My machine shop guy worked his magic on my 8 3/4" Suregrip. All the noise, clunking & clinking gone! All for 50 bucks. It was worth the wait. I got it home at 4:30 pm today, and installed it, filled the transmission with fluid, cranked her over, and she started up. This little drive train project also involved replacing a reverse manual valve body with an Automatic / manual valve body, a 2600 stall torque converter.

At first start up the trans shifted 123, and R while on jack stands. I have been worrying that the damn thing wouldn't function properly, or drive. The test drive demonstrated nice firm 123 shifts at FSM parameters, when slowing to a stop will shift 321, and the car will sit still and idle in gear now with out lurching & clawing trying to take off. BUT... There is that word, but, but, but, the car will not kick down at any speed... If manually shifted to a lower gear the transmission shifts nicely to the gear. Any ideas?

I believe the throttle pressure cable is adjusted correctly, little lever on trans is full forward when carburetor is closed with no slack, and looks to be all the way back when at WOT held open by hand. I had to readjust the accelerator cable, and I'm still only getting about 85 to 90% of WOT using the peddle.

Anyone out there running a Holley 4160 390 cfm 4v with the Bouchillon cable bracket & kick down cable, and a Chrysler Throttle Lever Adapter that can shoot me a photo of your installation that I can compare to my set up.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Sounds a like the head of the kickdown valve might have slipped out of the claw on the kickdown lever inside the trans. Easy problem to create when swapping valve bodies. You will have to drop the pan, loosen the valve body and reattach the lever to the valve.

Another possibility: wrong kickdown lever. There are many different ones.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

There is more to this trany tail...

I decided at the last minute this morning around 5:30 that I would take the Dart over to Winterport Dragway for a car show in stead of the properly operating LeBaron. All went well on the 130 mile trip, except the trans has started to shudder a wee bit in 1 & 2 when first engaged, and shift a bit soon under light throttle. She made it back home all right still shuddering with an occasional soft shift.

I checked the fluid level tonight when I got home, and it was at the "Add one pint mark".

Dan I'm not clear on: Is this the lever stamped 2.8 , 3.4, etc to 5.0? I believe mine is a 3.4 ratio. I was careful not to displace that lever when I had the transmission on the bench.

Geeez... I hate to have to drop the pan & VB again, not fun. Very tight.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

No. That's the kickdown band apply lever. I'm talking about the kickdown valve lever. This transmits to the kickdown valve the rotary motion of the kickdown shaft (which is rotated by the kickdown lever, which is pushed by the kickdown linkage in response to throttle movement). And your soft/shuddering shifts put further evidence behind either of the two possible causes I mentioned above.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Dan, it's still really foggy at my house on the East Coast this morning, and continue to be confused.

Would this be part of the valve body where the Throttle Lever Shaft transmits rotational action from throttle position to what ever: rod; piston; doohickey; et. el. in the valve body? 1967 Dart FM, page 21-27, Fig. 54 showing all the stuff behind the throttle lever stop screw assy. is this where I'm to look?

Is there a photo in Carl Munroe's: "Torqueflite A-727 Transmission Handbook" or FM you could point to as a visual aid to get this through my thick scull?

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC