What needs to be done to make the transmission not shift so early in 1st and 2nd? At WOT 3rd will revv to the full 4600rpm before shifting, but 1st shifts out at 3400rpm and 2nd shifts out at 3900rpm. The bowden cable is tight at WOT.

Kickdown switch?

Ive been wondering the same thing.
I can deal with 2nd being so short if i have to, but itd be nice to have 1st longer.

Are you talking about auto or stick?

bowden cable = A.T.

Thanks willbe.
Sorry bout that forced

(05-06-2010 05:37 PM)aaa Wrote:  Kickdown switch?

If the switch was broken, 1 and 2 would shift up early but I would think that 3rd would too.

However, it's really easy to disconnect the switch and do a sprint to see what's different and rule that out.

AT's really aren't my forte but dovyhey have separate solenoids for the different gears?

So if the solenoid was not getting power it would shift early? I though the switch was just to force a 4-3 shift.

I've seen a stuck one affect the 1 and 2 shifts. It was pretty extreme though, like putting the shifter in L.

Dose it have a vacuum modulator still? On my old one when I hooked up straight vacuum increasing line pressure it would shift later and with out it hook up it shifted early and slipped under full power?

You can also adjust the reverse bands externally on the some transmissions! my 79 300sd would not even go backwards in reverse on flat ground it would just slip and barley move! I tightened the adjustment and it worked great for a long time!

forced-

i've hooked a toggle switch up to my kickdown switch and put it up where the rear light switch was. this way i can force a downshift at partial throttle.

from my experience the kickdown switch will force a downshift from any gear as long as the engine RPM is within a permissible range to prevent over-revving.

the kickdown can drop into 1st if you're in 2nd, drop to 2nd if you're in 3rd, and so on.

i've also noticed that if i flip the toggle switch at partial throttle, say to drop from 4th to 3rd going around a tight corner at around 45mph, it will drop to 3rd at partial throttle. BUT, if i punch the gas after it shifts to 3rd, it will drop to 2nd because of the bowden input on top of the kickdown activation. so a nice double kickdown effect can be achieved.

sorry this is such a lengthy post about the kickdown, i don't have a clue how to spread the 1-2 shift.. but that would be sooooooo nice.

the only thing i can thing would be to re-design the pivot that the bowden attaches to at the VC, and make a "cam" type pivot that would pull the bowden tight faster in the low throttle range, and pull it out slower as you get into the higher throttle range.

I like the manual switch suggestion. Last time I was under there I found the wire was very brittle, it might have finally broke entirely. Oh well, just another thing to look for in the junk yard this weekend!

I was having trouble with the transmission shifting too early, flaring, etc etc and installed all the springs in this kit. It really did make a difference in how the car drives. It doesn't downshift without some power on now, though, probably due to the Bowden Cable not interacting in the way the trans was designed for.

it's a 5 minute mod that's well worth it. i just hate having to add all that fuel flooring it just to get a little more torque around a corner. i wish the 722 would do a partial throttle downshift.

and i have a working kickdown switch and can pull all the wiring paraphernalia from my parts 240 for you if you'd like.

(05-14-2010 05:51 AM)ForcedInduction Wrote:  I like the manual switch suggestion. Last time I was under there I found the wire was very brittle, it might have finally broke entirely. Oh well, just another thing to look for in the junk yard this weekend!

The G-Wagen shifter has 4-3-2-1 positions that are basically D-S-L+microswitch
this way you can force the tranny into whichever gear you want without having to mash the pedal. It's meant for crawling but I think some of the early SD's had it.

Sure wish the coupe had that.. W123 diesels just weren't made to be on back roads all day. i mean the difference between 3 and 4 is too big to downshift half the time, and body roll sucks when you try to take the corner a little quick to avoid downshifting. these things must have been tested in production on the highway more than not.

(05-15-2010 11:33 PM)Nick Wrote:  Sure wish the coupe had that.. W123 diesels just weren't made to be on back roads all day. i mean the difference between 3 and 4 is too big to downshift half the time, and body roll sucks when you try to take the corner a little quick to avoid downshifting. these things must have been tested in production on the highway more than not.

It would be a simple mod if you had the shifter for it. You would parallel-splice it into the wire pair from the transmission to the kick down switch under the gas pedal.

(05-06-2010 05:37 PM)aaa Wrote:  Kickdown switch?

   

While changing out the speedo cable I found the plug in the solenoid had wiggled just barely out of contact. I plugged it back in and ziptied the wire to where it can't come loose again.

Acceleration is definitely better. I'll have to make another video and see how much time was cut off from the extra few hundred RPM in 1st and 2nd.

