Hello everyone!

today i was able to demount my governor out of my th 350. The plan was to adjust my shift points at WOT with the Governor Springs that came with the Transgo 1&2 shift kit i bought.

But my Governor doesnt look like a TH350 governor

Heres a Picture:



It doesnt look like the Governor of a TH350 should in the Instruction Sheet of the Transgo kit:



So, im not able to change these springs and try it out, because the Springs in my governor are about twice as wide as the springs from the Transgo kit:



Can someone help me with this issue or know why my Governor is a different one?

Thanks a lot for any Ideas!

 

Your governor sure looks different than the spare one that I have from a TH350 transmission, which looks like the one in the Trans Go instructions. The springs in it are the smaller diameter ones and are the same color as the ones in your picture, so I assume they are from the TransGo shift kit that I installed decades ago.

Maybe call Trans Go and talk to them about it. I called years ago and they were extremely informative and helpful.

FYI, the governor in my car has the factory springs as I liked the factory shift points (4800 RPM) and didn't want to to change them. That's why I have a spare governor with the Trans Go springs in the tool box and not in the car.

 

thanks! So this is the right one for the th350? When i google 'th350 governor, it mosty shows the type that is shown in the instruction of the transgo kit. Did you ever changed something on a governor to calibrate shift points?

im thinking of hooking off my kickdown cable to solve my 'engine overreving-at-higher speeds' problem.. or is this normal when you hit the pedal at a speed of about 60mph?

 

Sorry, I edited my post but apparently not fast enough. The valve portion of mine looks the same but it does not have the flange. I don't know why your governor is different but as I said above, call Trans Go and talk to them.

Yes I changed the shift points by installing the new springs but I did not like it as from what I recall the shift points were higher, so I went back with a factory governor that had 4800 RPM shift points.

 

Thanks a lot! I like the original shift points to! The only issue i have is when i floor the pedal at about 60mph or something, the transmission hits passing gea (2nd) and revs the hell out of my engine (rpm goes over 5000, and there is no upshift back to 3rd BEVOR 5000). Its like going 60mph in a 5speed manual trans car, shift to 2nd and let the clutch go. Just not healthy for a stock valvetrain

I have to let off the pedal a bit, then it shifts back to 3rd.

Maybe my kickdown cable adjustment is wrong? Its adjusted that on WOT the cable is pulled max way.

maybe i dont have to mess with the governor stuff and the kickdown itself is the problem

thank you for your time!

 

I have not seen that style in a 350 but have in the st300. So either the 350 is a very early one and they had that governor to use up or it was changed at some point.
wittrans.com has used governor's for the 350 at 22.00
https://www.wittrans.com/parts?type=...asevb&part=680

 

I just removed and cleaned the Governor in my 72 cutlass supreme yesterday and it looked exactly like the one you have pictured.
Original numbers matching 72- 350V8/TH350 never apart until yesterday
I'm having an issue were mine shifts into third but wont down shift when I hit WOT
I cleaned it because it was only shifting once from 0-45MPH
It now shifts through all three gears
I am going to have to try adjusting my down shift cable which I replaced recently and see if it resolves this issue

 

Ok, thank you! So it looks like this is the original governor

I think ill just clean mine too and reassemble it to the trans and try some different kickdown cable adjustments or hook the kickdown cable off and try a manual downshift at 60 mph to take a look wich rpm i have than.

I want to get sure that the kickdown ONLY drops One gear and not two. In a several posts/threads in this forum, some people write about the same problem that i have and some corrected it with some proper kickdown cable adjustments.

 

That will depend upon the vehicle speed / engine RPM. The detent can effect a 3-1 downshift at lower speeds then is restricted to a 3-2 downshift at higher speeds, then eventually no downshift at very high speeds (Imagine doing 100 and flooring it).

 

Yes, in my case, when i go about 60 mph in 3rd, my rpm is at about 1500. At the moment i have 2.56 gears. When i floor it, the engine revvs up to over 5000, it feels like it shifts back to 1st gear.

I will do a several trys without the detent cable hooked on/manual downshifts an see how it acts

 

BTW, the Transgo shift kit came with a small U-shaped Steel Clip. I read, that this clip is to save the engine and trans from Manual downshifting in to first at higher speeds! I did NOT installed this clip, because in my valve body was a thicker blue spring installed which i read should do da same thing?

Maybe this is the problem?

 

I also opted to retain the factory downshift/over rev protection in my transmission, but there was no clip as your kit has. I couldn't recall what I did on the first kit I installed back in 1982 so I called both Trans Go and Hughes Performance and asked them. Both said to simply retain the factory control valve spring instead of installing the new spring in the kit.

Anyway, that is to control MANUAL downshifts, not automatic downshifts which is what you are having issues with.

I made notes on the instruction sheet as you can see below:

 

Thank you very much for your notes!

Today, i dropped my governor back in - just to realise that let it laying on the bench over night wasnt a good idea, i had a big ATF - mess under the car, i guess because of converter drainback -
And did some test-driving. I unhooked the kickdown cable and shifted the transmission manual back to 2nd > no oberrevving. It IS like i thought: even at 60 mph, my transmission did not shifted down to 2nd, it shifted to 1st. Then i hooked the cable back in and adjustet the clip more and more close to the pedal. After a few test-kickdowns i found my right adjustment. Now, at 60mph it shifts down to 2nd, makes a good boost and shifts back to 3rd at about 4500 rpm or a bit higher.

When i drive slower and floor it, the transmission shifts down to 1st (i think so) and shifts back up at 4500 rpm too.

i wonder why this 'kickdown cable adjustment' thing isnt discussed more? I bet there are many cars which do odd things when flooring the pedal.

 

Glad you got it figured out, and thanks for explaining how you did it. I am sure this info will be helpful to someone else in the future.

 

No Problem

I think the clip of the Kickdown cable was adjusted too tight an pulled the cable too far at full throttle, so it shifted 2 gears down in 3rd.

BUT i dont even know if this can be, it seems just like that in my opinion.

i will take a look in my 71 CSM, maybe there are some instructions about this kickdown topic.

 

Thanks for the informative post. I have a 1970 cutlass with the original th350. I rebuilt it and modified it for more horsepower as it is sitting behind a juiced up 455. My shift points are similar to yours but I want to increase to about 5500. Like you, the trans go shift kit supplied springs that will not fit into my governor. I have not called trans go yet but I am assuming i need to go with a different style governor which will allow me to use the B&M shift configuration kit.

although difficult to see, my original governor is shown in the back ground.

Notice the governor in the back ground.

 

The kickdown cable should max out its travel at WOT. If it’s adjusted too tight, you will have a overactive passing gear, not to mention throttle and transmission linkage flexing. Once the valve in the valve body bottoms out in its bore, something has to give. I doubt the kickdown cable clip under the dash has nearly the tension to cause the cable or linkage to flex, but the cable on the carb might.

Btw, the govenor in the first post is a early design. I don’t know when or why Hydromatic changed designs. Other than the drive gear and calibration, the governors are the same between the 350, 700, and 400. The 400 govonor sins the opposite direction, the gear has the teeth cut at a different angle. Other than that, the weights and springs will interchange.