Throttle shaft/kickdown lever arrangement

The kickdown feature on our gearbox is not working. Its a 69 A108 with a 318 and a 727 gearbox. An edelbrock 600cfm carb has been fitted by the previous owner and we dont believe the kickdown has worked since the carb has been fitted. Its a one piece rod that runs from the carb to the throttle shaft lever on the gearbox. We are after some advice on getting the kickdown to work correctly. Something that is baffling us is that the throttle shaft lever on our gearbox looks like it needs to be pulled forward to activate the kickdown and the return spring will pull it back rearward. All the kits that we have found information for on the internet look as though the lever needs to be pulled back to activate the kickdown feature.

I am now going to try and upload some pics of the setup to help explain what is going on

Thanks in advance for help

Gave up on trying to use the forums image hosting service so here is a link to a photobucket album. Some of the pics are relevant to this topic and some are relevant to our other post aregarding the secondaries on our carb

https://s1081.photobucket.com/albums/j350/chrisandadam1/

here goes;
this is not hard to do but it is reverse logic, if you understand that your on your way. the best and simplest way to adjust the linkage is,
with engine NOT running,
first remove kickdown linkage from the carb linkage.
make sure the carb is on the idle screw
pull it forward as far as it will go and see if it still slides onto the carb stud.
if not don't worry for a minute.
next hold the gas pedal to the floor and THEN try to move the linkage at the carb further back. removes free play and loosness in linkage.
while holding pedal to floor and carb linkage wide open push kickdown to the rear of the vehicle till it wont go any further and try to place it back on the linkage.
if it won't slide onto the stud at wide open throttle adjust it till it does and release it. it should now slide onto the stud at idle with you pulling it forward.
with a carb change and linkages bent and loose there will be slight variations to this but the end result will take a few test drives to get it the best for your driving style. by doing the above will get you in the right area and minor adjustments will tune it in better. i have a dozen different rods and linkages but could never get mine to work right till i found out the older transmissions have a different govoner and valve body combination and the guy who made my first trans used an "assorment" of parts from several trannys.
the big thing to remember is not to make big radical changes at once just small incremental adjustments as the linkage controls hydraulic pressure and thats another story.
also if your kickdown is a factory rod the end at the carb is the only place to adjust it and do them one turn at a time.
you also commented on your carb secondarys in another post ; the edelbrock carbs are vacume secondarys but without a vacume canister to operate them. the top butterflys are on a linkage but the lowers are vacume and don't look to see if there working in case it backfires through the carb. those edelbrock carbs are a direct decendant of the notorious A.F.B. carbs of the 60's.
if you have any experience working with a newer edelbrock or an old A.F.B. you know what the letters stand for, All For Backfiring.
good luck..........

Good info there.
To add a couple points, there is a factory manual posted here. Find that and save it. There will be a chapter on adjusting.
Also, if the mix of parts does not work properly, you can go with aftermarket cables (Lokar) to make sure it works properly.
WARNING!!! The Kickdown or Throttle Pressure must work properly or the transmission will be damaged in normal driving!!!
The only way to remove the linkage and have the trans live is to install a full manual valve body.

JKR =Nailed IT!!

So, when looking at the throttle shaft lever on the transmission, which way should the lever be pushed/pulled when the accelerator is pushed?

Chris&Adam wrote:So, when looking at the throttle shaft lever on the transmission, which way should the lever be pushed/pulled when the accelerator is pushed?

Did you get the service manual?
https://vintage-vans.forumotion.com/t13582-service-manual-download

it's in group 21 page 38 of 84 in that pdf section. Both the /6 and V8 are there.
If you don't have Adobe acrobat to open and view the files, you can download a free reader
http://get.adobe.com/reader/

As the throttle moves back (from idle to wide open), the linkage moves back.

Great job JKR!!!