i was told by rick Allison several years ago not to set that 5/16" gap with the heavy pressure spring. I would do as the instructions state.

Lew:
Rick is who rebuilt this trans about three years ago. He asked me if I liked the way it shifted and at that time, I said yes. So he left the adjustments on the VB alone. I do not know if he swapped out the spring or not.

Thanks

EDIT: I just found a note in his rebuild sheets ""took out his restrictor plug in case". So I must have put it in and he then removed it before the pictures were taken.

It is easy to check the line pressure as it is set now. Then you can adjust it up or down to see if you like a particular setting better and still be able to return it to where it is now with some accuracy.

if you put the TF2 kit in, then it comes with the big spring. rick did both my transmissions. the first one he did was for my '65 coronet. he did put a heavy spring in it and basically the mods he did was like the TF2 kit. I had shifting and kickdown band issues when I first installed the trans, NO FAULT OF RICKS!. I played with the valve body a little and re-set the throttle pressure adjustment to 5/16" thinking he had missed it. I didn't understand his replacing the stock spring with a heavy and that was a problem with me setting the 5/16"; he said don't do it. later I had to replace the valve body and did the TF2 kit with the heavy spring. same old runaway upshift problems and crazy 2-3 overlap. I ended up backing the throttle pressure off a bunch (6 or 7 turns at the carb) and that made manual WOT upshifts possible and reduced a lot of the normal driving upshifts problems. later rick did the trans in my '69 coronet. did his shift kit thing (looked like the old transgo mods) in the valve body but didn't install a restriction in the case or heavy spring. this trans is perfect for what I do and there is basically no 2-3 overlap at any time. maybe this winter i'll get the '65's valve body back out and take a very serious look at the throttle pressure spring issue. I firmly believe it's a problem.

Lew:
Since Rick did not change my VB settings, and all my shifts are where I need them (except this issue), I am going to keep it the way it is for now. I only want to make one change at a time and I already have the .086" plug in the case. I'm not ignoring your point about the heavy spring, but I only want to change this one area for now.
Thank you!!

I got the .086" plug in and everything is reinstalled. I need to check for leaks first, but I will get back on this test result.
Thank you everyone.
Dave

hopefully the restricter will do what you want and you only have to go thru this once. good luck!

As John said fine tuning the parts. You can change the number of springs in the front clutch pack but that involves pulling the trans and some disassembly which most don't want to do. So you slow down the front clutch apply time with the orfice. I have also seen many do this and be fine. Course you just cant slow it to much. Ron

Update:

My son and I took the car out this afternoon for the test drive and was completely surprised how soft/smooth the low speed 2-3 shift now acts. I'm talking race car to grandma's mini van change!! This is at the lowest accel 2-3 shift in traffic and I even let off of the accel pedal right at the shift a couple of times and it was still smooooth!

The bad: At medium throttle 2-3 shift, it does flare up 1-200rpms at the shift. I did not try a WOT hit due to this flare.

This change was from the TF-2 (no orifice plug, higher than the TF-2 throttle pressure) to only adding the .086" plug. This single change was amazing on how much the 2-3 shift can be tweaked.

I have the car cooling off and I will be pulling the pan first thing in the morning for another plug change. Where do I go from here?

I have the following drill bits on hand:
.092", .094", .098", .099", .101", .106", .109", .110", & a .120".

What is the next test? I am thinking of swapping out the .086" for the .098"-.101". I'm just not sure how much this .012"-.015" change would affect it.

Thanks everyone!! This was very cool test

Dave

As I said before, when you get close, a little bit goes a long way. Go as small a steps as you can make. Someone double check my math, but I believe that going from .086 to .092 will allow about 14% more flow. Going to .098 would be about 30% more. Quite a big step for this.

Thank you Dave!

I will check back in after the next test.

Dave

Update:
I drilled out the .086" plug for to a .093" and that worked!

The low 2-3 accel is still soft/quick, the medium accell held, and two 45mph to WOT hits held. I will be testing more over the weekend with 55mph to WOT hits to make sure it still holds.

The low speed 2-3 shifts are now quiet and smooth.
Thank you!!

Dave

.007" change in diameter may seem like a small change but the area of the orifice changed by about 15%.

Your correct John. That extra .007" fixed my flare up issue and now the WOT 2-3 shift is solid!

I was able to get some more testing in tonight and I made several rolling starts to WOT and several 50-55mph to WOT hits and no more flare ups!

I also got to enjoy some in town cruising with quiet and smooth low speed 2-3 shifts and the car feels great now! No more manual shifting the low speed 2-3 shifts anymore

Thank you again to everyone.
Dave