oldcutlass

Thanks ahead of time- I'm new to the site and have a 1967 Cutlass 2dr Holiday Coupe with a 330/ST300 2 speed switch pitch transmission.

I've read pretty much all the way through most of the tech here, and in a few places you come close to explaining when, where, and how the switch for the passing gear/pitch angle on the accelerator linkage is set but don't quite get there. How is it set up???

jimjr

Welcome! The switch that cotrols the variable vane should be located on the firewall (driver's side). It is connected to the carb. linkage and is actuated by the movement of the linkage forward and back. It is round, about 3 inches in diameter, and has three 1/4" male terminals. it . One is the 12V feed, one is for the stator solenoid and the third is for the detent solenoid. These solenoids are located in the tranny. The two wires that plug into the switch and go down to the tranny plug onto two 1/4" male terminals which are 90 degrees from each other. The connector is located on the driver's side and towards the rear of the tranny. Make sure you have continuity from end to end and all connections are clean and tight. If you do remove any wires from the kick down switch, make sure you mark which wire goes to which terminal. There is a calibration proceedure to align the contacts inside the switch. The stator solenoid is engaged at low acceleration and pitches the angle of the vanes in the torque converter. It disengages as you accelerate. Then, at wide open throttle (WOT), the stator rengages at the same time the detent (kick down) solenoid engages, locking up the vanes and causing the downshift. If you are runnig at too many RPM's, the downshift won't occur due to a built-in safety. You get about 20% more torque at the rear wheels when the kick down occurs due to the action of the vanes in the torque converter. Keep us posted if you need any further assistance on this issue. Jim

zippy

Here is how you setup the "kickdown switch" in your 67 -65 cutlass.

1. First, disconnect throttle linkage at firewall mounted switch (or carb)
2. Rotate throttle bellcrank thingy by hand all the way forward. (toward front of car). you should / might hear or feel a very faint ratcheting.
3. Now, carefully reconnect linkage being careful not to rotate much toward WOT (wide open throttle)
4. get in car and depress gas pedal to the floor.
kickdown switch is now set. (if it is working)
you can use a meter to see if there is continuity, otherwise the 45 year old lube is gunking things up and it needs to be rebuilt or cleaned inside...

ON bench, carefully pry tabs back from bakelite face. Careful of springs inside! degrease entire unit. (I like to immerse case in muriatic acid solution real quick to make super clean after de-greasing. a small zinc plating kit will make it look almost new!) Use pencil eraser to clean / polish copper terminals. No touching contacts with fingers after clean! Use quality electrical lube and relube springs slides etc. There are 2 plastic pieces inside... ratcheting teeth, that must not be dry rotted or your unit is shot and cannot be preset. Re-assemble and use the side of a 3/8 socket extention to bend tabs back into place (correct radius). rotate assembly. At the very end of each sweep, you should feel / hear a few clicks (5-8) maybe only 3 loud ones.
install and refer to setup procedure above.
Good luck!

oldcutlass

Wow, it was a long time ago for this one! But thx for the reply!