100 miles in 2nd gear - Turtle5353 will probably laugh at me

7173Mustangs.com

Help Support 7173Mustangs.com:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mikepasquale1

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 17, 2011
Messages
370
Reaction score
1
Location
Pittsburgh
My Car
73 Mustang Mach 1
On Sunday Turtle and i met up in Butler Pa for a car cruise. About an hour and a half from my house. Im still working the bugs iut of my car but this one could have been bad.

as I was driving on the highway to meet him I noticed that the car was acting kind of funny . around 60 mph the car seems like it wanted to shift into a higher gear. everything seemed okay when I was going slow but at that speed and the tach sitting at 3000 rpm I knew something had to be off. I had the same issue on the way home. Drove slow and took my time so i didnt hurt anything.

I called the shop that rebuilt my transmission and as far as he knows he seems that was normal for a 3 speed transmission at the speed. it didn't make any sense .

the first thing that came to my mind that the transmission was not kicking down properly. I watched a youtube video on how to adjust the kickdown linkage on a holley carburetor. I went to verify what the video was showing me and I found a nice surprise. The return spring that I added to the carburetor has a nut and bolt that holds a bracket in place that holds the 2 springs in place. This bolt was in the way of the kickdown engager on the carb. It was engaging the kickdown rod at about 5% throttle. the kickdown is supposed to engage at full throttle. Anytime i was accellerating it was kicking down the transmission. this is only the third time I drove the car in the first time he has ever been on a highway so i had no idea.

I drove a round trip almost 100 miles and it probably never made it to 3rd gear. Oops!

Surprised i didnt screw anything up. Being so, i can look back, laugh and learn.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nice Mike!!!! LOL.... no wonder you said its sitting at 3,000 rpm the whole time :D Other than that did everything go ok? Im running 3.73 gears and a c4 tranny and i was at 3,000 rpm when you were following me on rt. 422. Thats where it usually cruises at when im doing 60 or so . Glad you didnt hurt anything! I also posted a pic of that GTO that you liked at the show! ::tease::

 
Lol ya really. Im running 3.50 with FMX. I knew something was up. If i tried to take it past 3000 it instantly jumped to 4000. Never settled in between.


Where is that pic? I cant believe they did that to that car. Just wrong. You mean the one sitting on a truck frame right?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
With my 3.50 gears I would know if I was 'stuck' in 2nd. LOL. I wonder how you did gas milage wise?

I don't have a kick down. Years ago when I swapped in a generic holley 3310 it didn't have a provision for it. THen the 1850, the projection, the holley truck avenger and finally the tri-power. None had a provision for it, so I don't kick down automatically.

 
I noticed like i said. I was just in denial. Gas milage? Spent 45 bucks and burned it all up. Actually the route i took home was shorter that driving up so ya i gas milage was terrible.

 
Back
Top