Two transmision related questions

[69hemibeep]

1st question, my sand jeep I run a 727 torque flight without a kick down connected, it is stock with a converter and is manually shifted 1st-2nd and almost never see's 3rd. Am I hurting it in any way not having the kick down connected ? 2nd question, any body have any experience with a Hurst Lightning Rod shifter? Just spotted one for sale cheap. Kinda cool looking for a day two look or rat rod.

 

[moparchris]

Bingo! Heres one i can contribute to. The "kickdown" you refer to is actually called a "line pressure rod" (kinda like when people call braodcast sheets buildsheets, right?) So this rod actually dictates how pressure goes into the piston to apply the clutches. In a 727 they have a forwrd clutch and if it doesn't see the max amount of pressure at WOT it will slip and ruin the clutches. I have tied back the lever on the trans and that works awesome if you have a hefty shift kit that shifts when you move the lever. If you dont it will never shift. If you go with a manual valve body then no line pressure rod is needed, I use the Cheetah SCS valve body and love it.


Lightning rods for an automatic trans are pretty nice. I have a friend with a 7 second street car with them in it on a turbo 400 and we both agree they work awesome even though some people make fun of them. There is no mistaking which gear your in or which gear your going for. I say go for the shifter, and it uses a shifter cable and linkage like a standard hurst shifter. Hope this helps.

 

[droptop]

....it is stock with a converter and is manually shifted 1st-2nd and almost never see's 3rd......

Sounds to me like you need a taller gear ratio. :yesnod:

 

[69hemibeep]

....it is stock with a converter and is manually shifted 1st-2nd and almost never see's 3rd......

Sounds to me like you need a taller gear ratio. :yesnod:

Harold most of what we do is hill climb and run the dunes 35mph is fast with 456 gears there are a few flat areas I can go to 3rd, Ill try and get a video this trip. Until then I don't know if I posted this last year but we had just left the crater when a motorcycle crashed an was air lifted out. This is almost at 9000ft in altitude so the chopper struggles a little. At this point your on top of a volcano that we play in on of many. I have to search for the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRmkkN7BoSc

 

[Roadcuda]

I remember that Bob. It sure didn't look he was gonna like lift up out of there, and he didn't make it by much!

 

[SomeCarGuy]

Unless you have a manual valve body, I would say that trans is a lost cause.

From what I have seen, they don't last long, even if shifted by hand. A lot of guys don't think that the KD rod is important and don't bother with hooking it back up after a tranny has been out.

I think GM stuff is OK w/o the TV cable and that makes people think Mopars can do w/o "passing gear" hooked up.

 

[69hemibeep]

It has very few hours on it I'm going to tie the linkage back for this trip and use 1st gear then look into a manual valve body when I return.

 

[sam z]

I read this thread in bits and pieces, but I get the gist.

When I bought my car two years ago, the KD was not hooked up and operating. The carb had a spacer
put in, it changed the angle of the OEM KD linkage, so the old owner said screw it because it struck the
bottom of the air cleaner.

Fast forward to post-paint. A tranny specialist said this is a big no-no to leave it hanging limp and pointless.
It has a great deal to do with the pressure in the tranny and the operations. He also said I would toast the tranny
if I continued without it. Solution: the same guy, for free, fashioned me a new KD / pressure rod that had the
correct angle and was a great replacement. Tranny is operating beautifully.

 

[Roadcuda]

I was also told the same thing when I discovered that the complete linkage was missing on my '65 Barracuda. I knew something was not right because it shifted so much different then my '64 Barracuda did. It shifted into 3rd gear by about 20 mph and had very weak shifts. What a difference once I hunted all the parts down!

 

[sam z]

I experienced the same things. Shifts much better now. Just like your experience my tranny is shifting at different points and the shifts were much "weaker" prior to the new rod getting installed.