Kickdown issues

[65InKy]

Good morning all,

I recently replaced the seals in my COM transmission for the shifter and kickdown levers, I had to remove the valve body to access them. I reinstalled everything back together according to my pictures I took( I thought) but now my kickdown lever( the actual piece on the transmission, not the linkage going to the top of the motor) is just loose and flops around, it doesn't spring back, so I know that I have installed something wrong or placed the valve body back in with the kickdown lever in the wrong position. With the way that it is now, the kickdown lever doesn't move far enough forward for me to even connect my linkage, its binding up against something. I'm guessing that I may have had the kickdown lever rotated too far back when I installed the valve body, as in it was pointing straight up instead of pointing to the front of the car.

I know I will have to remove the valve body again to fix this, I just want to make sure I'm not missing something. Is there a spring that the inside kickdown lever sits against or is it controlled by the something in the valve body? I know the lever needs to move forward but what does it sit against that provides the spring loaded action?

I've included a picture to help with what I'm trying to explain as I usually am not very clear lol.


Thanks for any help and advice!!

Jon Preston
65 Thunderbird 390

[65InKy]

So this morning I have done some more research and have determined where the kickdown lever inside the transmission goes in relation to the valve body and what provides the spring motion. My question now is, does the kickdown lever fit in between this spring and stop, shown in the picture, or does it run along side of the spring?

Thanks in advance,

Jon Preston
65 Thunderbird

[65InKy]

The wonderful world of google has led me to find my answer lol, but I will post here in case anyone else stumbles upon this problem. I thought I had assembled everything back correctly but in the middle of being a mechanic I also had to get my sons bicycle out of the garage, air up the tires, crack open a beer, take a break, bring the bicycle in, etc. lol.

So I have found out that the inside kickdown lever actually sits in between a spring and a stop, hence the spring loaded action that I am currently missing until I tear it back apart and put back together correctly.

Hopefully this will help someone else on down the road, I posed the question but continued to do more research and found the answer myself, I'll pass this along for the next guy.

Thank you guys for looking and picking your brains for me,

Jon Preston
65 Thunderbird

[RedBird64]

Thx for the update Jon. Glad you got it figured out.
I got into my COM once many years ago and barely made it out without really screwing it up. These days I limit my wrenching on it to fluid changes and band adj only.
"Man's got to know his limitations" and all that.

[65InKy]

Thx for the update Jon. Glad you got it figured out.
I got into my COM once many years ago and barely made it out without really screwing it up. These days I limit my wrenching on it to fluid changes and band adj only.
"Man's got to know his limitations" and all that.

You're most definitely correct, I knew it would be tedious and I really didn't fancy the idea of having to take the valve body out just to change two seals, and messing with the detent spring on reinstallation of the shift lever was an absolute nightmare, but I survived getting it back together, I just missed the kickdown step along the way.

I may have to stick to fluid changes from now on and leave the other parts to someone above my skill set lol, I think I found my limitations for sure!

Thanks again,

Jon Preston
65 Thunderbird