Hey all,

I just installed a tach in my '69 98 and found out the shift points are right at 4000 rpm. I'm not really hot rodding the land yacht, but I seem to remember my old '70 442 shifted past 5000.

A bit of reading told me it would be a pain to alter the shift points very much (if it has a vacuum adjustment it would only be about 5mph different)

Is 4000 RPM low for a TH400? I guess it will make sure I don't beat the engine up too badly. What does everyone else get for shift points?

Thanks,

Karl

 

Mine shifted about 5200 rpm. An easier way is to get a governor spring kit. Many people made these, B&M, Mr. Gasket (I think) etc. Taking the governor cover off is easy with little mess involved.

 

Save your money on the govener kit. The easiest way is to just lighten the org gov inside weights by grinding a little off. Keep the stock springs because they control the part throttle shifts. My race car is a colume shift and I have differnt gov set up for differnt rpm shifts IE 5500, 5850 and 6100 takes 15 minutes to swap it out. Get yourself a spare gov and take a little weight off at a time because you can't put it back.

Stock inner weight looks like this

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When finish it will look like this

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Keep the point because it will contact the outer weight. About 1/32" will raise the shift poit 100-200 rpm. I use two 6d nails to put it back together, alot easier then those dam little e clips. Just shorten(1/8"-1/4") and flatten the point so it can't pull out with a hammer and punch.
Sorry no pics I'm at work right now.
JKaz

 

Thanks, that's the info I was looking for. kaz - if you get some time to put up the pics, I would really appreciate it!

It's strange that the trans shifts so low though, right? (unless the previous owner set it up that way) I didn't even know you could set it up to shift so low.

It's not really a problem right now. (like I said I'm not racing it) It still has plenty of low end power, and fun to drive. But It will also be fun to tinker and see how it responds.

Thanks,

Karl

 

If I was an Olds engineer I would probably set the shift points for a '69 98 at about 4000 rpm. The engine has plenty of torque, a tight converter, and generally conservative drivers, not drag racers.

If I were you, I'd consider leaving the shift points where they are. You can always use the selector to hold it in gear longer when you want to. But you can never make it shift earlier at WOT once you modify the governor. Face it, there's plenty of times in street driving when you want WOT power but don't really want to wind it up to 5000 rpm.

 

Good point and I agree. The shift points are pretty good for a full size. I was mainly curious about if this was the "stock" shift points for the full size cars.

Any other full size drivers out there? What are your shift points?