Ok so heres the deal,

Last year i put in a new motor in my 88 Trans Am. I went from tbi to carb. I had the transmission built and only had a small 600 Edelbrock on the motor last year. TV cable was adjusted properly and even without a lock out switch the tranny would drop into OD around 60mph and drove just great. Over the winter i put on a 650 Holley, bought new throttle bracketry and had TV cable adjusted again. Now the transmission will not go into OD, runs at 2000rpm in 4th gear. I know some people have been ok with not running a lock up converter kit on the 700r4 after swapping to carbed and some have. Well today on the way home everything was fine until i stopped at a stop sign and some guys in a pickup in front of me wanted me to burn some rubber. Now i have a mild cam with a 2400-2600 stall converter and never had a problem before spinning the tires. But when i stalled the converter and tried to spin the tires it just locked the front tires and pushed it foward. I instantly stopped, let the engine idle down and tried again and same problem. WTF??? I thought to myself, put the tranny into 1st and finally got the tires to smoke, but then engine stalled out right after. Got the car started up instantly, noticed some smoke from under the hood and drove right home with was 2 miles from where I was. Got it in the barn and noticed alot of smoke from under the hood fluid leaking onto ground. Checked the transmission fluid while at idle and it had foamy fluid on dipstick, shut the car down and crawled under it. Transmission fluid leaking from the inspection cover area and transmission pan was so hot to the touch it burned my fingers. Let the car cool down for a few hours, came back started it up and drove it a few miles, car shifted firm and hard like usual and stalled just fine and even broke tires loose with ease. So I guess my question is, did the tranny just overheat way to much to be stalled like that, where could the fluid be coming from, and also what wires do I need to tap into to wire in a powered toggle switch to engage OD? If anyone needs anymore info please feel free to ask. Also fluid is bright red in color, smells perfect with no discoloration and level is full at idle warm. Also would it be wise to add an aftermarket tranny cooler in front of the radiator? Sorry for the long story just thought u all needed most of the details to get a good idea of what may have happened.

 

Can no one help me out?

 

bowtie overdrives sells a nice kit to make the lockup work just like its supposed to no switches to remember to flip or any of that stuff.. works off the brake switch. i think you have to change one of the pressure switches and maybe the wire harness that lives in the trans pan.

we have one on a 74 nova that we did a 700r4 in. and it works great

and yes a trans cooler should be added, you are running a high stall convertor which will create more heat even order normal driving because it allows more slippage due to the higher stall speed.

 

Thanks for the replay, Ive looked into the kits and from what I understand upon reading the TCC sticky at the top of the carb thread, thes easiest way to install a lock switch is to just splice into the tan/black wire and light blue wire and run a power between them to a switch?

 

you can make it work on a switch, but being fully functional takes the guess work out of when to lock it and unlock it etc. which to me is worth the cost of the kit. especially when you consider the cost of trans damage you might do by forgetting to flip that switch.

 

Ok so heres an update on what I have found to may be leading to my problem of no OD at curising speed.

I installed a custom lockup switch in the car, attaching the tan with black tracer to the toggle switch with another ground coming off the switch to a permanate ground under the dash. When the switch is flipped into the ON position, the torque converter should lock up in 2,3 or 4th gear. At this point it still does not. This is the converter I have installed in my transmission
http://http://www.accperformance.com...cts/index.html

Its is a Boss Hog 48442. GM 84-91 700R4/200R4/200C Lock-up 30 spline 12" Converter. When I ground the TCC solienoid, the pump changes harmony which is letting me know the fluid is being pushed into the back of the convetrer, yet the car will not stall when the brake pedal is released with the switch in the ON position. Could it be possible, that the clutch of disc inside the converter could be broken or damaged? The converter has less then 2K on it and this is the first time since install thats im attempting to use the lockup switch. I even dropped the pan today and installed a new TCC silenoid today and still nothing. Please help me guys, im at wits end here trying to figure out what to do next. I may call ACC in the morning and talk with them.

 

CAN ANYONE HELP?

 

its not an overly strong clutch i sorta doubt you could stall a stout motor with it but then im no expert.

 

care to explain? Ankther little tid bit of info, when I put a jumper wire between the tan/black and light blue wire the lock converter engages but only in 2nd and 3rd and at low speeds until it shifts to 4th then disengages. is it possible i may have the wrong 4th gear switch? if I can get this to work by the end of the week im just going to spend the extra cash on a kit.

 

ignore me i confused myself

 

Not sure if any of this helps you or not.

I know that stock, the TC was locked in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. BUT - that was all controlled by the ECM, that had a dozen different inputs to help it decide when to lock and when not to.

