I have the downshift cable disconnected and I'm wondering if it hurts anything to leave it like that if I am shifting for the tranny anyways when I have the car at the track. I have the vacuum connected but not the downshift cuz I need some kinda special ball end to attach it plus the plastic "wings" the clip into the bracket are broken. For some reason teh car sticks in 1st when i'm racing it even though I want to shift it at 5,500 it sticks to 5,900, even if I try shifting as early as 5,000. Tranny has a 3,000 stall converter and no shift kit yet.

 

Sounds like you don't have a manual valve body--that's the only way you can make it shift sooner than it wants to automatically. You may need to adjust the governer if you want an earlier shift.

 

Eh, Same thing here. Th350, No detent cable connected...
I shift at 5200... it shifts at 5500... heh...
I do have a shiftkit however...
Hooking up the detent cable will only make the tranny DOWNSHIFT when you step on it. not upshift when you want it to.

Between the governer and the Vacuum modulator you can make your tranny "automatically" shift when you want, without actually manually shifting it. The modulator takes vacuum from the engine to tell it how hard you are stepping on it, the less vacuum there is (more throttle) the later it shifts. 0" of vacuum (or boost in my case) is read as WOT and thus the tranny shifts as LATE as it can, as is dictated by the governer... which must be fuxed with to get that shift where you want it. This is how I have been told.

 

If you install the complete B&M trans pack kit
and leave the Kick down cable disconected, the trans will manually
shift when you shift it. and still retain the auto shift function.
There is a modification (in addition to the kit) that is done to the valve body that eliminates the kickdown cable altogether.
It still uses the vacuum modulator. (this mod was done to mine this time. I was shown it, on another valvebody But thats about all I know).