Just a little more . . . . .

[BC847]

As one can see above, Photobucket has been offline to one degree or another if not completely down for the last three or so days. Those vendors relying on the photo-hosting service during this week before Christmas are especially . . . . . moved.

Apparently, during the trans install, I've managed to finish-off a weak/broken conductor of the VSS wiring from the sensor to the firewall (I hope). As such, the speedometer/odometer is dead. Interestingly, the Compushift simply taps into one of the two VSS signal lines a foot or so from the VSS. The Compushift works.

The trans valve-body control of the 3-speed section seems to work very well as it stands. Still have a bit of driving to do to be certain. The Compushift seems to be adequate although I've still a lot of fine tuning to do with it. Hope to do more of that as well as general new build/install shake-down mess. Thinking I might go ahead and hook-up the steering column's gear-shifter's OD button tomorrow.

We'll see.

[dazedandconfused]

Does the compu-shift still give you the option to lockout overdrive

[BC847]

Does the compu-shift still give you the option to lockout overdrive

Yes.

[BC847]

I've quickly come to the conclusion that one would do well to 1st tune the Compushift to mimic a stock/OEM lock-up type application. Exclusively.

For example: Thinking that, from a performance point of view and, just driving around, having the TCC lock and stay locked during a firm, or more throttle application is just gonna produce a bunch of black smoke till the engine has wound up enough to move enough exhaust gasses to get the turbos to gin effectively. Need to set the TCC disable throttle percentage to 40% or there abouts. Doing so allows the torque-converter part of the heavy-assed, expensive round-thing to actually do its job when rolling into the throttle going up a hill at, say, 45mph.

I lately have an idea that, dialing the Compushift to work correctly for the vast majority of real-world driving situations will be one batch of settings. Those best suited for a race-track application will be a very different batch. The ability to alter settings via BlueTooth is especially cool.

Still dicking with it.

I will say that, with the current, what I think are more toward gentle TCC valve-body settings, this 3D converter engages very firmly and drops the engine RPM quite notably. Still gotta have someone watch the displays and see how much. May have to soften the TCC engagement a little via VB tweaks.

[BC847]

The 18 month warranty 1000cca battery I've been running for the last six years bought the farm this week after a short bout of waking up dead the last couple of cold mornings.

There was a nice service this afternoon. Lots of hot chicks walking slow singing sad songs.

[BC847]

Welp, screw it.
- Checked the fluids and tire air pressures.
- Drove the heap 130some miles to the coast arriving just in time for the Christmas Sun to set on the surf.

https://youtu.be/iQb-nRjlZcQ

Over all, the trans did just fine.
- I did identify an issue with the VSS signal being stable and accurate up till about 35 or so mph. From there, the signal became increasingly erratic jumping from typically 10mph over the actual (GPS based) speed on up to 30 over. Around 50mph, the VSS signal is troublesome for the Cumpushift. At best.
- The VSS is new as is it's associated plug/pigtail.
- The 26 year old stock/OEM ratio adapter is not. I'm wondering if I got dry gears bouncing in there. I'd be not far off if I said I've never looked hard at the thing short of wiping the grease off of it with the recent new VSS install.
- All that aside, the speedometer's still presenting with the apparent internal thermal related failure.

That VSS signal bouncing way excessively is throwing the Compushift into an occasional Tourette spell with a very light throttle around 50~55mph.

Of the 130ish miles driven, all were driven as though it were Christmas day and all the cops were bored stupid and really irritated they had to work the day I decided to come through showing my ass. If the fuel-tank's gauge reading was God's word, I got there with a little over a quarter tank.

I've decided that taking advantage of the Compushift's ability to utilize my column-shifter's Over-Drive disable button will be most helpful in perhaps being a little more aggressive when applicable. Gotta find some wire here at the coastal compound.

[BC847]

You know what's better than working on your heap in the backyard, under a tarp?

- Working on your heap under a mild, salt-air sky.





So, it's me and a handful of other folks here in the 300some lot coastal community the day after Christmas. With almost glass smooth sound waters, it's most refreshingly quiet.

A good time to crawl under the heap and have a peak at the speedo ratio adapter.
- Pulling it out and actually looking at the thing reveals it's a 2-piece assembly fastened with four brass trumpet-head rivets. Do you have a drill bit for those rivets at the beach-place? Phack!!
- I used a self-drilling 5/16 headed screw to drill the trumpets of the rivets. (Ya gotta do what ya gotta do).
- Opening things up presents with a simple and sturdy few parts. All steel gear/shaft assemblies, bronze-sleeve bearings in a gasketed housing.





The shaft sleeve bearings appear score-free and fit the shafts reasonably well IMO all things considered.







While I apparently failed to photograph the gears themselves, suffice it to say that they looked good with the expected shine on the teeth where they meshed. Nothing scared/whonky.
Huh.

