my 83 t/a has been carbed ever since i got it, all the electronic stuff was removed... so what's the deal about locking up converters? the ecm is supposed to control lockup right?
and why does the tc have to lockup? sorry for the seemingly dumb questions, it's just that here in the philippines the vast majority of cars are japanese, i'm one of the very few who still has the courage to drive american v8s, (so you can imagine my limited understanding) help would be appreciated.

what does the locking up do exactly and how do i go about locking it up witout the ecm?

 

the torque converter is backed up by a clutch plate somewhat similar to a manual trans clutch disk. When cruising at light throttle, the flexplate side of the converter is moving slightly faster than the trans side of the converter (turbine/impeller). It does this because there is no mechanical link from the engine to trans, just a big slosh of liquid. In order to get optimum gas milege, the clutch engages which bring the tubine/impeller to the same speed. this drops the engine rpms a few hundred lower.

Ive never done it exactly before to give you step by step...but all you have to do is pop a switch inbetween the solenoid wiring for the clutch and you have manual lockup...im sure someone will post on how they did it....

 

thanks cdog, so if ever i get the manual switch to work, when should i lock it up? when OD engages? and when shouldn't i lock it up?

 

If you put a switch in to lock th TC, then whenever the switch is on, the TC will be locked. Thats all gears except 1st. The ECM used to control the lock up via a VSS, but since you dont have an ECM anymore you need the switch, as you already know. There is a Tech Article on this, check it out. Its simple to do, just as long as none of the old wires has gotten butchered, then its a little complicated.

Let us know.

 

thanks for the reply dude,

...so basically i have to connect the two leads to lock up the tc right?... did i understand the article correctly?

 

you would take the two solenoid leads and put a switch between the batt + and the solenoid ground. that should work.

 

All you need to do is ground the "out" wire from the tranny. I forget the color off the top of my head. If you use the ALDL as described in the tech article, then you just hook the two together with the switch. If you go straight off of the tranny connector, one needs to have 12 volts going into it, the other to one side of the switch, and the other side of the switch to ground.

There is also a 4th gear switch on the transmission valve body (inside the transmission oil pan). If you get a normally-open switch to put in there (two-pole vs. the most-likely single-pole in there now): put the solenoid ground wire to one pole, and ground the other, you'll get lock-up as soon as the tranny shifts to 4th.