I always shift mine manually when takeing off up steep hills.. I don't know what all's been done to my transmission (scrapper60 on this board built it), but I know it has a shift kit and isn't totally stock. When I took the valve body out to change the shift arm on the side, I noticed it dosen't even have the guts in the valve body to put a kick down lever on. Like I said 8,850 miles now and no problems...
Ok scrapper60, what did you do with his valve body parts? That is the first time I have ever heard of that being done. I have seen the valve and spring installed in reverse order to keep the pressure high but not on a street transmission. makes ya wanna go , Hmmmmmmmm
I can't remember exactly how it was done (it's been a LONG 7 months ago, LOL), but seems I remember something about a spring. The only thing I remember for sure was there was no way to make the kick down work like it was setup. (I was going to hook one up) Heh, looked at your profile. You're 37 years and 1 day older then me.
I have always been a little scared to manually downshift to second when suddenly giving it full throttle or even under light load. I always thought that the downshift control regulated other things in order to perform a safe downshift. I know from a rolling go that the auto kickdown will really help you outdo another car. The downshift does not work above about 65-70. When I get it to about 60 and punch it I love it with my shift kit. It will put you back into your seat and you can walk right by another car easily.
That's what was wrong with all the c4 trannies in my Comet. Front clutches and plates looked like the where installed on a cone with a hammer.
In my 32+ years of owning these cars I have never had the c4 kickdown rod thing explained to me. Thanks!!!! Dan
Yea, aint it great! All these years I was driving with this bolder on my shoulders thinking that any time my trans is going to say it had enough with missing that thing, just cause I had to have the dp holley. Thanks for sharing the knowledge .
So you were born on September 11, back in 18?? something? I am pretty old! I have been working on C4's almost that long! (its been 34+ years) I guess I will have to build a valve body with the valve/spring order reversed to see what happens when that is the only thing done. I think it will delay the shifts too long but the modulator valve might negate that effect..... One of those things that I have never tried.
Comick76, There are a couple of fixes for the problem - even without hooking up the downshift rod: 1. run the biggest cooler you can find (if they tell you it will hurt your tranny they know nothing!) and this is something everyone should do. 2. use a longer rod in the vacuum modulator circuit (how long is a secret) 3. build a five disc clutch pack for the two infected packs with the clearance set to .025 unless you are drag racing, in which case you need to have the linkage hooked up and adjusted properly. Thanks guys for the kind words, I have been building C4's for a long time and I am going back into it if I can get the cores cheap enough.
I thought Holley had a kick-down kit for their carbs when used on the early fords. I might even be able to find a part number if there was incentive.
http://www.sachserodshop.com/pdf/93.pdf There was another thread on this recently , but it sounds like we got us a c4 man with some secrets up his sleve ! ......
i'm running mine without a kickdown, of course i shift it manually after pressing in the clutch i have been told both ways, so i just stay with my 4spd and not worry about it....
I took off the kickdown and have had no problems (2000 or so miles). I swapped out the vacuum modulator and made it shift at a higher rpm, and now, it sometimes downshifts if I gun it while in 3rd at a low speed, but not always. I would rather downshift by hand.
Nice to know and thanks for the info but, I fixed the problem all together. I put a T5 in a couple of years back. I've never had an auto last more than a year on any car I've owned. Even my daily driver (84 fiero) used to have an auto until I split one of the planetaries, converted it too.Clutches and drive shafts are WAY cheaper.
