On my '68 Dodge 440/727 I adjusted the passing gear linkage per the FSM twice, and at about 35-40 MPH I floor the car and it will not kick down into 2nd. I verified it was in 3rd by manually shifting into 2nd and back before flooring it.
I followed the FSM to a "T" with same result. In the FSM when it says to pull kickdown lever all the way locked forward they do mean forward towards the front of the car, correct??
Also after making adjustments per the FSM I manually pull the throttle to full throttle ( not running) and there is still room for the kickdown lever to move rearwards on the tranny another 1/2 inch or so.
Anyone know or have a clue what I am doing wrong here. I know this needs to be right or serious damage can happen.

yes forward as in front of car.

if you have another 1/2" of movement at WOT,then yes,adjust it so it is near all the way or all the way back at WOT also.

you can adjust it slowly to find a shift point you like or get the kickdown where you want it.

Stock carb or aftermarket? If aftermarket, does it have the correct Mopar throttle lever extension?

Holley 770 and yes I have the extension for the kick down linkage.
Going out to garage now and try again!!

Having the 1/2 inch of travel at WOT seems wrong to me, normally they are a lot tighter. After you do the vertical rod, you then do the horizontal rod with everything back to it's relaxed state. With the slider all the way forward, I normally have it threaded so it just clears the back of the slot on the slider when you put it on the throttle lever extension, while held forward as the kickdown spring would do. Ideally, then when you do WOT you will not have the slider impeding travel but it will be close.

IIRC... depending on the intake bracket,it may have a hole in bracket/bellcrank to stick a small drill bit in to lock the bellcrank,then you adjust the down rod to the bell crank ball stud,pulling the lower bellcrank and rod to TV lever all the way forward.

and IIRC,you then remove the drill bit and adjust the carb stud/slot to the throttle stud with spring pulling all of the linkage forward at closed throttle.

I stuck the drill bit in mine,adjusted down rod this way, then removed drill bit and adjusted rod to carb so the throttle stud was to back of slot with all the linkage pull forward at closed throttle.

then I slowly lengthend the carb to bell crank rod to get the shift points where I wanted/can live with.

I noticed some of the intake brackets do not have the hole for drill bit. could be the price of mix-matching parts on my junk.

At full throttle, the kickdown lever at the trans should be all the way back.

I just had the same Problem on a RR i just bought,Mine was adjusted as far as it would go and still had room to go on the tranny and no more adjustments thru the carb linkage!
What i had to do is pull the rod that clips on to the Trans kickdown lever and Bend the rod a little to give it some more rearward travel to the linkage and is working great now!
Might have been wrong linkage on mine i don`t know for sure!

I have a couple hand fulls of TV levers,when mixing a linkage set up. I select the lever that helps me get the ratio I need or can live with.

the D-hole is clocked different positions and some are longer than others. i have drilled holes closer and futher out from the stock hole to help get enuff adjustment.

Well I have determined I must have the wrong linkages. I was told theye were for a '68 B Body w/a big block.
I have ordered a Lokar unit and hopefully problem solved!!

Good luck...you might have worse problems with the Lokar.

Well I was not impressed with the Lokar, ttok it off and reinstalled OEM linkage.
Before I was totally going by the FSM, I deviated this time and unthreaded the rear linkage that has the threaded ball as long as it would go and now the transmission lever goes almost all the way back.
I need to finish a few things then a test drive. Hopefully I got this figured out!!

sounds your on the right track with the lever almost all the way back now. I would say I have had to tweek all of them after a base setting following the FSM.

you got the same results most get from the lokar cable,bouchillon cable is a better one to use.

keep us posted on it.

Well I have the linkages adjusted to where the kick down lever is all the way rearward at WOT. I have no more throttle or rearward travel in the lever on the tranny and it still will not kick down.
I have had the car at 30 MPH and verified it was in 3rd manually, put it back in drive and floored it.
Takes off like a bat out of hell but no kickdown into 2nd, rolling at 50 MPH and same reult. What could be wrong here. Am I safe to drive my car? The kickdown lever on tranny travels rearward with the opening of the throttle till they both are at their limit.
I don't want to hurt my tranny, I WANT TO DRIVE HER BEFORE THE WEATHER GO TO CRAP!!!
Thnx for any help....

Be sure that WOT at the pedal is WOT under the hood; a misadjusted throttle cable will prevent the carb from going wide open.

Have somebody sit in the car and mat the pedal then see if you can push the carb/linkage back some more.

would a wrong governor have anything to do with the kickdown? I know that it does on the upshifts. Had to get the "Hemi" (or so called by the vendor) governor for A '71 C-body 727 because of too quick of an upshift at full throttle and wouldn't kick down above a certain speed....I don't know what I'm talking about just throwing things out there.

if it is shifting correctly just not downshifting,doesn't that mean the govenor is working? i have no idea,just thinking out loud

I have the lokar setup on mine, 440 with a 770 street avenger. Works great, just had to cut the housing 1/2 inch, then thread the sleeve half way on the trans end, connect to carb, keep it loose, then tighten the carb end til it shifts where you want.