I love this "passing gear" legend that has been handed down...

When the kickdown linkage moves a valve in the valve body of the tranny, it goes down a gear...there's no "otherwise unobtainable gear ratio" when the linkage moves enough.

 

One other thing about this rod. It does have an influence in shifting. When properly adjusted it works with the modulator valve and governor to control both upshifts and downshifts. If you can locate one it would be advisable to re-install it...

 

OK but if you're in first does it kick down to low or does nothing happen in that scenario?

The throttle never reaches the kickdown linkage in my car. It can be adjusted but everything is rusted in place so I never bothered with it. Just wondering what fun I'm missing out on.

 

If you are in first you will stay in first. Kickdown means exactly what it says, it kicks down one and sometimes both gears. You can accomplish the same thing by putting your shifter in second or low.

 

kickdown just puts your car down a gear or two. Its basically so your tranny will be in cruising mode (low rpms, good gass milage, etc) normally, but when you stomp on the gas it tells the tranny to be in the lowest gear possible so that you have more power (it shifts at a much higher rpm too). It uses the same 3 gears as it always does in kickdown, just chooses a lower one.

thats basically the theory.

 

I like my automatics to be "automatic", some prefer to downshift manually. You'll miss that linkage when you go to climb a good hill and your engine starts to wheeze and clatter because the tranny can't downshift. You'll have to remember to pull the shifter back yourself. I like nothing better in an automatic to floor it and have the tranny kickdown and the secondaries come open--WAAAAAAAA -whee!

 

It bears mentioning most vacuum modulators have an adjustment screw inside their vacuum connection....I've rarely used kickdown linkage and never had a problem tweaking to satisfaction