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New Guy - Kickdown Cable Question

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    New Guy - Kickdown Cable Question

    Will put up a “hello” intro post soon. I’m fairly good with cars. But also fairly new to BMWs. But very new to automatic transmissions (especially old ones). Bought a 1990 325 cabrio for my daughter and I to work on and fix up that will become her first car. It’s kind of a tradition in our family to have old cars for first cars.

    Anyway. I’m getting to wrenching and when long story short (when checking TPS) I realized I wasn’t getting wide open with the pedal depressed. Was maybe getting 3/4 tops. Pulled out the trusty Bentley that came in the trunk. First tightened the throttle cable to get rid of that slack. That helped some. Then disconnected the kickdown cable from the throttle body and Loosened the kickdown “switch” (which apparently on these engines is just for tactile feedback) in until full pedal depressing gets me WOT 0.5mm from the stop.

    i put the kickdown cable back on the throttle arm and now not WOT again unless I give it a little tug. It’s closer. But not right yet. I’m ASSUMING I need to let out the kickdown cable so WOT gets reached. But reading the Bentley automatic transmission section page 15 it says something about “depressing the accelerator until transmission resistance is felt” and lift the switch up to that point on the kickdown switch.

    Seems contradictory or I’m just not that bright. Could really use the help of someone with a bit more knowledge with a bit of a walkthrough here.

    Thank you all in advance.

    #2
    hope you get it figured out. standard answer is always swap to a manual. i haven't seen an auto e30 for over a decade now. the auto boxes weren't the strongest.

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      #3
      I did figure it out. Basically you need to set so you get WOT, and then adjust kick down cable to proper length at WOT. What’s interesting is Bentley manual says “at least 44mm (1.5”)” but 44mm is 1.73”.

      Test drive yesterday was a whole new car. Probably why I got it for a song. Figured it had some fuel delivery issue or maybe even a rebuild in my future. Nope, throttle adjustment. Throttle cable on order because it took quite a bit to adjust to spec. So stretch is there. New cable will probably line things up even more.

      And yes I would LOVE a manual. Even this auto is fun to drive(for the 6 miles I’ve put on it). But was given a firm no to a manual by the Boss. And my daughter doesn’t have the desire to learn. I don’t see this car leaving the family though. So who knows? Maybe she’ll want something new and then I can really get to playing with this. Or I’ll have to get rid of another toy to get another. Had an e36 318is and an e46 325xi when I was a younger lad (both manual). And my wife had an F30. So there’s a history in the family I’m glad to continue with this. My daughter has been told multiple times, “you don’t know how awesome the car your dad bought you is. It was cool 35 years ago and still is today.”

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        #4
        nice fix! will have to remember this for others

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