Just finishing up with the van, yanked the factory 1bbl carb/intake/exhaust off the 300-6 and replaced with Offy intake, Holley 390cfm 4bbl carb, and factory EFI split exhaust manifolds [no headers available for the van except the $300 Cliff's]

Several parts had to be fabricated/ adapted to do this swap, but the only thing not hooked back up is the transmission kickdown lever as fabricating a new linkage to mate with the holley carb would be mucho time consuming. Will it do any harm to just leave it disconnected and manually shift down to 2nd gear when needed for passing or hill climbing??

Any tips greatly appreciated! will post pics of this stuff job soon.

 

On my '84 f150 with aod, I was told that the kickdown lever controls fluid pressure. If the lever is not installed the fluid pressure will not change. I was also told that the adjustment is critical. I don't know if this pertains to your setup, but I sympathize because mine was a pain also. I swapped the 302 to a 351w with edelbrock topend, so some fabrication took place. Good Luck

 

This is a standard 3 speed automatic, not an AOD, which I know require special attention. I remember in my parts search some carbs saying "NOT for use with Ford AOD transmissions"

 

I read a post by Steve83, saying that leaving the kickdown doesn't affect the tranny in any way except that it won't kickdown to 2nd when in 3rd gear.

 

I read a few posts where some people were converting there kickdowns to be cable operated. One mentioned using a bicycle brake cable witch would be nice and flexible and have some built in adjustment that may be usable. maybe a motorcycle cable? I know I would get tired of downshifting manually all the time butt that will work for now. this must be a fairly big project because I haven't seen you post in a week or so. I am going to do this to my van also and I am wondering how it is going for you? I have been searching the u-pull-r-parts yard for some kind of snorkel to fit on top of carb that would go to an air box with the filter in it like the new vehicles use as this will be one of the harder things to fab up due to the limited clearance of the carb in a van. I want to try to figure most of the things that will have to be modified before I start this project butt I am usually very good at figuring out these things on the fly as I go to. so good luck and keep us posted on how it is going and I will try to help with any other questions you have.

 

I've been elbow deep in it for the past two weeks [in between work and constant rain]. It's been up and running for several days now, have just been doing final tweaks and adjustments in addition to some preventative maintenance. I took pics yesterday, will get them posted later tonight [hopefully].

The switchover itself was fairly straightforward, but since this is a van, there were plenty of little nit-picky things to contend with. The Offy intake fits fine, but the two vacuum ports under the carb are so close to the firewall you have to either plug them off or use 90deg fitting. The Holley 8007 carb just BARELY fits, the rear bowl sits right on the insulation blanket. Had to fabricate a custom bracket for the throttle cable. Used the top half off the old factory bracket welded to the heat stove bracket [off the old exhaust] which will mount to one of the top intake studs [see pics when they're up]. Using a bike cable for the tranny kickdown might be just the ticket. Will take a bit of bracket fabrication, but this should be 10x easier than adapting the bar and rod mechanical linkage.

Air cleaner: The only pre-made air filter that will fit are the little 6.5" round jobs [Mr. Gasket #1485], and possibly the triangular "pro-flow" cleaner from Edelbrock. I'm using the 6.5" round for now but its a bit restrictive, plan on making an offset base so I can use a standard 14" filter. Also want to make an cleaner box, this will let me plumb in cold air from the factory intake hose and eliminate the intake noise. FYI: you'll need to do some bending to the factory transmission dipstick tube, as-is it hits the carb/ air cleaner.

Exhaust: Van owners are in a bind here, either pay $300 for the Cliff headers [only ones that will fit], or find a set of stock split EFI manifolds [my choice, $65 off ebay]. You either have to pony up for a custom Y pipe or find one off an '87-'94 van. New replacements have the cat converters built in and are big $$, I called literally every bone yard in the area before finding one. Had them cut it off before the rear cat converter and it was $35. The exit off the front pre-converter is 3" dia, so you'll need to adapt it down to your exhaust system. To get the factory Y in there [mega tight fit] you have to pull the starter, tranny dipstick tube, and relocate the starter wiring. Also had to grind off the protruding ends of two frame bolts to make room for the front pre-converter [integral piece, can't get rid of it without yet more custom fabrication].


