drill into haha. This stromberg is different then those but i will look to see if i get any ideas. The big issue is i can't take the lever off since it's rivets to the shaft or else i'd just make another lever and add it to the shaft
Click to expand...
ok, how bout this...we tear the whole thing apart and pull out the throttle shaft

we then remove this little spacer (circled in red)

1673997564962.png


and replace it with one of these doohickeys

s-l1600.jpg


Stromberg 97-Style Center Carb Throttle Shaft Arm | eBay

put the whole thing back together

carlos-valdes-tcb.gif


done
(some trimming required to clear the idle screw)
 
Mine didn't have that red spacer thing. But I was able to drill the hole using my drill press at work. I'm working on the arm now and then will put the shaft back in the carb
 
sounds like a plan

if that doenst work, you got my blessing to drop a 360 in
 
Drum have stopped many a small block, big block and Hemi car from A body to E body.

Don't be dissin' the drums!
 
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