My car has never shifted at the speedo dots under WOT. The tranny/throttle rod now seems to be in the sweet spot for low speed and partial throttle shifting and general drivability. Kick-down switch is also fine.
That said, I've never gotten the car to upshift at the speedo dots. Not even close, always 15-20 mph short, maybe more. By my reckoning the dot is pretty close to redline. I wouldn't want to press it that hard very often, but I'd like to know I could.
So what governs the WOT upshift points? It doesn't seem to be the control rod. Maybe the vacuum modulator? Something else? AFAIK the transmission is tip top and I don't have any vacuum leaks. What to play with? Any insights appreciated, cheers,
Dave looking at the transmission manual the 1-2 upshift is at 79 km/h and the 2-3 upshift is at 144 km/h under full throttle. I see the dots on the speedo do not correspond with these numbers so not really sure which one is "right" ???
Your car will never shift at the dots for a simple reason - they're not indicating shift points.
They indicate the maximum speed you should drive at in a given gear when shifting manually (using S/L/D positions).
Correct.
The dots (orange bars) are used for example when using the transmission lever in assisting breaking (down-shifting 4-3 or 3-2). If you are in 'D' on 4th gear and you go to 'S' to force 3rd at a speed above the dots you'll basically force the engine into red zone revs. Not good.
Cheers
Thank you gentlemen, this is actually great news. No idea where I got the idea that the dots were WOT shift points, but the notion was stubbornly fixed in my brain. So all was well all along. Nothing beats solving a problem by learning that it isn't really a problem!
And remember that the modulator valve ONLY controls how soft or hard the transmission shifts.
Quote from: UTn_boy on 30 June 2020, 11:20 AM
And remember that the modulator valve ONLY controls how soft or hard the transmission shifts.
Great! Another problem solved without ever leaving the couch. Must be a first. Cheers,
I have observed over the years the red line on 6.9 variants sits between 5 and 5 and a quarter. I am yet to determine a pattern to this but I bet the max rpm per gear tabs on the speedo are not varied accordingly!! :-\
The 5000 or 5250 redline on 6.9s is an early / late thing as far as I know.