One thing that was not mentioned was when going down a steep hill and apply the brakes, the TC will stay locked and in effect the engine compression will help with braking. Also it's better to NOT use the TC lock below 40 MPH creates heat, below that speed the compression braking is NOT effectual.
Yes, that is indeed a downside of the interrupter relay, you can't have both wheel braking and engine braking at the same time. There's really no simple way around this tho, if you want the safety margin a relay provides that is. Ideally I'd like the converter to stay locked above 35mph whenever I flip the switch, and under 35 it should be unlocked all the time regardless of switch position, which would be a very easy thing to do if I find a switch that is speed-sensitive somehow. I know aftermarket controllers allow you to do that, but those are way beyond the scope of this project. Now, I guess I could use the SS1 and SS2 signals to trigger a set of relays so the converter stays unlocked in 1st and 2nd gear regardless of the manual switch position...
My truck HAD AC, but I think AC is for wimps and girls
. It's drained and the compressor is just taking up space under the truck. Can I use the AC condensor as a transmission cooler? It's already mounted in there, it's pretty massive and wouldn't be that hard to do. What do y'all think?
Tis exactly how my truck is set up, for a while I actually ran the A/C condenser alone without the in-rad heat exchanger, but my fan is locked to the water pump so I get good airflow through it all the time.
Goofy, do you have any pictures? I know it's just a wiring mod, but a schematic, some pictures, some diagrams or something would allow me to make a good tech article out of this.
I got some wiring diagrams I made a while back, see if these help you any:
1)
This is your basic on/off switch, it completely overrides the PCM control, but at the same time it feeds it a dummy signal in case the thing actually complains about not "seeing" the TC (Jeremy "Pipeliner86" had that issue in his new IDI, at least one person on FTE experienced it too, both of these are '92-up trucks tho). When you cut the purple/yellow wire and extend it to the cab the end that comes from the transmission is marked in red in my diagram, and the end that goes to the PCM is in blue. Parts in gray are optional - red LED will light up when converter locks up, green LED comes on when you switch to factory PCM control. This is how my own truck is done.
2)
This is the lock-auto-unlock setup, now we have a 5-pole relay as part of the circuit, also no indicator LEDs cause I never got around to them but some can be fashioned in a manner similar to the first diagram. Different colors indicate different current paths during each mode selection - blue is manual unlock, red is auto, and green is manual lock.
These diagrams do not include the interrupter relay tied in the BOO switch we discussed earlier here, I can easily add it tho...
It runs SOOOO much better with the manual unlock engaged around town, and when I hit the highway just flick the cover up, turn the switch on and cruise!! My converter seems to NOT slip at ALL anymore, since I did the mod and added the Lucas to her.
This is exactly what that FTE person with the gasser F250 reported back after the mod - and oddly enough, he did this mod for the exacts same reasons as you, random converter shudder.
