I've been driving the car a little over 2 years, 20k miles, since putting the '86 LG4 drivetrain and all harnesses, controls, ECM, etc., in. The donor car was rearended hard, the TC shook and rattled from the first day I started it. I just finished the mods in the sig, including a rebuilt/restalled TC and new o-ring on the input shaft. On the test drive, the clutch did not lock up at any speed or throttle position. While apart, I took out the TCC solenoid and checked the resistance - 22.8 ohms. Sound right? I also noticed there is a switch in series with the solenoid (I believe it is called the 2-3 switch, or is it 3-4?). The switch is open, which I assume is correct if it is supposed to be normally open. Is it possible the switch is bad? Something else I may be missing? I tried the ALDL manual lock a while back, didn't do anything (haven't tried it with the new TC). Why hasn't the tranny burnt up if lockup is so important? I could use some ideas. ------------------ 82 Berlinetta, orig V-6 car, now w/86 LG4/TH700R4, 2300 stall TC. Ported World 305 heads, Crane PowerMax 2050 cam. ZZ4 intake, oil pump, pan & baffle. Accel HEI SuperCoil & module. Hooker 2055 headers, 3" Catco cat & 3" catback w/dual-opposite Flowmaster 80. 2.93 limited slip. Spohn SFCs waiting to be installed. AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Daily year-round driver. Best ET, speed TBD... 57 Bel Air, my 1st car. '66 396, 9.7:1 forged TRWs, Weiand Action+, Holley 750VS w/4150 conversion, GK 270 cam, Magnum rockers, Jacobs Omnipack, 1-3/4" Hedders & 3" Warlocks, TH400 w/TCI Sat Night Special conv & Trans-Scat shift kit, MegaShifter, 3.08 8.2" 10-bolt w/Powertrax, AMSOIL syn lubes bumper-to-bumper. Idles smooth @ 700 RPM in D. Best 15.02/95.06 @ 5800' Bandimere (corrected 13.93/102.4 @ sea level).

The switch in series should be the 4-3 downshift switch. It should be normally closed.

A couple of quick things since I've gotta get to work. One is that A tranny will work W/O L/U, but it will tend to 'cook' the tranny over time. If you have low rear end gearing you can get away W/O it as long as you don't do allot of slower cruise driving.

Next, as far as the internal switches go, there are @18 different combinations, and some are NO or NC in the same position so off the top of my head I can't anser if that was OK. As far as the resistance goes, that is fine but rarely is that the problems. That tells you that electrically the circuit is complete and not shorted but it doesn't tell you if the solenoid functions. Try putting 12V to the A terminal and ground to the D terminal and see if you hear a click. If not then pull the pan and see what isn't working. If it does you still don't know if it is physically workiong or if the valve(s) that it operates are working. If you jumped the A and F terminal on the ALDL it should have locked up. There is also a seal on the O-ring that will get hard and leak if L/U isn't working. That could be leaking too. Well thats it for now, gotta go.

I should have mentioned that I know I have 12 volts at the tranny. I'll try the ALDL pin voltage application test soon, but I'm sure that switch is open, and the dealer has to order it from out of town.

If you could expound on the oring you were mentioning - like I said I replaced the oring on the input shaft, and the oring on the solenoid looked fine when I pulled it.

Just wondering - why would slow cruising be a problem? The TCC doesn't lock until ~42-48 mph anyway (based on other vehicles I have - no clue what the Camaro is supposed to do), so why would 35-40 mph cruising burn up the tranny if the lockup doesn't function?

At least the car doesn't shake like it used to. What a relief!

The O-ring I was talking about is on the solenoid which apparently you looked at.

As far as L/U and low speed, what I am talking aout is at speeds where the L/U should be on, at higher speeds (engine RPM) it is much less of an issue. In fact on smore car lines they have trannies that may or may not have L/U depending on axle ratio.
The real reason behind using L/U was so that higher rear end gears could be used for better mileage. When this change was made it put the converter near stall at 'normal' driving speeds which generated too much heat so they used L/U and the heat went away. This is why I asked if you had low rear gears0 if so then this is really a moot point.

