Jeep Cherokee Transmission - AW4 Torque Converter Lock Up Controller Page 1 of 4

AW4 Transmission Torque Converter Lock Up Controller

Guest article by 'Yuri'. Hosted by permission of the author.

NOTE: This article is intended to provide you with information only! If you have any doubts 700R4
about what you are doing then STOP and get help from someone having experience doing Transmission
this type of modification. As with all modifications be aware you are undertaking this at Store
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Jeep
Replacement
Ever since my AW4 swap, I've wanted to take advantage of it being electrically shifted, and modify the Parts
way it functions to suit my needs. The two ideas I wanted were a manual-shift (paddle shift), with the Get Free Shipping
ability to hold it in any gear, and a (user-friendly) torque converter lock. I'm still working on a design When Order Jeep
for the shifter. But the TC lock has been designed, installed, and tested to my liking. Follow along as I Parts Online &
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try to explain. www.4WD.com

What is it? For those unfamiliar with auto transmissions, I'll try to explain as simple as i can how it 700R4
works and what it is I'm trying to do. First of all, a torque converter is the link between an automatic Transmissions
Improve
transmission and the engine. It uses hydraulic force created by a rotating impeller in order to apply
Performance. Free
pressure to different clutch packs inside the transmission. Think of it like an airplanes propeller... it can Tech Supp
sit there on the runway rotating without the plane moving forward. The pilot increases engine speed, Complete
which turns the prop faster, and air pulls the plane forward. The torque converter works the same conversions for
older cars
way, but this 'forward potential' is how it applys pressure to the clutch packs (just like your foot applys www.BowtieOverdrives.com
pressure to the brake pedal). When the engine speed gets high enough, the first set of clutches
engages and your Jeep starts to move forward in first gear. The engine RPM drops. When the engine Transmission
Tech, Inc.
speed increases again, the next set of clutches engages, which shifts it into second, and so on. Rebuilt and
Exchange Units-
The problem with this design is that the engine always needs to be spinning faster than the input of
Allison Funk,
the tranny, simply because the impeller (prop) needs to move the hydraulic fluid (air) to work. This Clark, Eaton,
'slip' causes excess heat to build-up. This is where the TC lock comes into play. Essentially, the TC lock Jatco, ZF etc.
transmissiontech.net
does just as the name implys... It locks the engine to the tranny input, thus creating a 1-1 relationship.
The engine and tranny can then turn at the same RPM, thus reducing heat. It also saves a little fuel
milage because the engine doesn't need to run as high RPMs to provide the same input speed to the
tranny. Most trannies accomplish this automatically by using a combination of fluid passages and/or
electrically-driven solenoids (as is the case with the AW4). You can see this driving down the road.
When you get going a good speed in your highest gear, the tranny will drop a couple hundred RPMs.
This is the TC lock functioning. It's almost like gaining another gear.

In our World: Four wheelers have figured out that when you add larger tires, the factory specs just
don't cut-it anymore. You can change axle gearing to compensate for it, but there are so many other
factors effecting the way it drives, like wind resistance, etc. that the vehicle isn't going to drive like the
factory designed. But... that's why we modify things! To IMPROVE them! If we could lock this torque

http://www.lunghd.com/Tech_Articles/Transmission_and_Transfer_Case/TransmissionController.htm 3/31/2009
Jeep Cherokee Transmission - AW4 Torque Converter Lock Up Controller Page 2 of 4

converter manually, we could improve how OUR Jeep works to suit US. If we force-lock it a little earlier Manual
Transmissions
on the highway, it will stop searching for the right gear. If we force-lock it while we're going down-hill,
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we can use the engine to help regulate our speed. 626-8726 Great
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My goals: I could have just used a switch to turn on/off the TC lock, but what fun would that have www.manualtransmission.net
been? Besides, that wouldn't have functioned like I wanted. My goals for the project were to keep the
TC lock user-friendly, since the wife drives my Jeep quite often, and I've got two future drivers coming
Transmission
in a couple years. So I needed this to turn on/off without much effort, yet still be easy enough for me Super Shop
to use on the whim. I had many ideas on how to do this, but after much investigation, most had Automatic -
drawbacks of one kind or another. Manuals Clutch
Jobs - General
I had two reasons why I wanted a TC lock. The first was to help out on the highway, possibly saving a Automotive -
little gas, but mostly just to keep it from downshifting at the slightest incline/headwind. The 'overdrive 30+Yrs Exp.
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gear-hunting' has been one of my pet peaves in the past, that I'd like to get rid of. The other reason is
for a psudo compression braking effect while out wheelin'. Brakes work very hard on an auto
Solenoid Relay
transmission in 4low. So any help I can give them will be extremely beneficial. Many people warn to
Ledex- Online
not use the TC lock for this purpose because it wasn't designed to handle such high force. Truthfully, Selection Guides
I'm not planning to use this very often. But I still wanted this functionality built-in. And I figure, if this Product Specs.
transmission can stand-up behind Tundra V8's and high-horsepower supercharged Celica V6's, than it CAD Dwgs., &
RFQ's
should be able to handle some abuse. www.ledex.com

