The cable does work okay, but I very much prefer the linkage. The linkage takes some original Mopar pieces and some fabrication skills to put together. The cable only takes some money.

And yes, there must be some way for the throttle position to be relayed to the transmission. It is absolutely essential to the proper operation and survival of the transmission.

What motor is in front of this 904. I would imagine it is a small block and the parts will be available for a reasonable price. Try National Moparts or others that would have this parts and deal with used parts if you can not find the kick down locally.

https://nationalmoparts.com/

there's the Lokar and the Bouchillin (sp) aftermarket kickdown cable setups & there was one of the two iirc that got a lot of bad reviews but I will defer to others on this/which (one) is recommended OR if a different route is recommended. In the meantime I would tie it halfway back & see where that puts your shift points & go from there.

If you want to see why it's needed, hook up a pressure gauge to the mainline pressure, start the car and move the kickdown lever while watching the gauge. The more pressure the tighter the clutches are held. The transmission shifts between two pressures throttle pressure and governor pressure. the more throttle pressure, the more mph you need to develop the governor pressure to make the shift valve move. throttle pressure is also use to provide load to the valve body, as throttle pressure increases so does the mainline pressure. Higher the load the more line pressure you need.

RR, it's the lokar setup that gets a mixed review. myself, i don't like them one bit. i have played with them over the years, and have removed many because they are a GM [i think ] design cobbled into a mopar option.
my observations based on my experience. the brackets are cheesy, bending very easy, hard to adjust correctly in the factory ratio needed for the transmission to operate correctly, and a cheap, hardware store type of bicycle cable that stretches very easy, just to name a few.
i don't like them, and the factory setup is well worth the cost to track down and install.
just my opinion, but others i believe, will agree.

Cheers.
I have the Bouchillon cable setup in the Charger...10,000 miles on it without troubles. Lokar? Uhhh, I know of some that have had troubles with those.

John Kunkle laid out the problem with the Lokar kit years ago.
Not all Chrysler transmissions use the same lever for throttle pressure.
Before the Bouchillion you used to have to play with the lokar because of lit. The Bouchillion kit uses 90% of Chrysler parts and the guesswork is done

Would you post a link? Have been using LoKar for several years, but NOT totally happy with it. Did not know about Bouchillion? I don't get out a lot

Here's my standard Lokar rant:

The problem with the Lokar is that it's generic even when advertised to fit a Mopar because of the different lengths of the transmission lever.

If the generic Lokar instructions are followed and the cable adjusted so that the trans lever is full back at carb WOT you can see (simple math) that the first 3/4" to 1 1/2" of the lever travel is already used up at idle and there's no spring to pull the lever forward.

It's not unusual to see these Lokar installations have light throttle 1-2 shifts at 25+ mph and 2-3 at 40+ mph or even higher and, possibly, no 2-3 upshift at all. If the cable is adjusted for correct light throttle shift points there is insufficient TP at WOT and no forced downshifts. Potential damage.

So, as I've repeatedly ranted, the Lokar works OK if the installer ignores the Lokar adjustment procedure and knows to match the total travel of the cable attach points and installs a spring.

You need to measure the full travel of the carb lever where the cable attaches and then measure the full travel of the transmission lever where the cable attaches; it usually won't be the same so you need to drill a new hole in the transmission lever so that the full travel of both levers is the same. Also, there should be a spring pulling the transmission lever forward.

It isn't necessary for the trans lever to be full back at WOT but be sure that WOT under the hood is the same as WOT at the pedal...misadjusted throttle linkage will prevent the carb from going wide open when the pedal is matted and that, in turn, will prevent the trans lever from going back enough to provide kickdown.

Remove the cable from the carb and measure how far the hole in the throttle lever moves from idle to WOT. Then measure how far the hole in the trans lever moves from full forward to full back. The movement of the trans lever will likely be more than the carb lever so find the spot on the trans lever that matches the travel of the carb lever and drill there.