Considering that typical grease is nothing more than oil with a thickener, I stirred-up the existing grease and put the mess back together.







All the while, this fella's been milling back and forth giving me the hard-eye. WTH?





I reckon I'll do something with the OD button thingy tomorrow.

[BC847]

BTW, here's the numbers on the stock/OEM article for my '93 W250 in base-truck trim.

I see: 1.3846 on the top halve and 0473 on the bottom.

[BC847]

The round-trip to the coast was uneventful as far as the trans went. All at the posted speed-limit with no hot-rodding (no need to push my luck and break something that far from home).

Hooking up the column gear-shifter's OD disable button works well for just getting things going a bit hurriedly to pass a dead-ass without a bunch of smoke.
I think I've got the base-line standard normal person driving settings for the Compushft nailed down short of tweaking the TCC unlock throttle percentage.





On the way home, it dawned on me that I forgot all about the data-logger stuff.

[PToombs]

That's the beach Supervisor, giving you the hard eye because you're being a slack ass on the project!
Happy it worked good for you!

[BC847]

So, I spent a few minutes taking the speedometer out to see what's up. It's always a pleasure to disassemble the dash to see what else plastic has failed due to age.





Removing the illumination/indicator light PC board reveals nothing out of line, front or back.







Checking the continuity of those specific three conductors (power & signal) that serve the speedometer-head presents with no issues. I had reflowed the solder-points some years ago during the 1st ever round of successfully fixing the speedometer.





Pulling the actual speedometer head from the cluster is straight forward.





I initially tried swapping in the truck's original speedometer PC board only to be reminded why I removed it to start with. It's still whacked.
With that, I put it all back together with no improvement seen.

The speedometer's PC board is of newer wave-soldered, surface mount technology. At least on the bottom, with a few surface mounted resisters and at least one diode.





The other side presents with standard assembled stuff including a couple of Integrated Circuit chips. I've read a few Speedo shop comments to the effect the ICs fail and often present with intermittent operation. Doing basic Google searches for replacement ICs is initially challanging as the chips don't present with part numbers commonly seen. Still looking though.





The actual motor that moves the speedometer's needle appears to be of two-pole construction. It's so simple, I'm having a hard time imagining it being problematic. (Older, retired article shown).





I've still got to isolate and test the entire truck's wiring harness specifically associated with the speedometer. It amounts to two conductors between the VSS and speedometer-head.

I'm open to suggestion.

[BC847]

At the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with my speedometer.

As an FYI: When ordering an HGM Mini II transmission controller for your 47RH swap, be sure to order the version that works with a Mechanical Speedometer.
- Our truck's speedometer VSS connects to the transmission/transfer-case by way of the old-school cable-type mechanical speedometer interface.

When I ordered my Mini II back in March, I thought that by the fact our trucks use a VSS, that's what I needed. I was very wrong. The Mini II that comes setup for a VSS, is actually set up for a more current transmission that has an Electronic VSS that is literally plugged/bolted in the trans. (Newer trucks these days actually share that Antilock Brake sensor on the rear differential).
The Mini II is not designed to "piggy-back" on our 2-wire VSS. In our application, the Mini II comes with its own stand-alone "in-line" VSS that is installed physically between our ratio-adapter and our VSS.

Clear as mud?

It's by shear luck that in my application, the Mini II operates correctly. My speedometer just isn't into sharing its VSS. It acts stupid as a result.

The folks at HGM are especially cool in that with understanding my dilemma (AKA: my mistake), they are sending me the needed "In-line" VSS needed for the Mini II - no charge.

[dazedandconfused]

Good info to know. I'll have to see what they recommend since my speedometer reads off the rear end not the transmission.

[BC847]

Spent a few minutes today just trying out the Mini-II and the valvebody mod that allows converter lock-up starting in 2nd gear.
With a firm throttle and starting in 1st gear, winding on up till perhaps 2500ish rpm and shifting to 2nd, the shift to 2nd is quick with no bang. A second or so Mini-II delay in having the converter lockup has the lockup occur just as the engine rpm gets more into the optimal rpm for the spinny-things to stay spooled. Having things wind on up and shifting to third has the engagement firm with no bang.

It's pretty evident that, I'm gonna have to dial-in the timing of the gear-shifts (including LU in 2nd) so as to have the engine rpm to fall just as the turbos are at the point of full initial spool speed (?) with going to the next gear . . . . for things to result in a solid china-faced driver during the pass.

Gonna be fun.

The above in 2WD just has the rear-end light-up past 40~50mph in 2nd gear so, . . . .

[BC847]

The recently replaced battery is acting like it's not holding a charge.

-> Fast-forward through a bunch of PITA diagnostics reveals the 26+ year old stock/OEM alternator works just fine except for a diode that's leaking to case-ground.

Again, hot chicks walking slow singing sad songs.