Here's how it looks on paper, and some explanation on what's going on:
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Jeep Cherokee Transmission - AW4 Torque Converter Lock Up Controller Page 3 of 4

Remember when I said "user-friendly"? Well that's where I had a hard time figuring things out. For the
road, I figured that a good way to operate the TC lock would be a push-button latching switch. Hit it
once, and it turns on, twice and it's off. This is done using a bank of relays and a momentary switch
(R1 through R5). But what happens if I have to slow down quickly and forget to turn it off, or worse
yet PANIC STOP? After a little thinking, I liked the way a cruise control system solves this problem... by
disabling it with the brakes. Brilliant! This is Relay # R6 in my diagram. This relay has a constant
ground on pin 86 until the brake pedal is pushed, which opens the circuit.

But not quite yet... this would not suit it's compression braking aspect, as I would probably be on the
brakes if the hill was steep enough to warrent compression braking. And that's the part that stumped
me for quite some time. What to use as a trigger for when I DON'T want the brakes to shut the TC
lock off. This is when I figured that I'd only be using the compression braking while in 4wd. So I used
the 4wd light as a trigger to disable the brake relay. This is R7 in my diagram. The instrument cluster
4WD indicator (mine says part time) is illuminated using a ground. When this ground is on pin 86, the
relay closes between pin 30 and 87. This closure takes R6 out of the circuit.

Relay R8 is used a little differently than would normally be seen (it's kinda reverse, running either from
pins 87 or 87a and out pin 30). This relay serves a pretty important purpose. It's job is to switch
between using the factory TCM and My TC lock. Basically, in it's normally closed state the relay acts
like a solid wire from the TCM to the TC lock solenoid, using pins 87a and 30. When the TC lock turns
on, that connection opens up and closes pin 30 with 87. This supplys 12v to solenoid C in the

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Jeep Cherokee Transmission - AW4 Torque Converter Lock Up Controller Page 4 of 4

transmission, bypassing the tranny computer in the process.

Relay number 9 is simply a polarity converter. This relay allows me to use the LED on the switch as an
indicator for when the TC is locked. When you first flick the switch, the light stays off. It remains off
until you push the TC lock push-button on the shifter, and only illuminates when the TC lock is
engaged, as opposed to 'when the switch is on'... know what I mean? It does this by switching the
ground.

Now I know what you're saying... 9 relays????? Holy cow! But, it's not bad at all if you have a decent
pick-n-pull nearby. I pulled the perfect relay box from a ZJ. The relay box was located behind the glove
box. It holds 6 of the smaller relays, three normal relays, and one of something else. While at the
junkyard, search some of the other vehicles for spare relays. It's not too hard to take the box apart
and re-use alot of the pins. All you have to do is pull all the relays out, then from the back side, unclip
the yellow plastic pieces and push them out. Then from the front, you can see how the pins are held in
the box. Use a pick tool or jewelers screwdriver to unclip the pins. These are the same pins found in
the other fuse/relay box under the hood. It's also the same exact pins in your TJ's fuse/breaker box as
well as most other chrysler vehicles. So if you need more pins, just go get 'em out of something else. I
mounted my new relay panel behind the steering wheel knee-knocker.

And the conclusion: I like the way this thing works! The only issue right now is that I now need to
get moving on the 'manual-shifting' project to take full advantage of the TC lock. I can not hold it in
gear yet, therefor the tranny can still shift even with the TC locked. This give pretty hard shifts, like
dumping the clutch on a manual tranny. If you have the TC locked in 4low, it really jerks (try not to do
this very much!). Other than that, the thing functions exactly like I wanted! It really calmed-down the
gear-hunting on the highway. I haven't tried it yet off-road except for a small gravel road near my
house, but it worked as designed there too. In fact, the 'indicator light' part of the project is an update
that isn't quite finished yet because I didn't have the correct switch on-hand. The rest works great tho.

Here is a link to the original thread posted on J.U. - Be sure to check it out for any feedback or follow
up questions to the author.

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wiring tech answers!

If you have pics of your own repairs or can suggest other methods - please contribute your ideas (and
pictures) to this article!

Jeep Cherokee Transmission - AW4 Torque Converter Lock Up Controller

Revised on: November 08, 2006

http://www.lunghd.com/Tech_Articles/Transmission_and_Transfer_Case/TransmissionController.htm 3/31/2009