Joined: Sat Jun 07 2008, 12:59AM
Location: Fort Lewis, Washington
Posts: 394
Wow this is some great info! I knew my kickdown linkage was not set up anywhere close to correct. I read this and went outside and set it up in less than 5 minutes. Test drive proved that it worked...i lengthened the vertical rod a few turns and the shift points definitely moved up in the RPM range. The only thing I noticed that is different from your pictures is the linkage return spring...mine is on the opposite side of the linkage and connects to the throttle return spring bracket...is that correct? I looked and there are no provisions to put the spring in the location shown. Is it just a model year difference?
There are a few variations in the linkages and springs due to year/model - it's all good as long as the spring keeps the horizontal rod pulled forward against the rod it attaches to.
Joined: Sun Mar 21 2010, 03:15PM
Location: Littleton, CO.
Posts: 592
I lengthened the vertical rod by three turns this weekend and I did notice a slight differnece from 1st to 2nd. Maybe a second longer upshift. I might try another 2 turns to see what happends. While checking the horizontal rod, could you manually keep the carb at full throttle at the carb or does it have to be done by the gas pedal? It's usually just me working on the car.
Joined: Sat Jun 11 2011, 01:22PM
Location: south shore,ma
Posts: 9
Krautmaster wrote ...
This is from an earlier post where a guy needed to do it with the tall throttle bracket installed, but it is pretty much the same with the short stock bracket :
1) pull vertical rod off bell crank 2) put the 3/16" drill bit through all three holes (one in the bracket, two in the bell crank - see pic 2) 3) pulling the vertical rod all the way UP (see pic 2) turn the end counter clockwise (ccw) to lengthen it - you will have to turn it almost all the way to the end-make it a bit longer than it needs to be to line up with the ball on the bell crank. 4) remove drill bit, reattach vertical rod.
Now for the fun part: Your horizontal rod is most likely too short (especially with the tall performer RPM bracket-pic 1) -buy the appropriate Edelbrock spacer. To do the below procedure remove the red spring you see in the pics (or whatever spring yours has)
1) Have friend/wife/child sit behind wheel and make vrrroooom sounds as they hold gas pedal to the metal - adjust throttle cable so carb is wide open. 2) With above still holding throttle wide open, push the kickdown bell crank at the vertical rod all the way down as far as it will go - it should almost hit the valve cover. (pic 3) 3) While holding bell crank all the way down with throttle still wide open (pic 3) adjust length of HORIZONTAL rod so there is no space (pic 4) in the slot, but no pre load either (pic 5)