When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
My current setup with a generic bracket and a Lokar TV cable does not have the plastic auto-adjuster used to properly tighten the TV cable. Does this force me to tighten the cable by hand and only know when it is properly tightened by doing multiple test drives? Any advice on initial tightening in order to prevent damage to transmission? I know that too tight is better than too loose, but how do you gauge a good tightness before doing the first test drive?
Looks like you need to have your assistant hold the throttle floored; and while s/he has it so, loosen the front nut all the way to the end, turn the back nut CCW as viewed from the front (thereby moving the cable sheath rearwards in the process) until it is as far as it can go before it starts to close the throttle against your assistant's best efforts to hold it open, and tighten the front nut back down against it to hold it there.
Looks like you need to have your assistant hold the throttle floored; and while s/he has it so, loosen the front nut all the way to the end, turn the back nut CCW as viewed from the front (thereby moving the cable sheath rearwards in the process) until it is as far as it can go before it starts to close the throttle against your assistant's best efforts to hold it open, and tighten the front nut back down against it to hold it there.
I'm having trouble understanding the purpose of that nut. The cable moves independently of the steel-woven sheath, and the 2 nuts you're referencing seem to serve the sole purpose of positioning the sheath. So if the sheath moves independently from the cable, how would adjusting those 2 nuts help adjust the tension in the cable? I think I might be misunderstanding something here...
The tension of the cable is the adjustment. Back the nuts off to the ends of the cable. One to the front all the way, and one to the rear all the way. Hold the throttle wide open with your left hand, and pull the sheath of the cable towards the firewall with your right hand. Once you get the cable pulled back as far as it will go without closing the throttle, that is your set point. Hold the cable at that point with your right hand steady, close the throttle in your left hand. At this point there should be very little tension on the cable. Run the nuts towards the mounting bracket, snug them up and then see if the throttle still is able to be opened to wide open. If it does, go for a test drive using 1/3 throttle or less and see how it shifts.
The tension of the cable is the adjustment. Back the nuts off to the ends of the cable. One to the front all the way, and one to the rear all the way. Hold the throttle wide open with your left hand, and pull the sheath of the cable towards the firewall with your right hand. Once you get the cable pulled back as far as it will go without closing the throttle, that is your set point. Hold the cable at that point with your right hand steady, close the throttle in your left hand. At this point there should be very little tension on the cable. Run the nuts towards the mounting bracket, snug them up and then see if the throttle still is able to be opened to wide open. If it does, go for a test drive using 1/3 throttle or less and see how it shifts.
These instructions left me with seemingly way too much slack. Instructions unclear... At what point is tension accounted for? When is the stopper tightened down?
You want to adjust the sheath until when the throttle is fully open, the parts inside the transmission are BURIED.
By adjusting the sheath, you set, in effect, how far out the cable center must be pulled, to accomplish that.
The instructions are VERY clear. Couldn't have made them any clearer if I tried. Just do what I said, or, what Bird91 said... basically the EXACT same thing, except I told you to use your assistant rather than trying to hold it open yourself, which has other dividends sometimes, aside from the fact that you'd need about 4.25 hands to do it on your own ... TRY IT, see what happens. Efffff "understanding" for the moment, JUST DO IT.
Efffff "understanding" for the moment, JUST DO IT.
Sorry if my questions carried a negative connotation, didnt mean for that. Okay so it is now adjusted so that at WOT there is tension such that the throttle valve in the transmission should be completely open (or closed, whichever direction that is supposed to be). I'll take it for a test drive tomorrow. This had been a good starting point to begin dialing in the shift points, thanks a lot BIRD and Sofa
One more test... holding the throttle wide open.... can you grab the cable in the middle of the span between the carb and the bracket, and take any more slack out of the cable, or is it tight like a guitar string?
One more test... holding the throttle wide open.... can you grab the cable in the middle of the span between the carb and the bracket, and take any more slack out of the cable, or is it tight like a guitar string?
Nope, it's very tight. I can feel it start to pull the throttle valve (part inside the transmission) at about 30% throttle. By the time it is WOT it is maxed out in tightness.
The TV cable geometry should be correct to start with. It is easy to find this on line. Second, the TV cable should be tight at WOT. Have someone sit in the vehicle and slowly push down on the gas pedal till it is floored. This is to make sure you have WOT at the carburetor, when the gas pedal is floored all the way. Make sure as stated above the "geometry" is correct. Adjust the TV cable so that it is "tight" at WOT. If the shifts are a little late at part throttle. You can back off the TV cable adjustment 1/16th of and inch, no more than that.
Last edited by Pro Built Automatics; 07-06-2020 at 06:45 PM.
You can back off the TV cable adjustment 1/16th of and inch, no more than that.
I'm trying to solve this problem right now. 1-2 shift is at 25-30mph, when the recommended shift point for 1-2 is 20mph. So I keep having to loosen the tv cable a little bit at a time and then test driving it. This is the right thing to do if it is shifting at around 30mph?
It has a stage 2 shift kit so its already a hard shift, but yeah it was pretty harsh. I loosened the little hex-nut on the left in the pics little bit by little bit until it finally started shifting 1-2 right at 20mph. Problem solved, thanks for the help everyone.
07-03-2020, 06:23 PM
Couldn't have made them any clearer if I tried. Just do what I said, or, what Bird91 said... basically the EXACT same thing, except I told you to use your assistant rather than trying to hold it open yourself, which has other dividends sometimes, aside from the fact that you'd need about 4.25 hands to do it on your own ... TRY IT, see what happens. Efffff "understanding" for the moment, JUST DO IT. 
