we have a c-4 transmission that shifts normal. drives just fine. when we manually downshift to drive 2 nothing happens. it will manually shift to drive 1. we checked the linkage or proper adjustment. is the problem in the valve body? we didn't even know there was a problem except when we were climbing a steep hill and down shifted to drive 2 to make the climb easier. thank you for you help.
Do you have a kickdown cable installed and adjusted properly? I'd have to say no, as without it you can't manually downshift. The C4 is one of the few transmissions that doesn't need a kickdown cable to operate otherwise 'normally'. If you have a D2/D1/L trans, that's a 'cruisomatic' AKA 'green' or 'white' dot. D2, from a stop it starts in 2nd gear then shifts to high. Use D1, it starts in 1st, shifts to 2nd, then high. The '64-66 Ford C4 automatics were like this, in '67 Ford switched to 'SelectShift', with the now-normal D/2/1 pattern. To downshift into 2nd at speed, step on the gas. If the kickdown cable is good, it'll drop to second gear. Sometimes you can 'force' a downshift by pulling it all the way to low, but that will depend on vehicle speed at to which gear it goes into or if it evens shifts.