Have 85 Z28 with a fresh 350 Edlebrock carb setup. Stock 700R4 and 3.73 in the back. One of my many questions is what to do about my lockup? I have ripped out the ECM and all of the wireing. Have just the main pack of wires coming from the fire wall. For distrib, starter, alt, and lights. I have three wires coming up from my tranny. Ones green, brown/blk, and blk. Does anyone know if this is really controling anything. Will my lockup still work? What about my OD is this ECM controled? Last do you think that my tranny will perform and shift properly without the ECM. I read the tech. artical about wiring the lockup. Was thinking about just getting a none lockup to put in place. But, I'll have to save some money. Will my tranny last like this for about 4 months?

 

The tranny will shift fine, since the 700 in our cars is not electronic. However, the LU won't work. You could wire up a switch or buy a NON LU converter, that's what I have in mine.

 

Do not run the tranny in 4th. The 700R4 needs a modification to the pump to allow it to work properly when you have a converter that doesn't lock -- whether that be due to an absence of ECM control, or a non-lockup converter. 4th is meant to be used in a locked condition at all times. As long as you stay out of 4th you should be okay, IMO you should run an aftermarket tranny cooler to keep those tranny temps down on the highway, since you'll be running at a higher RPM.

 

Just one kit to run a non locking converter......front pump.. Gil Younger valve kit for running a non
locking converter.....Like said above if you run the non locking , you will want to get a seperate tranny cooler to keep the temp from the friction at higher speeds down. Without lockup there is more friction causing more heat...heat is bad..
Talk to Probuilt, Transgo also makes a kit for the front pump I believe..

 

The wire colors you state don't sound right, but they may have changed that over the years.

There is a pretty simple solution. Run an ignition-switched power wire down to the tranny. Get a normally open single-pole switch to put in the 4th gear position on the valve body - you probably have a normally-closed single-pole there now - and wire it in series with the lockup solenoid. When the tranny shifts to 4th, the converter will lock up.

Otherwise, you can get a kit from Jegs or Summit that does the same thing but gives a little more control similar to what the ECM used to do.