Random bits: You have to use a small spacer under the carb for the throttle linkage to clear the intake. Standard spacers are too high, so I used a stack of 2 spacer plates and 3 gaskets from a Mr. Gasket sandwich type carb heat dissipater [part #98]. The carb’s fast idle screw/bracket [hidden behind the choke housing] hits the plates, so you have to grind a little notch off both plates for clearance [found this out after realizing I was only getting 3 /4 throttle opening]. The carb doesn’t come with the hardware to hook up to the factory throttle cable so you need a throttle ball [Holley # 20-2]. The stock oil filler cap becomes a big vacuum leak, either cap off the breather hole or get a shiny new filtered breather cap [$5 at autozone]. There are tons more nuggets that cost me trips to the hardware/autoparts store, will try to list them all when I put up a page on the van.

 

Thanks for all the great info 83van. I just ordered my carb, intake, the mr gasket heat dissipater gasket and a few sizes of jets to tune the carb. check this link for carb tuning info
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...oto=nextnewest
there is some good advise there. and this one that talks about making a intake heater
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...oto=nextnewest
I know I will need to make the intake heater for cold weather use. I will put a valve on it to shut off the heet to it when not needed maybe a temperature controlled vacume water shutoff for it? anyway I am getting excited to start working on this and can take my time doing it as the van is not my daily driver.

 

ON the original question - "can I leave the kickdown lever off?".

A similar problem faced me in 1982, when I took the 2 barrel off my 351W and plugged a Holley in it's place. The kickdown lever to the FMX tranny didn't fit, and after numerous attempts to jury-rig it, I left it off. Nobody told me it wouldn't work, and the setup has only lasted 21 years and 100,000 miles. The FMX even shifts down on it's own if you mash it, although it's more fun to manually downshift.

Now maybe the FMX is vastly different than what you have, but it doesn't sound like a missing kickdown is a show-stopper.

 

Wondering if the bolt that the kickdown attaches to ON the transmission is suppose to have any play to it. Was told it should rotate up to 30 degrees both directions by hand. Mine will not budge less I bring out the vicegrips and a hammer. Wondering if i am bound up internally with the transmission or the bolt in fact is NOT suppose to move.

 

The shaft the kickdown lever attaches to should turn back and forth easily over a short arc, if it's bound up then you will need to drop the pan and valve body to see what's up. On the inside of the tranny the kickdown shaft has a lever attached that depresses a plunger [which does something hydraulic] to initiate the kickdown. Said lever is shaped like a squared off hook, and made of surprisingly soft steel so it can easily get bent out of whack if forced to rotate too far. It can slip off to one side of the plunger and get bound.

Root cause? The plunger may have gotten stuck from wear or a piece of debris. You can try depressing the plunger manually to see if it moves. The kickdown lever may have also been forced too far bending the internal lever. Last C6 I messed with had to bend the internal lever back into shape because of this.

 

Final Product: First time opening an automatic up I suppopse I got off lucky. Hard to describe because I am ignorant to the terminology but I failed to set the shaft that comes in from the gearselect back in its proper place. I was two gears off and it didn't sit right and 'pinched' another mechanism agaist the far side of it. This is the workings just inside the pan, I didn't remove the 'valve body'. (Plate with 3 screws just inside pan.) It blocked my ?"2-3" port. If that makes any sense. With shops quoteing me outrageous prices (up to $800) for fixing my slushbox I am very glad i was able to get enough info off this site and others to do it myself. Closest my Ford has gotten to a mechanic is the parkinglot. But i pulled her away in the cover of night! Total cost to fix my royal mishap was 3 or 4 or 5 gallons of ATF and a case of beer (for replacement shiftselector shaft.) Still trying to make sure my kickdown linkage is adjusted correctly. Critical for me because of AOD trans. Help appreciated.
Jon - Tonka Framing - ColoSprgs
O yea, the 20+ hours of labor i put into it. Keeps me out of trouble though.