This is going to sound like a retard question, but here it goes: How do I know when the TC has locked up? 90% of mr expirience is with standards, I'm not to much on autos. As a matter of fact, this is the first automatic I've ever owned. My wife has hers, of course, but I've never owned one until now. Also, how hard is it to install a tranny oil temp gauge?

 

It can be hard to notice when it locks.

When in third or fourth gear you may notice what seems like half a shift. That's the torque converter locking. When driving at a steady 50 MPH lift off of the throttle. Then go back into the throttle to the same place to maintain your speed. You'll notice the engine speed goes up a few hundred RPM when you went back on the throttle, then settles back down. When it drops the torque converter locked.

 

Is that the samething that they call 1:1 lockout? My dad told me to test it by cruising ~55, and lightly touching the brakes. The rpm's should come up a little. But I thought that was a function of the tranny, not the TC.

 

If you feel real close you can hear a little mini shift in third or fourth gear. This can also be seen with a 100 or so rpm drop.

Read up on this.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/torque-converter1.htm

Adrianspeeder

 

The way I can tell is if I'm at a steady speed in whatever gear the trans is in. Really, the only time I notice I'm unlocked is when I'm going up a hill.....

Lets say I'm pulling a hill at 30 mph, so I'm in 2nd gear. I can tell if it's locked or not by giving it a bit more gas. If the rpm's instanly rise, the TC is unlocked. If there is no quick rise in rpms and you don't really gain any speed, then it is locked.

The same is true when I'm in 3rd and going around 40 mph. I can do the same thing and get the same results.

If you press too much on the gas, then that will usually trigger a downshift or you will 'feel' the TC unlock (it'll kinda feel like a downshift, but just not as intense) You will know when you have downshifted from 3rd to 2nd by the instant rise in about 1000 rpms!

When I'm in OD (4th), I have yet to feel or see any unlocking of the TC..... If I give it gas while in 4th, I will either trigger a full downshift into 3rd or I will gradually pick up speed with the rpms rising in time with the gain in speed.....

While towing, I'm almost never in 4th and it does not take much for it to downshift on it's own anyway. That's when I just lock out OD and run in 3rd. It will stay in locked third pretty much the whole time. If I encounter a hill, I have to press the gas pedal enough that it always triggers a full downshift into 2nd. I can then 'feel' and see the rpms drop some when it does lock in 2nd. I also manually pull the gear shifter into 2nd to hold that gear for as long as I'm still going up the hill. If I am gaining speed and it's in D, then it will want to shift into unlocked 3rd while still climbing the hill. I prefer to just let it hold 2nd until I get to the top.

Probably more then you wanted to know, but that's just been my experience with it..

Mitch

 

One way I can tell if the TC is locked is to look at my tach. If in OD with the TC unlocked and I give it gas, the tach will move up quite a bit. If locked, the tach will just move as I speed up, barely any movement. The best time to see the TC unlocked is on a cold morning, the first half mile or so, when in OD the RPM moves with the throttle. Once locked, it moves with the speed.

 

Adrian, I found that website a while back, just never looked a TC's on it... But damn, I love that website. All of us here pretty much either fall into the catagory of professional mechanics or shade-tree mechanics. How many of you have ever disassembled your wifes vacuum to fix it, just so you don't have to buy her another one. The thought of spending money, that I could spend on my truck or quad, on a vacuum makes me shudder...

 

Diddo on watching the tach.