1966 Dodge 727 Trans

Hello all. I have a '66 Charger with the 3 speed 727 automatic, POLY 318
engine. Since I have had the car, I have noticed that "passing gear"
doesn't work unless you floor the gas pedal. I have adjusted the
kick-down linkage until the shift points were: 1st: 25 mph 2nd: 40 mph,
and still have to floor it to achieve "passing gear." So, I adjust the
linkage until the shift points were 15 and 25, adjusted the kick-down
band to the factory service manual specs, and still no change; floor it
to achieve passing gear. Is this a characteristic of a transmission from
this era or is there another problem? It is a pain when you turn a
corner and take off in third gear goin 15 mph when most newer versions
of this trans downshift to 2nd. Also, the trans had a tune-up (bands
adjusted, fluid changed) about 10K miles ago.

Any thoughts?

Nick
95 Vision Tsi
66 Charger




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That's right. That's the way it's supposed to work in a '66. The
part-throttle 3-2 kickdown function was not added until '68, and it was
not standard across the line until '69. If you really find it annoying,
you can swap-in a '69-'76 727 valve body assembly.

DS

 

daniels right thats the way they operate


.. you can put in a b&m shift kit......helped my 68

 

That is exactly how it is supposed to work. "Part throttle kickdown"
wasn't added until about 1970, starting with the smallest engines (slant
sixes, then 318) and progressing through the big-blocks over a couple of
years. You can swap in a post-1972 or so valve body to get part throttle
kickdown if you want it. But part throttle kickdown can be a pain in the
butt with some engine/car comibinations for various reasons. I put a
newer valve body io my '69 440, and went screaming back to the original
valve body because an un-intentional kickdown as you roll on the
throttle through the middle of a curve can be a real handful with the
torque of a 440! I swapped it over to my '66 383 car which is a lot
heavier and I like it fine on that one, except that it would get
"indecisive" occasionally and downshift for about 1/2 second. TransGo
makes a shift kit that fixes that too.

 

It still wasn't across the line in '69, I know that much for sure. I
think 72 or 73 was the first year it made it onto ALL Chrysler cars. I
didn't realize that the sixes got it as far back as '68, they took
longer to phase it in than I realized.

 

Thanks all for the information. I just wanted to make sure it was
working correctly. This car is mainly a sunday driver so I am not too
concerned about switching valve bodies. I can deal with manually
shifting it into second if needed

Thanks again!




Nick

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