AZ455

Has anyone ever wired a manual kickdown switch for a TH400? Since the stock switch that is activated by the accelerator pedal will only trigger at WOT, what if a switch was wired to have kickdown on demand?

Think this would be beneficial in any way? Say, hit the switch when you are cruising, and then floor it, it'd be downshifted and ready to go.

I can't see this causing any damage to the TH400, do any of you see a reason not to try this? I ask 99% out of curiosity, but that other 1% has been known to surface and I might give it a try..

m455sx

My 442 kicks down about half to 3/4 thottle, my SX kick down at WOT as well. I heard switch is adjustable? But not sure.

oldcutlass

It can be done by wiring a switch in parallel to the stock kickdown switch. All thats required to the trans is 12v.

AZ455

Yes, that's exactly what I was considering doing. Just wondered if anyone has ever done it?


The switch is adjustable, but it self adjusts and after you mash the pedal once, it's set to energize at WOT only.

joe_padavano

You do realize that simply moving the gear selector from "D" to "S" does exactly the same thing, don't you?

AZ455

Yes. What gave me this idea was a thread on another forum, basically the same question asked there. The guy asking had already wired up a switch though, and claimed he got smoother downshifts using it than moving the shifter.

GTI_Guru

My thoughts exactly!

My '66 console shifter has a bit of play in it, and actually works perfectly for this. Without even hitting the button on the t-handle, you can give it a nudge back towards second, (not far enough that it actually goes into the next detent) and it downshifts nice & quick with minimal effort. A forward nudge towards 3rd puts it right into high gear again.

Not sure if someone adjusted it to do just that at one point in time, or if the years/mileage/wear happend to make it work this way, but I really like it. For my driving style, it is a nice "feature". It's also solidly locked in that detent, so there's no way it will go beyond those 2 gears in either direction with the way it works now.

I would guess this trick wouldn't be easily done on a column shift car, but with a floor shifter it works like a champ. Using it normally, it goes right into all the gears at the correct detents with the shifter, so I'm not worried about hurting anything or slipping into the wrong gear at any point. Never had one that worked quite like this one before with it adjusted this way, but if I do any work to it, I will try and put it right back to the way it is now, as it works beautifully.

-Jeff