Kickdown issue-904

Hey guys, having a issue getting the kickdown/shift point adjustment correct on the A500 in my '69 Valiant. At first had a factory setup off a 273-2bbl/904, swapped out the carb end rod for the 4-bbl rod, adjusted , moved, tinkered, could not full throttle no matter what, so bought the Lokar kickdown cable kit. The car has a 408, LD340 intake with a 780 Holley vac. secondary, cable is adjusted per Lokar specs, and talked to their tech, normal driving it shifts first to second about 3k, same into third, cool, but if on the mat it will shift at like 4300 or so, secondaries aren't opened at this point, even with second to lightest spring, if I shift manually (column shift, as I ws going for the sleeper thing) it will rev past 6000, secondaries open, seems to run hard, should run bottom 12s or high 11s once this figured out.
My question is can line pressure cause this issue, or the governor in the trans, if the govenor, can it be changed without disassembling the trans?, I don't want to install a manual valve body and floor shifter, just would like to leave in drive and stab and steer, thoughts?

Like mentioned here before - disconnect the throttle pressure (kickdown) linkage at the trans and go for a short easy ride.

If it shifts earlier and competes all the shifts then your external linkage is your problem.

Just thinking out loud (not my area) but it sounds like at a given throttle position the kickdown lever at the trans is too far rearward causing the too high shift points (3k in normal driveing, just seems high).

Be sure that WOT under the hood is WOT with the pedal.

IOW, if you setup the Lokar so that the transmission lever is full back with the carb at WOT by manipulating the carb from under the hood, have somebody sit in the car and mat the throttle then push back on the carb lever to make sure it is at WOT and the trans lever is full back.

If the trans lever is actually full back at WOT and it upshifts early at WOT, the cable adjustment isn't the cause. Inconsistent shift points at part throttle are the hallmark of the Lokar. You might need to change the trans lever to get lower part throttle upshift speeds.

i do NOT like the lokar setups for many reasons. bouchillon [sp ?] is a MUCH better setup, and if you are using an A500 like you stated, try and find all the factory KD stuff from, say, a small block pickup.
that stuff may, or may not, be readily available in your area.

Johnny how is your throttle connected to your carb? does it have the same ratio/peddal travel as the stock set up?

Edit: we ran the BPE kit on a A500 trans, with the holley bracket. www.bouchillonperformance.com/inc/sdetail/3578/589. This may help you. After a while we just changed to a forward pattern man VB and smiled more.

Can't address your prblem directly, but you are not limited to linear 1:1 motion from carburetor linkage to transmission lever. Faster action for only part of the travel can be achieved by re-clocking at least 1 lever on its shaft.

Do you do that my elongating/reshaping the D shaped hole of the lever to reclock it? or by redrilling a hole in the lever to change its fulcrum length?

The length determines the relative speed and distance, should be OK if both devices reach full travel at the same time.
A lever working @ 12 o'clock has faster and maximum horizontal motion of its lever per degree of rotation than one @ 9 or 3 o'clock, where all horizontal motion is zero.

Travel correction is most easily made by drilling a new cable attach hole in the trans lever or using a shorter lever.

The most common trans levers (bottom row) are too long to work correctly with most carb levers, so drilling a new hole closer to the shaft will be required to make the Lokar work correctly and a spring needs to be added to pull the trans lever forward.

Hey guys, thanks for the input and advice...yes, WOT was checked with the pedal on the mat, Lokar says to pull cable until it stops, (which is assumingly placing the lever all the way forward) then tighten cable stop against the bottom of the carb linkage, going to have a buddy check to make sure it is all the way forward when pedal is down hopefully later tonight.
The yards around here don't keep older vehicles long, I won't lie, I didn't even think of the KD off a early Dakota when I started this.
I started off using a 904 kickdown setup, but couldn't get WOT, no matter which carb linkage I tried, (3), I honestly forgot about the Bouchillon kit, as I haven't used either of these kits, my other cars are RVMB or manual trans cars,
I was shooting for the sleeper look, so wanted to leave the column shift, but if it comes down to it, I have a Hurst shifter and can get a valve body from Darren at ProTrans, if I go that route I might as well swap the LD340 for the Victor and the 780 vacuum for a 750 double pumper, lol.

I will report back to see what happens, thanks again everybody.

Pulling the cable moves the trans lever to the rear, so pulling the cable until it stops places the trans lever full aft.

Yep, sorry/thanks, caught that afterwards.