Just for info this is how I solved the problem [or close to it]. The "kick down" rod had already been played with and welded up so who knows what its real length should have been, it even broke at a dodgey weld when I was making final adjustments
. To get a little more adjustment I had to bend the slotted rod to a straighter position, if you look at the bell crank you can see I have added another ball pivot in a lower position this helped with the rod moving in time with the throttle position and allowing it to go to WTO [just] Im not sure as to where the gears are supposed to shift but I found the best I could do with a moderate traffic take off was 2nd at 10 mph and 3rd at 20 mph.. pretty quick but if I adjusted it to a shorter rod [opening up the slot] it would shift at 2nd 10mph and 3rd 15mph and felt a bit clunky. Car feels fine and pulls through it ok, in fact its always shifted that way.
The phenolic spacer [4 hole]...opinion, yes
for the $30 cost, car idles better for sure and I do belive there is better low down power which is what I wanted.