I have a 77 D-100, 440, auto. If I leave it in drive and stand on it, it shifts way too soon. Am I correct in thinking this is a governor issue? What can I do to improve this, as in parts and such?

Is you're kick down linkage adjusted properly? Is it even hooked up? Proper adjustment is with the caruretor at wide open throttle the lever on the transmission should be all the way to the rear. Essentually both throttle lever and tranmission pressure lever should hit the end of thier travel at the same time.

Here is the tricky part, with the throttle fully closed, the transmission lever should still be back about half way, or maybe just a little less.

If you have swapped to an aftermarket carb this can be very difficult to achieve without switching to a fully adjustable cable system like lokar.

Wrong, and wrong.

That link should be banned from the www and the guy who wrote it should be bent over a barrel and..............


To the OP, what carb, stock or aftermarket? If aftermarket does it have the correct Mopar throttle lever adapter?

It's a 750 Holley on a factory intake, with a Lokar kickdown cable. It's properly installed and adjusted.

I was thinking I read somewhere that pickup transmissions tend to shift earlier than some of the car transmissions.

Does it shift way early under part/light throttle?

Funny...setting mine up that way fixed my early shift problem. Oh well to each their own I guess.

And for what its worth the transmission in my challenger is actually a loadflight (truck trans) and shifts spot on at factory car shift points. Only changes done where a passnger car tailshaft housing and matching parking pawl lever.

What makes you think it shifts too soon?
What axle ratio do you have?
What engine speed does it shift at when at wide open throttle.

Try a very light throttle position and see when it shifts 1-2 and 2-3.
Then do the same for wide open throttle.

Report back on your findings.

As for throttle linkage adjustment there is a correct way and a wrong way.
You never should have the lever half the way back at closed throttle.

And a lot of people don’t realize the external linkage adjustment also depends on a correct throttle lever adjustment on the valve body.

That's part of the problem.

Have you checked to see if WOT at the pedal is WOT at the carb? IOW, have somebody sit in the car and floor the pedal then see if the carb lever can be pushed further back from under the hood.

Wot at the pedal is wot at the carb. At light and part throttle, the trans shifts between 1200 and 1800 rpm. At wot it shifts at 2500 rpm for 1-2 shift and 2800 for 2-3 shift. Seems pretty low for wot shifts.

Engine off, have someone go wide open throttle. While holding it there - the throttle pressure lever on the trans should be all the way back. Sounds like it is not even close to that position.

If it is - sounds like you have a diesel governor in it.


When did this all all start?

It has been like that since I got the truck 3 years ago. The guy that I bought it from, had a small block kickdown set up that didn't come close working at all. I couldn't find a big block set at the time and went with a Lokar cable set up. I had someone sit in the truck and put the pedal to the floor, everything seems fine. Carb is at wot. What I will do tomorrow is have someone sit in it, floor the pedal and crawl under it to see if the lever on the trans is all the way back.

You might need an aftermarket governor but I will defer to Kunkel & Trans man for the final word there. I been sitting on one for decades unused that I bought from A&A (iirc) & iirc it was a Hemi repro (6200 shifts).

Well, I don't really need 6200 rpm shifts in my truck! lol It would be nice if it would shift around 4600 to 5000 rpm under wot. That would be acceptable for me.

IIRC ... There are trans parts suppliers that offer diff gov packages

^^^ Yes & at the time I bought the 6200 one & with a days thought it might have been the "max wedge" repro as opposed to the Hemi one but I'm sure you could get a lower one in the RPM range you are after & when you do I'm sure there are ways to fine tune it from where it does shift at.

I've said this before so I might sound like a broken record. I put manual valve bodies in everything I own and haven't regretted it for a second.

A bone stock passenger car governor package for a V-8 car will get you high 4 to low 5K shift points assuming the linkage is adjusted properly with the correct travel along with a properly adjusted throttle pressure valve on the valve body. No tricks needed.