Why would a kickdown cable be hooked solid??

[onespeedyrc]

Doing a little more digging, the guy who did the diesel to gas conversion for some reason welded a washer to the kickdown cable slide by the carb, then bolted it solid to the throttle. So as soon as you touch the gas, the cable would slide start to slide out. This has been like this for years, the previous owner had no clue as to why it was done that way. The kickdown doesn't work at all now and I doubt it ever did. What kind of problems am I looking at inside the transmission?

 

[ERIC87442]

What transmission do you have?

 

[onespeedyrc]

I have been trying to figure that out....the only number I can find looks more like a vin# of some sort. It was right above the pan on the drivers side: 36M292819. It was a 5.7 diesel, the previous owner says the transmission stayed, just swapped in a '78 Delta 88 350 back in 1991.

 

[ERIC87442]

3 speed or 4 speed?

 

[onespeedyrc]

3 speed I believe.

 

[ERIC87442]

My guess is it was too tight from the sound of it and the cable snapped

 

[onespeedyrc]

The cable is still attached to the transmission, but it doesn't do anything anymore. I'm wondering what it may have broke or ruined in the transmission having it move all the time with the throttle cable. From what I understand, the kickdown isn't supposed to engage until you push the pedal to a certain point, the linkage is supposed to slide without pulling the cable. The way it was hooked solid, there wasn't any slide at all, the kick down would have engaged right away, everytime you stepped on the gas above idle.

 

[Dennyboy]

if its a th350 it won't hurt anything inside it. alot of people don't use them. th350's have 13 bolts on the oil pan. how many bolts are on yours?

 

[onespeedyrc]

I was able to figure out that is a TH 350. It has a vacuum line running to it, plus the 13 bolt pans. It doesn't appear that the cable does anything at this point. The cable isn't broken, it just doesn't shift down at all.. Does this mean I have internal problems?

 

[Dennyboy]

no you need the kick down cable to actually kick the gear down. or you need to down shift the transmission manually.