Transmission questions. Manual valve body?

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jcolman

jcolman

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I realize this may be a dumb question but I'm a bit stumped. I'm new to auto transmissions, new to Mopar and new to my car. My car (72 Duster with 727 torque flight) was purchased from a dealer who provided zero info about the tranny. I've been driving the car for about a month, mostly in D mode and noticed that the transmission shifts from 1 to 2 to 3 rather early, meaning I'm in third by the time I hit around 25 mph. When I punch the gas, I don't get a downshift. If I shift in manual mode, the car shifts nice and hard. I have a center console stock shifter.

So I was looking online to see about adjusting the kick down linkage and lo and behold....I don't have one on my car. After a bit of reading, it seems like I *may* have a manual valve body but I honestly have no idea.

What advice can you experts give me? Should I have a kickdown assembly installed? Leave things alone and always shift in manual?
 
You need to adjust the kickdown linkage before you damage the transmission. Post some pictures of the drivers side of your carburetor linkage.
 
No kick down linkage that I can see.
IMG_20210619_081358.jpg
 
If you had a manual valve body it wouldn't shift at all until you moved the lever.
 
You are going to need some parts to make it right. It looks like the pivot is there back by the distributor. No linkage adapter on the carb though. I will pist some pics of what it should look like.
 
toolmanmike said:
You are going to need some parts to make it right. It looks like the pivot is there back by the distributor. No linkage adapter on the carb though. I will pist some pics of what it should look like.
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Thanks. I'm changing out the carb to a Holley Sniper as soon as all the parts come in but I'm assuming that I will still need to have a kickdown assembly installed. In the meantime, should I shift manually all the time?
 
jcolman said:
Thanks. I'm changing out the carb to a Holley Sniper as soon as all the parts come in but I'm assuming that I will still need to have a kickdown assembly installed. In the meantime, should I shift manually all the time?
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You really shouldn't drive it anymore at all until you get the kickdown linkage set up (or switch to a manual valve body). As stated before, it will ruin your transmission. I know this from experience (young and dumb in the late 1980s is my excuse).
 
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Here's the Lokar cable kickdown. It needs to be adjusted correctly or you can have issues.

lokar.jpg
 
Check down on your transmission to see if the throttle pressure lever is wired back. That would give it pressure all the time and allow it to shift.
 
Thank
66fyssh said:
Check down on your transmission to see if the throttle pressure lever is wired back. That would give it pressure all the time and allow it to shift.
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Thanks. I'll jack up the car today and take a look. At any rate, I'm heading to Autozone to buy a kickdown link package and will have it installed next week. Edit. Autozone didn't have one so I ordered a Lokar cable.
 
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66fyssh said:
Check down on your transmission to see if the throttle pressure lever is wired back. That would give it pressure all the time and allow it to shift.
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I crawled under the car and to be honest, I really couldn't tell. The long tube headers block a lot of my view. Plus there is some sort of transmission bracket bolted to the frame and transmission that blocks my view of where I think the pressue lever is located. I'm taking the car into the shop on Monday for some other work so I'll have them check it out.
 
Yeah,, it can get tight down there!

You may be able to look down behind the back of the head and see it. If not, the shop will check it. Glad you're getting it taken care of. It's important.
 
Kickdown is not correct for this linkage....Throttle Pressure Linkage is more like it....as you step on the gas the linkage will increase the pressure to the direct drum........no linkage no increase pressure....clutch disc slip and shortly you have a burned up trans.....
 
jcolman said:
I crawled under the car and to be honest, I really couldn't tell. The long tube headers block a lot of my view. Plus there is some sort of transmission bracket bolted to the frame and transmission that blocks my view of where I think the pressue lever is located. I'm taking the car into the shop on Monday for some other work so I'll have them check it out.
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The pressure lever is the upper lever, and the shift lever is lower lever...

Here’s a pic, I don’t have the lower lever (shift lever) on right now, but you can see the flats where is goes.

