Any advice on connecting kick-down cable for ZF gearbox?

[Philip Wardle]

Apologies if this has been covered - our ZF gearbox is performing absolutely perfectly on the project car, but we have not yet connected the kick-down cable. Should we simply follow the general guidance as per the BW35, or is there another preferred procedure please?

[Staggering About]

Having bought a Stagweber carb for my ZF automatic Stag I had to devise a method to attach the kick down cable. Routing it up the nearside and onto the carb produced a very tight restrictive curve and the cable was too short. Here’s how I did it.
I routed the cable to the offside beside the new throttle cable bracket.
I measured the size of the cable and obtained another of the same size. I had one with the adjusting screw on the end (motorcycle brake cable?). My inner cable was about 4mm diameter and the ferules on the end were 8mm.
I bought some copper pipe from Ebay. I used a site which sold 100mm long samples so bought lengths of 4mm and 8 mm I/D.
I connected the new cable to the carb as per Stagweber instructions and then routed it round the front of the carb so that the 2 cables met end to end. I cut the new cable to a length which would allow me to connect them both together while allowing a smooth operation.
I stripped the outer cables back to expose the inners. I cleaned and solder tinned the ends of the inners. I then cut the 8mm pipe to about 8cm long and slid it onto the new cable. This is important as you won’t be able to do this after the cables are connected.
I cut the 4mm pipe to about 20mm and cleaned then filled it with solder flux
I then pushed the ends of both inners into the pipe and heated it so that the solder melted. I also end filled the pipe with solder. Once it cooled I pulled both cables apart to check that they were well connected.
I then pulled the 8mm pipe forward so that the join was covered.
I made sure that the inner was tight and the ferrules were inserted into each end of the 8mm pipe.
To make sure that they didn’t pull into the pipe I put a couple of small crimps in the pipe.
To finish off I put a “P” clip onto the pipe and attached it to the throttle cable bracket.
This produced a neat and smooth kick down cable.
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[Lingen]

Phil.
Why not ask Clive or Russell?
Mike.

[Wheelz]

I have done some measurements on the modified linkage that is fitted on cars that have the ZF installed (with Strombergs), and this shows me that the cable travel is much further than on the BW35/65 boxes.

As a result of that I designed and made a linkage for the Weber conversion on my car that increases the cable travel by the correct amount. The linkage has been fitted to my car and I can now easily get enough travel to get good gear changes and kickdown.

The linkage mounting bracket fixes under the long inlet manifold bolt on the LH side. Somewhere I have a pic and video showing it mounted and working if anyone wants to see?

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[Philip Wardle]

Thanks all, useful advice as always.

[richardthestag]

I thought you shouldn't run a ZF without the kickdown attached. Certainly well known in LR circles with the ZF4HP22