rocketscientist

so the guy that owned the car before me....if i had a nickel for every time i said that....did a number of hack jobs on my 72 cutlass. among the many, cut the kickdown cable and numerous wires. one of the problems in particular i am having, is the throttle cable setup and kickdown cable. there was what looked like a square throttle cable mount on the intake, but was too big of a whole and however did fit the kickdown cable that i ordered from jegs, which may have been a bad choice. i thought the kickdown cable went to the carb, but have been informed it goes to the accelerator pedalm, which throws me for a loop, why would there be a mount on the intake? as of now i do not have a throttle cable braket, so my question is what throttle cable bracket do i need, and whats up with the kickdown cable? its a 72 cutlass s 350/350

silverriff

The 350 kickdown cable is connected to the trans itself, not the gas pedal. It goes from the tranny to the accelerator linkage just like the throttle from the gas pedal. At the end of the throttle linkage travel, it pulls on the cable coming from the trans., kicking down the transmission. The kickdown cable usually has this large cube looking lock that hooks into the carb/manifold bracket that you use to adjust the travel of the cable. You don want it to pull until the last little bit of linkage travel. Hope that makes sense.

rocketscientist

it does, which would mean my assumption about being a kickdown cable mount i have on the manifold is correct, but i still don't see a place to hook it to the carb? i even recognized the slotted end of the kickdown cable and figured that's what was supposed to happen as ive seen a few times before. im in the process of hunting for a good reference photo of this, if anybody has one i would be able to tell if i am missing some linkage on the carb possibly? its a 4bbl q jet

silverriff

Yeah I was looking for a picture of mine but I don't have one. I can take one for you tomorrow. The way I hooked mine up was putting an old ball stud on the inner arm of the linkage... It should be about a half an inch or so closer to the carb then the arm that has a hole in it, that your return spring should be hooked through. I didn't have a hole on the inner arm, so I just tapped it to install the ballstud. Then you just hook the long slotted end of the cable onto the stud. I am not sure it that's the "correct" way of doing it, but it's the way I did it, and it is working fine. But again, I will take a picture tomorrow to show you my setup.

silverriff

Ok now I am officially confused. I just read some other posts abot the kickdown cable where other members has said that it DOES attach to the accelerator pedal. Hmmmm. Well then why is mine hooked up to the carb linkage? Sounds like yours is too Rocket. Mine is a 1972 hackjob also that has a transplanted 455 in it, but I swore that it was mated to a 350 trans. For crying out loud! I guess some more research is in order!

silverriff

Ok apparently before 1972, the th350 kickdown attached to the gas pedal, after 72, it connected to the carb. So you and I must both have a trans out of something newer. That's half the fun of owning a frankestein is trying to find out what the hell the previous owners did!

svnt442

It doesn't matter what the trans is out of (except BOP or Chevy)...a 350 is a 350, is a 350, is a 350. You just need the correct cable for the car it's in. The A body cars 68-72 go to the gas pedal and in 73 to the carb.
If you have a bracket that is set up for the kickdown to the carb it has been transplanted from a later model.

442_Mustang

Cars with the Turbo 400 have an electric switch on the gas pedal for kickdown. Turbo 350 cars have the cable going to the carb.Mine is a 4 speed car so I can't take a pic to post.

Lady72nRob71

Heres the std throttle linkage setup for a 72 350 4bbl with 350 tranny. I hear this will be the same as the 72 455 4bbl.


The 350 tranny cable goes from the tranny to the gas pedal in 72.
(lower cable in picture)


Since you car's engine and tranny are not original, it is time to find the numbers and figure out exactly what you have and we can go from there.

rocketscientist

thanks for the help and especially the pics this makes a lot more sense. i will have to run some numbers and see whats out of what, and now i know that i am missing my throttle cable mount...i can only imagine why someone would take it off...

rocketscientist

and is the hole in the firewall round and the mount on the kickdown cable square? and i do not have the correct end on mine, but looks like something that could be fabbed up.

Lady72nRob71

You mean square at the firewall end? Yes, it does look that way in the picture. From the big picture I have the firewall hole looks squarish too. The grommet outside might be round though.
I will need to take a closer look when i get home.

Of course, GM has been known to force square pegs into round holes before...

rocketscientist

k well the hole in the firewall is round on mine, but the part that clips in is square. looks like the hole has a slight notch in it, i think it will work out but there is a tab i will have to file down in the square clip not sure why its there wont fit with it.