300tdi auto kickdown adjustment

[Discomark]

Hi Folks,
Noticed that lately my Auto 97 Disco 300TDI has been reluctent to go into lockup and sometimes I can drive for 60 or 70km's on the freeway before it kicks in at around 80KMH.
I was looking at the kickdown cable (see attached) and it looks like its possibly incorrectly adjusted as per the procedure here shows Land Rover Workshop Manuals > 300Tdi Discovery > 44 - AUTOMATIC GEARBOX - ZF > ADJUSTMENT > KICKDOWN CABLE ADJUSTMENT
Mine differs from the above though so I'm not sure as it has four positions for the cable attachment.
The kickdown is operating fine as expected and gear shifts are smooth etc. Other possibility is a sticking governor valve i guess so going to do a fluid change. Transmission was rebuilt 20k ago and fluid was replaced with full synthetic at the time.
Cheers
Discomark

[Blknight.aus]

massively too loose. but that may be because its kinked frayed or otherwise fouled inside the sheath making the gearbox think that you are still trying to accelerate when you're not so its holding the gear and lockup waiting for the speed to come up to the point where the output speed pressure overcomes the throttle position pressure.

disconnect the cable from the throttle plate and pull it out by hand gently see how it moves going in and out. if its sticky remove it from the engine side mount hold it vertically and begin to dribble ATF into it. IF that makes it better you have cable wear and contamination. if it begins to feel "notchy" then its not in good shape and needs to be replaced.

if you get it to retract back to 1mm of clearance, leave it disconnected and take it for a gentle drive, it should change up earlier and lock earlier.
If that works, install the thing again and ignore all other settings other than these.

1. engine idle, set this at ~750 by means of the normal throttle adjustment, if needed reset the low speed stop screw. (check this before you hook up the kickdown cable)

2. 1mm from the thread end to the stop crimp.

in this postiion the cable should have just a little slack in it, not much, almost like it was approaching zero preload, zero play. if in doubt a little tighter is better than a little looser BUT.. if this works then follow the test procedure in the book for the auto drive test, and make small adjustments until, A, it passes the test at the speeds indicated or B, its driving how you like it to drive.

best of luck.

[Discomark]

Thanks Dave, That makes sense, the rubber boot has also perished so maybe some water or dirt has gone down the cable. I will get some trans fluid down the cable and see if that helps free it up and take up some of the slack. The link I posted earlier explained that only six threads should be visible on the back of the rear locknut and mine seems to be the opposite so maybe the transmission shop did not adjust properly to start with!

Cheers

Mark

[loanrangie]

Replacing the cable isnt hard but fiddly as you have to remove the valve body of the trans and then feed the cable back up over the auto to the injector pump.