Am I missing parts for my kick-down linkage? 65 hardtop | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models

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Am I missing parts for my kick-down linkage? 65 hardtop

  • Thread starter Thread starter projo198
  • Start date Start date
projo198

projo198

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Thunderbird Year
1965
Here I put on the Holley Demon carb and have the carb rod hooked up. I also purchased and installed the kick-down perch as instructed, though I have no idea how it works.

From what I can see the carb rod is attached to a bracket which also includes a shorter rod that I presume is supposed to slide into the nylon bracket below it, and when the accelerator pedal is pushed far enough where it would normally kick in the 4 barrels this shorter rod would "bottom out", pull the bracket and thus downshifting the transmission with the kick-down linkage. Is this correct?

Here are pics of what I have now. Am I missing parts?

Thank you.

https://i.*********/lM4TxMEm.jpg

https://i.*********/Z17rUz3m.jpg

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Last edited by a moderator:
It looks ok to me. Might need some adjusting once you get it going. Does the Holly carb not have a dashpot?
 
That looks right. The nut on the threaded shaft can be adjusted to change when kick down occurs. In the manual I have there is a procedure for this. Also, this would be a good time to make sure your throttle linkage, from the accelerator pedal to the carb, is properly adjusted so that you're getting full throttle travel on the carb when the accelerator pedal is pushed to the floor.
 
inspector said:
It looks ok to me. Might need some adjusting once you get it going. Does the Holly carb not have a dashpot?
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I am not sure that that is.
64ZCODE said:
That looks right. The nut on the threaded shaft can be adjusted to change when kick down occurs. In the manual I have there is a procedure for this. Also, this would be a good time to make sure your throttle linkage, from the accelerator pedal to the carb, is properly adjusted so that you're getting full throttle travel on the carb when the accelerator pedal is pushed to the floor.
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Gotcha! Problem is I don't see it ever engaging, even at full throttle. There isn't enough threading on the shorter rod to even get it close enough to do this.
 
I'll send you a closeup of my linkage setup later today.

Ironically, when my car downshifts to second there is engine noise but not a significant burst of acceleration. Generally better to stay in third gear because more torque.
 
Hey there projo198. It had been awhile since I looked at this and it's all coming back now. There should be about 1.5" of travel of the linkage back toward the firewall before the linkage contacts the kick down bracket. In this case the threads on the linkage were boogered up so I used two pieces of thin wall tubing to provide the required gap. The manual I have has the spec in it which is part of a larger procedure to adjust linkage clearances from the accelerator pedal to the carb linkage. The accelerator pedal itself should travel about 4.25" from when you first push down on it to when it is all the way pressed down to the floorboard.

Doug

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64ZCODE said:
Hey there projo198. It had been awhile since I looked at this and it's all coming back now. There should be about 1.5" of travel of the linkage back toward the firewall before the linkage contacts the kick down bracket. In this case the threads on the linkage were boogered up so I used two pieces of thin wall tubing to provide the required gap. The manual I have has the spec in it which is part of a larger procedure to adjust linkage clearances from the accelerator pedal to the carb linkage. The accelerator pedal itself should travel about 4.25" from when you first push down on it to when it is all the way pressed down to the floorboard.

Doug

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Great pics, thanks! Because my linkage doesn't seem to have the travel to engage the kick down rod I believe I may have accelerator linkage travel issues that need adjusted.

I got my service manual in the mail today so I'm taking it to the office tomorrow to brush up throughout the day.
 
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