Kickdown confusion

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Mar 3, 2011 | 08:00 PM

TheJunkMan

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Kickdown confusion

So after swapping my 81f250 351w to an 89 5.0 HO, deckheights changed, and my new 5.0 intake has a spacer between carb and intake. Also I changed carbs (but on a side note I may just go back to my old carb to keep the same linkage). The new carb has very similar linkage, but it's not quite the same. Wish I could tell you the year and tranny of the bronco but I don't know, I wasnt the guy that pulled it. Mine is an 81 c-6. Anyway, I'm having a lot of trouble getting my kickdown lever adjusted right. My questions are, if I left off the kickdown completely would I damage my tranny, or just loose the acceleration? Secondly, how much travel should the lever itself have? it seems like it is only getting about 1/4 inch of movement when I push it by hand. Is this normal or could something be damaged in the trans, now allowing it to travel fully. On another note, can it even get full travel with the engine off and in park? Sorry if these are stupid questions, but I don't know jack about autos. Every thing I ever played with was a stick. Even if someone can just tell me a real quick explaination on how the kickdown works, maybe I can figure out the rest.

Mar 4, 2011 | 07:43 AM

mark a.

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Joined: Mar 2004

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No, it won't hurt the trans to leave the kick down off. If it's adjusted right it will push the arm all the way till the trans stops it. It is a mechanical linkage so it wouldn't matter if it was in off or in park it will still move the arm.