In another thread below regarding starter removal I posted my problem with removing the starter and finally got that solved. In my earlier attempts to remove one of the starter bolts I caused a malfunction in the shifting of the gears. Prior to me removing the starter the car would shift into 3rd and 4th at 2500 RPM if I would let off the gas a little, otherwise it would shift on its own at those gears at about 3000 RPM. Don't ask me why letting off the gas causes it to shift sooner. Now after my starter removal and reinstall the car shifts when I let off the gas at about 2750 RPM, in other words it revs a bit higher before I can shift, which is annoying.

In my earlier futile attempts to get to the starter bolt my extensions and ratchet were making contact with the shifter linkage and the bracket that the linkage is attached to right below where the shifter rod enters the transmission. I even tried to remove the bracket to allow more room with my tools but I could not get the bracket off after removing the nut that holds the shifter rod to the bracket.

My question is, how do I go about getting the car to shift sooner like it did before? I assume me trying to remove the bracket or my tools making contact with the linkage caused this issue. I don't want to go bending the rod or adjust the bracket and make things worse (without knowing what I'm doing). This is probably a one of a kind problem but maybe someone has some insights into this. On a related note, why does letting off the gas cause the car to shift sooner?

 

I think I have discovered the problem. Earlier when I was trying to get to the starter bolt from up top in the engine bay I damaged the kickdown cable. I will replace the cable and see if that solves the problem.

 

Update, I examined the cable under the hood again and noticed the kickdown cable looked a little bent. I bent it to where I thought it should be and the tranny now shifts like it did before. I still have to take my foot off the gas to get it to shift at 2500. I guess to get it to shift properly i need to replace the cable and get it adjusted properly. Looks like a difficult job.

 

Is there alot of slack in the cable by the throttle wheel?
The cable just takes a little time to replace.

 

hi -- my first post here!
I changed the kickdown cable in 1990 240dl just 10000 miles ago back in april while it was still cold out. solved the late shifting out of 1st, starting in 2nd problems.

for some reason even when it was new, in the rain, it would show the old problem of late shifting, until the weather got dry again.
Now with the weather turning cooler, problem's back again. This time i can actually see the slack in the cable by the throttle drum.

my question is how long should these last? could there be something wrong with the transmission that it keeps 'eating' kickdown cables?

The replacement cable was a Gemo (listed as OEM) from FCP Groton -(though i suspected it might be the ScanTech cause it felt much cheaper than the stock one), and it wasn't too hard to replace, all i needed was a flashlight and a small pick set to hold the pulley in the transmission in place while i load the cable onto it. I really wouldn't want to replace it again, since i used synthetic ATF (not cheap) after replacing the radiator with a three row nissen and flushing everything... i know the ATF is supposed to last longer than 10,000 miles, so why not the kickdown cable.

now, i frequently drive over 90-105MPH, and use the kickdown feature an awful lot so could this be an expected contributor to premature failure?