With 2.93 gears and 24.4" dia tires, 65 mph is right at 2100, just below stall.

Do you agree with the switch statement above?

I'm going to get this fixed, one way or another, unfortunately I'll be out of town except for a few days until the 2nd week of December. At least the car won't get a lot of miles on it during that time.

Test the pressure switch, the one in series with the soliniod, by removing it and connecting an ohm meter to the two terminals or to a terminal and the body if it's a one terminal. Supply about 50 psi air pressure to the port, your ohm meter should show switching action.

With that set-up you should run 1850rpm. The TC slips up to just below your stall because of the lack of lock-up. When I had my 700r4 apart in the basement, I removed all the stock wiring and installed the TCI wiring. It had a switch in a different spot than the 4th gear pressure location(I'm guessing the 3rd gear location). The kit came with a switch for 4th gear, that I installed. The ground went through the switch then to the - side of the solenoid. The + side get 12 volts switched(whenever the ignition is to the on position). An additional wire is hooked to the ground after the solenoid to force a lockup. Then the ground can be hooked up to a vacuum switch to control the 4th gear lock-up. The vacuum switch caused mine to do the lock/unlock/lock/etc... no matter how I adjusted it. So I unhooked the vacuum switch and whenever it shifts into 4th the tc locks. Works perfect for me. You may try gutting the wiring harness--it could be causing the problems.
Hope this helps


------------------
350 with stealth intake, holley carb, 470 lift cam. 700r4 with .5 boost valve, vette servo, tci lock-up kit, B&M megashifter. Richmond 3.73 gears, powertrax locker, timkin bearings, synthetic lube. Custom 3 inch single into 2 2.5 pipes. 1 1/2 drop springs, 1 5/16 solid front sway bar, 1 inch rear bar, custom subframe connectors, custom LCA relocation brackets. Kobel ground FX, currant red metallic paint. Lots of other stuff...
82camaro

I suppose I could just bypass that switch, which means it would lock whenever the ECM says to, regardless of gear.

Doing anything with the switch will involve pulling the pan, meaning draining the fluid, so I don't want to do this too many times. That includes the test Jay suggested.

And, yes, I know the RPMs are high because the TCC isn't locking. When I have the cruise on and start going up a good hill, it will jump to 2500 RPMs.

Thanks for the input. I'm not finished, yet...

Do you have one switch in the valve body or two?

Two. A two-terminal in series with one lead of the solenoid, on the rear end of the valve body, toward the center; and a single terminal with a wire that goes straight to the connector, closer to the solenoid on the rear end of the valve body.

[This message has been edited by five7kid (edited November 20, 2001).]

So it looks something like this then?



And it's the switch with 2 terminals that reads open?

Correct. I didn't think to check the other one, since it wasn't directly in the solenoid circuit.

The other switch tells the computer the trans is in fourth. As you can see in the diagram, the TCC can't lock if the other switch can open. The 4-3 switch is there to unlock the TCC and avoid excessively harsh 4-3 downshifts.

[This message has been edited by Apeiron (edited November 19, 2001).]

So, shouldn't the two-terminal switch be normally-closed, and the one termainal switch normally-open (to ground, I assume)?

Also, perhaps I misunderstood, but I thought the TCC could lock up in any gear above 1st. Or, is that only if you hook up a manual lockup switch?

Actually, it looks like the diagram is saying the one-terminal switch is normally closed as well. But, like I said, I didn't check that one.

I may have forgotten exactly what I saw when I checked the two-terminal switch, but I could swear I don't have continuity at the connector pins for the solenoid circuit.

I still haven't tried the 12v at the ALDL pins like Leo suggested, either.

Yes, the 2 terminal "4-3 Pulse" switch and the 1 terminal "4th Discrete" switch should be normally-closed.

The TCC can be locked up in any gear above 1st as long as the "D" pin is grounded, except during a 4-3 downshift, when the 4-3 switch opens.

[This message has been edited by Apeiron (edited November 20, 2001).]