Second 0-60 run, now with the kickdown solenoid working.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiTTEj-5Epk

1st and 2nd shift at the same time as before, 20mph and 33mph.

My kick down switch works fine but if its not practically floored, mine shifts 1-3-4th. It pretty much skips 2nd gear all together. I have resorted to manually shifting the bitch till I get up to speed. That's with the bowden cable adjusted all the way out... actually it will shift into 4th, then down to 3rd for a couple seconds then back to 4th; Its ridiculous!

I really like the manual kick down idea! I think I'll wire that into the window lock button or something. I have also found that the switch will downshift any gear as Nick said. It doesn't help that after I got rear ended my car slams gears up shifting and downshifting and i haven't figured out what changed yet. I'm not really sure if I have the vacuum lines right yet, someone had them all screwed up when I bought the car. the trans would take a good 15-20 seconds to even go into reverse, but after i changed some vac lines that fixed itself.

Hey do any of you guys have a good pic of the vacuum lines as they com off the main supply line without EGR and the crap on top of the valve cover?

I finally did the manual switch project with a neat on-off-momentary switch from an Orion bus. Definitely worth the effort for situations where full throttle would be overkill but 4th is too tall.

No pics Forced?

I did the mod the day after also. It's not pretty but it works great. I'll put a pic up later today or tomorrow.

There isn't really much to picture. All the mod does is add a switch that bridges the two circuits, same as the kickdown switch. Mount a switch, run a pair of wires and splice into the harness. Or wire the switch to a 12V source and just splice into the green wire.

I do need to get a different switch plate though, some of the enamel flaked off while drilling the switch holes (the second one being for water injection, only waiting on nozzles to arrive before installing everything).

Well I'll post one of my jerry rig in a couple hours to show ya how friggin sweet it is on my shifter

A couple hours later....

Not pretty but it works sweet! I'll work on making it nice later....

   

   

I sent an e-mail to Superior asking if their K722A-D kit can bring the kickdown shift times up to 4500 or 4800rpm for all gears.
I like 11 seconds but the improvement of shifting into the 115whp 3000-4000rpm range instead of the 100whp 2500-2800rpm range would be worth the kit's $55 price.

Let us know what you find out from them...

The reply.

Quote:you should try to get the kit and also disconnect the KD switch from the accelerator linkage and toggle it if you are using it for race/ road sport. yes i would install the kit.

(07-18-2010 08:19 AM)ForcedInduction Wrote:  I like 11 seconds but the improvement of shifting into the 115whp 3000-4000rpm range instead of the 100whp 2500-2800rpm range would be worth the kit's $55 price.

11 seconds referring to... 0-60?

Yes.

I asked for more specifics.

Quote:it should help greatly, the pressure will be higher,and thus control the shifts later.... also each set of springs for 1-2 2-3 3-4 have three levels of firmness. i think it will help a lot and there is nothing else i know of anyway made from anyone else.... try it and let me know! i think your good to go!

Sounds like a winner to me. My trans seems to be in great shape but it shifts so ridiculously early that i manually shift it everywhere. It will shift into 3rd gear @ 20mph under a normal acceleration. bowden cable is good and vacuum is good too. Think I'll have to go for the kit and see what happens.

(07-19-2010 02:21 PM)Captain America Wrote:  It will shift into 3rd gear @ 20mph under a normal acceleration. bowden cable is good

You say the bowden is good but that sounds like a typical broken bowden.

Agreed. Does it pull back on its own?

(07-19-2010 03:43 PM)aaa Wrote:  

(07-19-2010 02:21 PM)Captain America Wrote:  It will shift into 3rd gear @ 20mph under a normal acceleration. bowden cable is good

You say the bowden is good but that sounds like a typical broken bowden.

Well when I pull on the cable where it is connected to the linkage it has resistance from the trans end.

I have adjusted it out a little bit already because it used to shift from third to fourth then back down to third then up to fourth again.

If I drive it at WOT it seems to rev out normally, its just if my foot is not buried in the peddle it shifts way early.

---

(07-19-2010 04:32 PM)ForcedInduction Wrote:  Agreed. Does it pull back on its own?

Yes.

Came across this in a 722 manual.

   

Only problem is it might affect ALL the shift points. It could bring 1-2 2-3 up to a better RPM but it means 3-4 would want to shift too high.

(07-21-2010 05:40 AM)ForcedInduction Wrote:  Came across this in a 722 manual.



Only problem is it might affect ALL the shift points. It could bring 1-2 2-3 up to a better RPM but it means 3-4 would want to shift too high.

That's the exact problem I had when I adjusted the bowden out...