torqueflite trans.

[William Huff <whuff@xxxx>]

Hi,

It is true that the kickdown adjustment can change the shifting 
characteristics of the transmission. However, an improperly adjusted or 
missing kickdown adjustment can materially shorten the life of the 
transmission, leading to early failure. Governor pressure is another 
measure of shifting points and quality.

I have also put the transpak in several of my torqueflites over the years, 
but I have never had a cast iron torqueflite apart, and I don't know what 
is available for adjustment in the valve body. I do not believe the 
transpak or other kit was available for the cast iron tranny (could be 
wrong, I was in high school when they were last made and was driving cars 
from the '40s and early '50s.) Yep, those were some fast flat head six 
cylinders, even had a couple of straight 8s. :^).

I really wouldn't recommend moving far from factory adjustment on any 
portion of the transmission without some research. I had spoken to some 
people at J.W. Performance Transmissions a few years ago, they are close to 
where I live, pioneered the Ultrabell bellhousing and are torqueflite 
experts. I think they said that they could make the cast iron transmission 
a pure manual shift that could live under some real horsepower, but they no 
longer do high performance streetable auto shift torqueflites of any kind 
due to the problems associated with the throttle adjustment. Someone would 
put a tall manifold on the engine and the transmission would be back in the 
shop a short time later due to improper kickdown adjustment causing failure.

Regards,

Bill Huff




Excellent article William! But no one mentioned kickdown adjustment 
[throttle pressure] With minimum pressure, it should shift to high between 
23-28 mph. I prefer 25-28, but never over 30.
If you install a shift kit, there is also an adjustmant in the 
throttle-body. I use B+M Transpak.
After installing one, I just used adjustments from kit for my other 
cars.[street-adjustment]

Elmer Tuuri
Lively Ont. Canada
Been a terrible spring


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