I swapped to carb, and installed the TCI lockup kit. But I wasn't happy with how the vacuum switch controlled the lockup, and fooling with it to try and adjust it, I finally broke the vacuum switch - so I took the vacuum switch out. Now I just use a manual switch on the TCI kit. And I only lock up when in 4th gear above 45mph, and only when I'm going to be there awhile - like on the highway (I don't bother in like a 45mph zone in town where I know another redlight is coming up.

So - I don't know when exactly you are trying to lock it up - but that's how I do it.

The TC lockup doesn't have anything to do with OD - OD is just the 4th gear - the OD was designated back in the day when all automatics were 3 speeds and when they came out with a 4 speed automatic they all called them "Overdive Transmissions". So, if you're not automatically shifting into 4th gear or OD, that is an issue seperate from the TC lockup.

Like I said, may not help you, and you may already know all this - just passing along what little knowledge I have in an attempt to be of some small help. Good Luck!

 

Thanks for the imput, im just trying to get my torque conveter to lock in in 4th gear at crusing speeds so I can drive my car on the highway and up to teh track becuase I dont like running my car at 55mph @ 2k for over 30 minutes. The tranny guy here at the Gm dealership I work for is going to try a few tricks up his sleeve to see if he cant get it to lock in, otherwise I have to spend the money to buy the TCI kit. Did you have to buy the kit and soleniod seperate or did u buy just the replacement soleniod camaronewbie?

 

just curious. how does your car only run at 2000 at 55? i dont have the tcc lockup in mine yet and its at 2600-2800 at 55. i know the now that the lockup will drop the r's down to around 2200 at 55. witch to me sounds right. as much as i can remember. dont most cars run around 2200 at 55 with the tcc? if so , how do you have r's so low. is it your converter?

 

i would guess your not in overdrive


and TA i once had a 700r4 in my firebird and no computer i tried the lockup switch cheat and it failed, i tried i think the tci kit it was a vacuum controlled one like mentioned above it also didnt work right.

a couple years ago that very same trans was put in my dads 74 nova we chose to try the bowtie overdrives kit right here
http://www.bowtieoverdrives.com/cata...php?ITEMID=332

it works flawlessly. i dont beleive it uses vacuum for anything it reads as working off the brake switch and a pressure switch in the trans.
i didnt actually install it our tranny guy did since he was rebuilding and installing the trans in the car anyways.

seems like you dont get much for the 95 but if it works right its worth it. easiest isnt always best in fact it rarely is.

 

The TCI kit comes with a solenoid.

There's also a B&M kit that doesn't require opening the tranny - it's electrical, uses the stock solenoid, and ties into the speed sensor - you set it for a certain speed, and when the car reaches that speed, it locks the TC. I believe it's $159 or close at Summit - but an extra $60 ain't bad for the ease of install.

 

oh ya it s in overdrive the tranny works awesome. i ve just never seen or heard of any car that runs under2000 at 55( at least not that i can think of right now) i just thought that if there was even a possible way to make this work then i want to know, cause i would like the milage. what does everyone elses run at? after good study i found that hookin up the tcc will shave off a couple hundred but not almost a thousand. i do have an 84 camaro rear in it. but i dont know what it is. but even so. the factory 91 rear ran the same numbers. any advice how to get mine that low on the highway?

maybe my tach is off , how do i tell?

 

you would need to know tire size and actual rear end ratio..

i can run just a shade over 1500 rpm at 65mph, thats a t56 so .50-1 overdrive, to a 3.73 rearend wearing almost 27 inch tires

 

Ok guys so we finnaly figure out how to get the lockup to work without the install of a kit from jegs or summit. The tan/balck wire is the power wire from the brake switch. cut that wire in half and splice into the end on the plug and run that to the power/accessory side of a toggle switch. Cut the light blue wire going into the plug in half and tape off the rest as it is not needed. the grounds run through the pan and into a 3 way ground plug on a soleniod. leave that connected as we took it off and was causing the tcc not to lock up. then run a ground off the ground side of the switch to a ground somewhere on the car (under dash, radio ground ect...) Now when you flip the switch it will act as the ecm did and ground the tcc solenoid and engage the tcc, thus locking in the conveter. This is not a complete fix but is easy enough that most any of you can do it if not wanting to spend the extra cash at this time. hope this info helps. thanks for all the imput guys, i really appreciate all your help.

 

i dont know the ratio of the rear but i have 215 60 15 for tires. i would love to have mine run that low , that would be great on my gas milage. even though its really not bad.

i wonder if its my tach. cause its seems like its reading too high. i have to set idle at 1000. i had the 3.1 before, does that effect the tach the faster you go?

 

after some investigation i see that my tach is the problem. v6 tach and v8 motor

 

Yup that is your problem.

 

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