Can you use a kickdown cable on an early Ford auto?

This is probably a dumb question, but bear with me. I'm just waiting on a few parts from vintage speed to get my Edsel's FE back together and I'd like to take the old girl for a spin when I'm done. The new carbs/mainfold won't let me use the stock linkage for the throttle or the kickdown. I haven't had much luck tracking down later model parts to put it together, so I'm looking to alternatives.

The current trans is a 3 speed Ford-o-matic. I'd like to swap in a c6, but maybe not until after Billitproof. From eye-balling it both trans seem to have the same type of actuator on the trans for kickdown (going from memory on the c6, correct me if I'm wrong). Can I run a cable from the carbs to the trans and be done with it?

Thanks!

 

Bump for the night shift. Anybody want to chime in here? Aside from figuring out how to hook it up, any trouble using one of the aftermarket kickdown cables on my Ford-o-matic?

 

To the best of my memory, yes you can use a cable. If you look at the linkage on the side of the trans, you will see one lever is hooked to the detents in the valve body. It moves in with effort to get past the detent stops.The other one is spring loaded. That is the kick down lever. As long as it is able to operate in it's full arc and return to it's normal position, everything is great. Adjust the cable to allow it's range of motion and it should work exactly as the original kick down did.

 

Check out LOKAR, they have the cable you need.

 

I made one for my c4 out of a bycicle brake cable. It works fine.