It's unlikely that the trans lever will return to the full forward position without a spring assist.

John, we want pedal WOT to deliver carb WOT & carb WOT to move the trans lever ALL the way back or ALMOST all the way back? (& drill hole in trans lever for the right amt of travel) & a return spring to move the whole shebang back forward when you let off the pedal.

Bouchillon Performance Engineering

Yes, simplified version of my rant. Original factory setup did not place the trans lever full back at WOT; in some cases, doing so will prevent a 2-3 upshift at WOT.

thanks John & sometimes it's good to rant. & for "almost" all the way back is there something to monitor to fine tune that? (shift RPM or something else) or is it a non issue?

"shebang"

Blast from my mis-spent youth on the Western Slope of CO with that one RR. I get some strange looks when people here me use that the 1st time! Haven't heard anyone but me and the old man use that in quite some time.

Not even going to feel bad about mucking up the thread with this, made me smile at the end of a tough day!

that's good to hear & I'll be 68 next month & you ain't mucking anything up as we needed a light hearted turn on this.

I like Lokar cables, but I figured out on my own that they are not "plug and play".

I also figured out the hard way in 1980 why you don't run a 904 or 727 without the kd linkage. The link fell out of the front band, the drum caught it and spun it, and ruined the drum. Lesson learned.

I went with the Lokar cable many years ago, as it seemed to be the only option at the time. Worked OK as was, cable stretch was an issue as has been mentioned.

I've since added the arm and spring return setup from Bouchillon and I haven't had to adjust for a stretched cable for several years.

I have an older (I believe) AndyF throttle setup that has a couple of fwd facing holes below the cable platform, one of which lines up perfectly to attache the cable directly to the lever on my QFT carb.

Once I installed the return spring setup, it was very easy to adjust for travel as has been described in this thread.+

I have slightly less $$$ in the whole shebang than the Bouchillon setup costs now, though I'm sure the Lokar setup has increased in price since I bought it.

Thanks guys for all the shared information. Will be very helpful!

Any of you knows aproximately the lenght of the Lokar/Bouchillon cable? As I have to import it, so due to import taxes it would arrive here very $$$ so I'm thinking in doing it myself with some motorcycle throtle cable or something like that. Reading your information looks like it´s not rocket science.

Also, any electrical conversion every tried? I already have the position of TPS on my EFI (0V closed - 5V WOT).. so would be very easy to implement If I have the correct device to turn the valve (stepper, etc..)...

Can't answer as the the electrical, but the cable should be fairly easy to rig up. If the engine and trans are out of the car and bolted together, it would be easy to mock up, in the car, less so.

Take a look here, and you'll see their approach.

http://www.lokar.com/assets/instructions/INS0046-ChryslerKickdown.pdf

Looks like mostly off the shelf stuff.

I doubt you'd need more than 40" of cable and I'd bet a motorcycle or even a good bicycle shop could swadge the housing ends for you, once you have the length.

You can rig up a return spring and cable housing attachments that bolt to the shifter linkage bosses on the trans, or a tab that goes under one of the tail housing bolts for the cable housing. Drill a hole in the kickdown lever for the return spring to attach to. Cable housing retention at the throttle end will take a little work to sort out.

The Bouchillon setup is beefier, but not so off the shelf.

I bought my 77 D100 pickup 7 years ago. It never shifted right when I first got it, so I started trying to track down the problem. Turns out that the dweeb I got it from just threw a bunch of parts at it. It had small block brackets and God only knows what the other parts were from. Long story short, I needed to drive the truck, so I bought a cheap eBay copy of the Lokar kit. I put a spring on the lever at the trans and the carb end of the cable and with a bit of adjustment, it's worked fine every since. It was a pretty easy and basic fix to make it work and I have used the same set up on several other vehicles over the past few years. If you use the cable set up, be prepared and pay attention to the travel and set it accordingly as stated by others.