A/T Kickdown Cable trouble

[petervanschie]

Hi everyone!

I was troubleshooting the turn signal fuse as it shorted, and found my way to the transmission. Wow. What a mess. The kickdown cable seemed to have chafed against the neutral safety switch and shorted melting quite a bit of stuff.



I can source the neutral safety switch easily enough (although pricey ). But finding a kickdown cable I've found is hard to come as it seemed to have been discontinued. Does anyone have any tips on where I can source one? Has anyone ever made one up to match before? any tips would help!

 

[Tbizzy23]

Bumping this thread.

Did you make any progress?

I was digging around on a tune up yesterday and discovered I have the same issue. My kickdown is totally frayed and will not hold tension. I have been wondering why I was having trouble inducing a downshift on an uphill grade.

Same question, sounds like this part is discontinued. Any suggestions on where I should I look to have this recreated?

 

[petervanschie]

Bumping this thread.

Did you make any progress?

I was digging around on a tune up yesterday and discovered I have the same issue. My kickdown is totally frayed and will not hold tension. I have been wondering why I was having trouble inducing a downshift on an uphill grade.

Same question, sounds like this part is discontinued. Any suggestions on where I should I look to have this recreated?

Yes actually,
I ended up removing the cable and bringing it to a motorcycle shop. Managed to re-sleeve the cable and re using the plastic crimp on the end of the cable that slips into the transmission. he then re soldered a new barrel on the end. Worked like a charm.

the fun part is getting the cable in and out. You’ll need to drop the transmission pan. on my deli After I dropped the pan the cable simply went through the transmission sidewall onto some sort of spring loaded pully were the barrel end slides into a groove. with a 90 degree pick and long needle nose pliers and a bit of patience I managed to get it off. There are other helpful posts on the forum for servicing the transmission fluid and rigging the kickdown cable.Best of luck!!

 

[Tbizzy23]

Nice. Great work.

Ok so I am clearly in over my head. Pretty new to this Delica and while generally handy, I am still learning to wrench on my own rig. Little stuff? Fine. But as I sat and investigated the current condition of my cable, I quickly realized I need to call for help.

This is the condition of my cable.

I am assuming this is too far gone to repair on the car. But after trying to Jerry rig it to get back functioning for the next bit, there was nothing I could do to keep tension in the cable. It seems to have been this way for a whole as the PO had a zip tie around the cable further down, but this fix didn't seem to be doing much. It's clear it was cooked by the exhaust manifold as there doesn't seem to be much casing in a few spots down the cable.

Right now it apears to be completely non-functional. Pulling the cable it no longer slides through the cabling and I couldn't get it to release once I put some tension on the cable. Anecdotally, while driving, it doesn't really ever downshift until rpms get too low. On the highway I use OD to downshift, but boy, wouldn't it be nice to get the power on demand. I have put about 1000km on it since I have owned and while I would have settled for the performance if I never knew better, now I see what I may have been missing!

I am moving to PNW in February so had plans to bring it to Deans in Portland or the nomadic guys in Sun Valley for a full once over and timing belt service (260km) but seeing this now, I am having second thoughts.

So the question is twofold:
Can I survive without repairing this for a few months (a few weekends trips, one or two trips up Donner Pass, and the 800miles to Portland)?

What the heck can I do about this? Sounds like this cable is discontinued and it's a bit above my head to pull and replace like @petervanschie.

I have a guy who has done some work for me but he's just ok so I was waiting to get it in the hands of someone who knows these rigs.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Tony

 

[Tbizzy23]

I ended up removing the cable and bringing it to a motorcycle shop. Managed to re-sleeve the cable and re using the plastic crimp on the end of the cable that slips into the transmission. he then re soldered a new barrel on the end. Worked like a charm.

the fun part is getting the cable in and out. You’ll need to drop the transmission pan. on my deli After I dropped the pan the cable simply went through the transmission sidewall onto some sort of spring loaded pully were the barrel end slides into a groove. with a 90 degree pick and long needle nose pliers and a bit of patience I managed to get it off. There are other helpful posts on the forum for servicing the transmission fluid and rigging the kickdown cable.Best of luck!!

Ok i think I many have found someone to make this for me. @petervanschie do you happen to have any photos or dimensions of the one your guy remade for you?

 

[petervanschie]

Ok i think I many have found someone to make this for me. @petervanschie do you happen to have any photos or dimensions of the one your guy remade for you?

Sorry Bizzy, didn’t happen to take pictures or had any technical drawings made up just gave the guy the cable he re-sleeved it to the length of the metal strands and left the inner cable the same asides having to re-solder the barrel end. Good luck on having a new one made up though!

 

[Tbizzy23]

Question for you @petervanschie - this is the used cable I have a line on, does this look correct? It’s used OEM off a donor but I don’t know if that end fitting is scabbed on from a prior repair or if that is how the oem cable should look.

@Growlerbearnz - as the resident Kickdown cable expert, do you know if this looks right?

Any guidance is much appreciated!

thanks

 

[petervanschie]

Hey bizzy,

Do you still have you’re old kickdown cable to reference? That’s your go to.

The transmission end of that kickdown cable looks about right. Although (At least for my deli) the engine side of the cable-end used a clevis and pin to interface with the arm of the injector pump.

Personally I’d say it’s a repair, and if I was getting that cable for mine I’d lay it next to my old one and mark the exact length and crimp the clevis from the old cable onto the new one.

Be wary as I’m pretty sure there are different length kickdown cables out there?

Best of luck!
Peter

 

[Tbizzy23]

Sweet thanks for the advice.

That’s my gut too. May still be an ok solution as a temp fix but for the high price tag, I’ll probably hit the phone books again looking for someone to recreate the original. Didn’t have much luck the first time but maybe I’ll get lucky second time around.

Now that I got mine free on the throttle body side I was able to at least confirm the end fitting is the same and that crimp doesn’t exist on my original cable.

Unfortunately, at the same time while hunting this answer down I sprung a fat coolant leak at the underside of the intake manifold. May have to adjust my focus for a bit but at least I know what I’m doing this weekend...