Kick down cable problem

[UberXY]

About a year ago I was driving along in my '88 FJ62 and as I push on the gas, the transmission downshifted to second and stayed there. it would only go into 3rd or 4th if ran the engine to 4k, which I only did once.

The transmission shop said the kick down cable was "pinched" and replaced it. All was fine for about a year. The other day the gas pedal seemed to have some resistance in it and when I accelerated, same problem, can't get 3rd or 4th. Looking at the kick down cable at the throttle cam, there is about an inch of slack and the cable wont retract. If I shake the KD cable down by the transmission, it will take up slack, and if I drive easy the transmission works great in all gears. But eventually I end up with a lot of unretractable slack and a transmission that will not upshift.

I thought about disconnecting the KD cable but on second thought, maybe not such a good idea.

I can't see anything wrong with the cable - still looks like new. I can't figure out why it won't retract. And that triangular bit that the cable goes into at the transmission is only about 1.5 years old, had it replaced when the transmission was rebuilt.

Any thoughts?

Ub

 

[Michael Hanson]

Replaced my cable about 3 years ago and have had no problem. This cable has to be adjusted correctly.Unless your area has salt on the roads or you go though alot of dust or mud I would figure there is something wrong with the paul it hooks into in the unit itself. MIke

 

[Kynot62]

Number one it's not a kick down cable, its a throttle position sensor. It doesn't work like the old chevy kickdown levers it just tells the tranny where the pedal is.

Had a sticking problem on mine, on the advice of an ASE mechanic friend lubed it up with WD 40 and never had another problem and that was about 3 years ago.

Tony

 

[UberXY]

Hi: thanks for the replies. I dropped the LC off at the local transmission shop that did a rebuild for me and showed them the problem - how the cable binds and the transmission thinks the throttle is WFO. Mechanic commented that Toyotas in general have problems with these cables and they were gonna tear into this afternoon.

BTW they have a customer who has 600k miles on an FJ62.

Ub

 

[Tavman]

So what happened? My 1990 FJ62 is slipping from 2nd to 3rd, and was going to adjust the kickdown cable to try and fix the problem.

Let us know!

 

[Michael Hanson]

Toyota problem....Replace a worn out part once in awhile ,yes. These cruisers are getting older and few have been maintained according to the Toyota manual. Make sure your shop flushes completely until clean after pulling the pan. Mike

 

[UberXY]

It turns that the cable was defective, though it was less than a year old. The sheath pulled out of the ferrule on the transmission end. Toyota exchanged the part - no charge - and the transmission shop that rebuilt my tranny and installed the cable replaced it - no charge. While it was there I had them set the play in the cable so that the truck now shifts around 2300 rpm, where it used to shift around 1800.

I like when the invoice says "No Charge".

Ub