I bought a 700r4 from a guy on this site 2 years ago. He have it looked at by a shop when he had it and claims to of had a few things upgraded in it. One of the things he said that it had an "automatic lockup" on it and not to hook up any of the wire connections on it. Now that I think about it could this really be true some how? I changed my 86 to a carbed car and I don't use most of the harness or the computer so I would need to get a switch for this if this is false. Now I would like to just go ahead and pick up a lockup switch but I just wanted to see if anyone heard about this and if I drop in the lockup that it will not screw up anything because of what he did. Thanks for any help

 

As far as I know ... locking the torque converter is an electrical function of the ECM - and since there's no ECM, there wouldn't be any way for one to "lock up" on it's own "automatically". Sounds like a misunderstood concept on someone's part to me. I've never heard of anyone not rigging something to lock up TC on a non-computerized car before.

 

Sounds good to me. It also wasn't exactly a 700r4 from a 3rd gen either if that makes a difference. I did have to change out the tail shaft housing to hold the torque arm. I will just go ahead and order one sometime soon. I hope it didn't severely ruin the life of the tranny.

 

Summit makes a kit that allows the transmission to lock up with out the ecm.

 

yea but you got to hook up a harness to it still, as far as i know there is no way to lock up the converter without an eletrical signal from a ECM or lock up controler

 

I know a guy who said he could switch my quadrajet to a non ecm with a vacuum advance. He said he could change over the tranny so it can lock up w/o the the ecm. I can talk to him about specifics, and get back to you.

 

It cannot lock up without a power source from somewhere.

It must be connected to something.

EDIT: I may be wrong depending on Apeiron's explanation

 

The PO probably had "stall" confused with lock up. The major effect of not having lock up is heat from sheering of the fluid in the converter. As long as the fluid isn't smoked, the trans should be okay.

 

Early 700R4s valvebodies can allow hydraulic locking with no external wiring.

 

Can allow means they can be rigged to lock up without ECM, or they already lock up without it? What year is considered early?

 

The pre 87 valvebodies have the passages for it, but not all have the valving.

Cars and trucks sold without ECMs would lock up hydraulically based on governor pressure when a certain road speed was reached. The TCC solenoid was still used in these situations with a vacuum switch to disengage the TCC in high load and cruise.

 

So anything post 87 will not lock up without an ECM? They cannot be converted without changing the valve body?

 

No... in anything 87+, lock-up is controlled only by the solenoid.

 

Can the valve body from a 87 be altered or modified to go non ECM, or does it have to be replaced w/ a different valve body?

 

So how is the solenoid powered? Or is just activated by hydraulic pressure? If so it is not a solenoid.

 

There's no way to do it in an 87+ transmission.

 

It's electrical, of course.

 

From the TCI website
More info here...
http://www.compperformancegroupstore...Category_Code=

 

Is there a way to tell what year your transmission is? I did notice when installing it that I did have a plug on the one side of it. Would that indicate a newer style? The only thing I really noticed is that it hasn't been sifting as hard from 1st to 2nd which i am assuming the tranny is starting to finish breaking in? But this is why I am questioning the lockup now. Also it did come with a B&M cooler so I hope that was helping in keeping it cool if this was setup wrong.

 

so it would require atleast one wire running to the connector on the transmission.

 

Not if you put a check ball in the solenoid.

 

I should re-state this... there's no way to go non-electrical in an 87+ transmission. Non-ECM isn't a problem.

 

OK, My question is; can a pre-87 valve body be used on a post 87 tranny to go mechanical?????