Turbo 400 Kickdown??

[g356gear]

I haven't had much experience with the original workings of how the T400 kickdown works on the original Camaros. When my car was put back together I am not sure but I think they set up is wrong. The car runs and drives fine but I have to manually shift 1-2-3 for full throttle runs. The trans shifts now but seems ot shift early and I have no kick down when I go full throttle. I am trying to get some info on how the original set-up worked. Any ideas? Thanks guys.

[steven-bowlertrans]

hey, sounds like your governor wasnt set up for late enough shifts. alot of times on a transmission rebuild, a shop will set the shift points to what they think will be close to what the customer wants(which in most cases is way off...happens alot and is fixed with a simple spring change!) now for your kickdown problem. in a turbo 400, kickdown is controlled by a electric solenoid. if for some reason the shop that put your car together did not hook up that single wire your car will not have kickdown(now your car had to come with a 400 originally to have this wire). if it was not originally produced with that type of transmission you can get a kickdown kit from lokar or a few other suppliers and it will take care of your problem. hope this helps!!!

[H2Ogbodies]

You should have (if it is a factory TH400 car) a little white attachment bolted to your pedal support bracket above your acceleration pedal. It has two wires coming from it and a spring loaded plunger. When you hit the throttle WOT, it sends a 12v signal to the solenoid mounted on the drivers side of the trans-this engages the solenoid, giving you kickdown. One of the wires goes to a 12v IGN. source in your fuse block, the other wire goes out to the trans lead terminal.

[camrat68]

I had the Lokar set-up in my 68 until I went to a full manual Hughes. It made a big difference and was far easier to set up than the original system.

Jim

[H2Ogbodies]

The kick-down or lack thereof has noting to do with your upshifts...that does sound like a sticking governor imo. An easy fix for the kickdown without tracking down all the OE stuff is to use a universal throttle mounting tab/bracket on the drivers rear carb bolt/nut and use an NOS style micro switch on it. So if you want to do that, use just run a 12v BAT lead to one side of the micro switch, then run the other side down to the tab on the tranny...mounted on the drivers side. It does not matter which side of the micro switch you run off of, it just closes a set of contacts when the lever is depressed when the carb throttle shaft hits WOT. Hope this helps.

[g356gear]

You should have (if it is a factory TH400 car) a little white attachment bolted to your pedal support bracket above your acceleration pedal. It has two wires coming from it and a spring loaded plunger. When you hit the throttle WOT, it sends a 12v signal to the solenoid mounted on the drivers side of the trans-this engages the solenoid, giving you kickdown. One of the wires goes to a 12v IGN. source in your fuse block, the other wire goes out to the trans lead terminal.

It is a factory TH400 car. I was told the switch was mounted up by the carb on the original cars. I will have to take a look tonight and see if anything is under the dash.

[SpicerMTR]

If after you remedy the kickdown you are still not satisfied with the shift points you have 2 options. The modulator probably has a little screw inside where the vacuum hose attaches, turn the screw in to raise the shift point. If this is not enough, B&M makes a governor kit for the TH400 trans, this kit has different weights and springs. This can be done in the car, it will be very close to the tunnel but can be done. This will allow you to taylor the shift points more.

[g356gear]

You should have (if it is a factory TH400 car) a little white attachment bolted to your pedal support bracket above your acceleration pedal. It has two wires coming from it and a spring loaded plunger. When you hit the throttle WOT, it sends a 12v signal to the solenoid mounted on the drivers side of the trans-this engages the solenoid, giving you kickdown. One of the wires goes to a 12v IGN. source in your fuse block, the other wire goes out to the trans lead terminal.

I checked tonight and no switch of any kind on the pedal. Everything is stock under there and the linkage comes straight of the pedal and through the firewall.

[SpicerMTR]

Some early GM cars had a lever activated kickdown switch that mounted by the carb on a bracket and the carb lever actually pushed the lever to activate the switch. Typically seen on a quadrajet carb. It was an easy bolt on, thereby usually removed the first time the carb was removed, sometimes never seen again.

[g356gear]

Some early GM cars had a lever activated kickdown switch that mounted by the carb on a bracket and the carb lever actually pushed the lever to activate the switch. Typically seen on a quadrajet carb. It was an easy bolt on, thereby usually removed the first time the carb was removed, sometimes never seen again.

I am pretty sure that is exactly what happened to mine.