418F8A4D-AEEF-430A-A527-0C703BE415FD.jpeg
 
Never said that is the wrong linkage...I said...if you dont have a linkage you will have a burned up clutch pac.....

you will have alot of fun getting the Lokar cable linkage to work correctly....some do and some dont....

I prefer not to use it......Good luck
 
70aarcuda said:
Never said that is the wrong linkage...I said...if you dont have a linkage you will have a burned up clutch pac.....

you will have alot of fun getting the Lokar cable linkage to work correctly....some do and some dont....

I prefer not to use it......Good luck
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Sorry...I didn't know if you were referring to a different kind of linkage. I'm new to all things related to Torqueflight transmissions. I'm not going to attempt to put the linkage in myself....I'll have the shop do it.
 
jcolman said:
, should I shift manually all the time?
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No, the problem is the transmission does not know how to regulate its own internal pressures without the kickdown. You will damage the trans (Boo on the F*cker that left it this way in the first place).
 
jcolman said:
No kick down linkage that I can see. View attachment 1715753342
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This is what happens when someone that DOES NOT KNOW WHAT THEY are doing !!! If this is a 318 car originally and the 904 transmission was exchanged for a 727 then none of the linkage from the 904 will line up. Next is this carb, a basic AFB is not equipped for a MOPAR setup in the first place. You will have to acquire the adaptor lever to give it the MOPAR throttle linkage arrangement in order to complete the kickdown linkage assembly. Also you must find the link rod and all the associated parts to make it work. This may be a rater difficult task this many years away from when these cars were produced. I know I had a difficult time finishing my E body many years ago when I swapped the engine and trans from it, a 318 original to a 440. I had 2 E bodies over the coarse of my work with MOPAR's and once I had the correct parts for the first one, I used those parts in the 2nd as the 1st went to a full manual only for drag racing, no street use.
 
Bret Tschacher said:
This is what happens when someone that DOES NOT KNOW WHAT THEY are doing !!! If this is a 318 car originally and the 904 transmission was exchanged for a 727 then none of the linkage from the 904 will line up. Next is this carb, a basic AFB is not equipped for a MOPAR setup in the first place. You will have to acquire the adaptor lever to give it the MOPAR throttle linkage arrangement in order to complete the kickdown linkage assembly. Also you must find the link rod and all the associated parts to make it work. This may be a rater difficult task this many years away from when these cars were produced. I know I had a difficult time finishing my E body many years ago when I swapped the engine and trans from it, a 318 original to a 440. I had 2 E bodies over the coarse of my work with MOPAR's and once I had the correct parts for the first one, I used those parts in the 2nd as the 1st went to a full manual only for drag racing, no street use.
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Thanks for your input. I'm installing a Lokar kick down cable to hopefully remendy the issue. I don't know if this applies, but I'm changing out the carb to a holley sniper and asked the shop that's doing the work to aquire the correct linkage. I'm confident that they'll help me get it all sorted out.
 
jcolman said:
Thanks for your input. I'm installing a Lokar kick down cable to hopefully remendy the issue. I don't know if this applies, but I'm changing out the carb to a holley sniper and asked the shop that's doing the work to aquire the correct linkage. I'm confident that they'll help me get it all sorted out.
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Sniper EFI ? If so you're gonna love it once you get it tuned. Lokar cable will be nice, actually anything you can install and get calibrated properly will be a great improvement. The old torqueflights were all hydruacily modulated as were many other trans of the day, well at least Fords, and old TH350's and there counter parts of GM and many others including TH700's and 200's 3 spds and OD's. I forgot to mention the differences between 2 barrel and 4 barrel throttle and kickdown linkages on old MOPARS, there is a difference from about every model of body style and engine trans combo and there are a lot of year model changes too. But Lokar with proper brackets should solve your issues.
 
You are going to destroy your tranny! Stop Driving it now!

You need the kickdown linkage even with Shift kits installed!

A full reverse valve body does not need it. But you would know quickly as the gear shifts are PRN123.

If after installing the KD linkage and properly adjusting it, you may need to have the governor replaced or adjusted for the combo.
 
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