Let me rephrase the questions.

I picked up the IROC back in March for 500 bucks and drove it home. It runs good, needs valve seals, a radiator, and a good paint job. I'm just about to start on it and it needs new gauges. I've already picked out a Autometer Phantom gauge setup and will be installing them with the Covan's classics bezel. After talking to the reps at Autometer, they suggested I talk to the techs at Speedometersolutions.com. I called them and found out that I would need an adapter to send a signal to the ECU so I would have proper TC Lockup. Problem is, when I first got the car I changed the oil and did a tune up. I noticed at the front driver's side of the tranny there was a square white plug disconnected and zip tied back. After some research I found that this is the plug that supposedly controls the TC Lockup from the ECU. I've also found that a lot of the aftermarket TC's available for this car do not work with the lockup feature.

If the ECU Lockup control has been disabled do I need to buy the adapter to send the VSS signal to the ECU?


If the ECU does get the signal does that necessarily mean that the cruise will work?

My main question is do I need the adapter for the car to operate properly?

If the ECU gets the VSS signal but the Lockup is disabled will the Cruise work properly?


The girl I bought the car from owned it for 6 years and put many many miles on it with no problems. I'd assume that the plug has been disconnected from the trans since before she got the car. My Father in law's company repoed it and she bought it. He told me when I got it from her that the guy they repoed it from had rebuilt the engine and possibly some other stuff. I'm wondering if he put an aftermarket TC in it and disabled the TC Lockup by unplugging the connector. The SES light was and has not come on, I have pulled codes and all I got was the VSS code which was because the Speedo cable is broken.

I'm trying to get my ducks in a row so I can get all my stuff together before I start working on it.

I have to order all the decals, t-top weather striping, and I'm going to send the T-bar out for powder coating. When all that is done I'll send it out for paint.

Even before that I'm going to replace the Radiator which has a crack about 2 inches under the filler neck and replace the valve seals.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Sounds like you need to figure out for sure whether it still has the stock converter or if it's had an aftermarket one installed that doesn't have the lockup feature. BTW, it's pretty stupid to even put in a converter with no lockup feature on a street driven car when there's a lot of quality made stall converters out there that retain the lockup feature(i.e. Precision Industries Vigilante). I know it's not good at all for the trans if it does have a lockup converter without a functioning lockup control. Supposedly creates a lot of extra heat in the trans and eventually burns it up. They might've just disconnected the plug since the speedo cable is broken to prevent the SES light from coming on. On the cable driven speedos, the VSS is located on the back of the speedometer up in the dash, so the lockup feature won't work without the input to the VSS. You could always replace the speedo cable, plug the connector back in, and see if it goes into overdrive or not when you're on the freeway. It's pretty easy to tell when the converter locks up because the rpms drop considerably when it does. As far as how to make the lockup control work with an aftermarket gauge setup, I can't help you there as I have no clue.

 

if your going with aftermarket gauges then yes you do need the vss adapter. I agree that because of the broken spedo the trans connector was probably just disconected. the lockup feature of the trans uses the signal from the vss to determine when to lock up and when to release.