TCC not locking up, need help.

[Greenpea]

Tonight was an adventure to say the least. The good news is that I was close to home when this happened. Made an 8 mile round trip, and on the way back the trans temp went as high as the temp gauge would read, which is 250 degrees, and the Trans Fluid Hot light came on, just as I pulled into the driveway.

Earlier I had talked with TCI about the converter not locking up, they said to send them the converter and they would look at it, and if it was a failure from something they did wrong they would rebuild it no charge. If it is becuase of something that did not have anything to do with workmanship or quality of the parts they put in it, it would cost me $125 to rebuild it.

Good thing I kept my factory converter, so with the trans temps going sky high, I will be pulling out the TCI Converter and reinstalling the factory converter, hopefully before it burns things up.

[jimmyblue]

Well, I feel your pain with the Streetfighter, I found
the same issues with hot -> slip -> hotter -> more slip
positive feedback, tuned the hell out of it to get it to
hold "well enough" but eventually just decided to get
one with a tougher clutch. I went with a Fuddle "Street
Performance" converter and so far, so good.

[Greenpea]

jimmyblue - yep, pain is right, PITA. Found my receipt, got the converter January, 2005 and it only has 10K miles on it. Had only been to the drag strip a couple of times. That really sucks that they don't last longer than that. May just throw the s.o.b. in the trash and not even mess with it, put the $125 towards a different brand this time. How many miles do you have on your Fuddle? If anyone is getting alot of miles out of their brand of converter, feel free to chime in. If they don't last any longer than this, I may just leave the stock converter in and go with 4.10 gears instead. Thanks for your input.

[Greenpea]

Was reading a thread the other day about someone with the same converter, having the same problem, it not wanting to lock up. He mentioned that just before it died, it acted like the transmission was stuck in a higher gear, that it did not want to move at first. Then it broke free and starting moving ok. Not long after that the converted failed to go into lock up.

Got to thinking back if I noticed any indication that there was a problem before mine failed, and it was about 3 weeks ago, my truck acted like the parking brake was on a couple times while pulling out of the parking lot at work. It was slow moving, it took alot of rpm's to get it moving, then it lurched forward like what ever was holding it up let loose. I never use the parking brake, so I know it was not a brake dragging. Maybe this info will help others before they have a big time failure.

[12secSS]

I have had similar experience with TCI converters. Glad I have a B&M converter in our SS. We replace the TCC linings on our cores with a new carbon/carbon lining, designed for high performance use.

[Greenpea]

Just not sure how they can clasify this as a performance converter, and it barely last one year, with only about 18 trips down the 1/4 mile on it, the rest is daily driver miles. The really sad part is that if you ad it up, that is only about 4 1/2 miles of hard thrashing, the rest is just normal use miles of the 10,000miles since it was installed.

How long have you been running the B&M Converters in your car 12secSS?

[12secSS]

I have had this converter in for about a year now, can't say how many miles I have logged with it. We have driven it every where, drag raced, auto-x and even a trip up the coast.

[Greenpea]

Well after two days of problems I finally got the factory converter put back in, and guess what. The factory converter goes into lock up like it is suppose too. During the process of taking the TCI converter out, I dropped the pan to make sure that fresh fluid was put back in. When I dropped the pan I found plastic pieces in the pan, had a tech from the trans shop stop by and look at it. Turns out the accumulator piston was crack, and the chunks were from that piston.

To make a long story short, replaced the piston with an aluminum piston, then proceded to take the TCI converter out. After putting the factory converter back in, went for a test drive and no more overheating of the trans, and the converter went into lockup just fine everytime.

Will get the street fighter converter sent back to TCI for their inspection, will be interesting to see what they say about it. Thanks for all the info that everyone has put into this thread, hopefully someone will get some good out of it. Will keep everyone informed as to the outcome.

[BigBlackAv]

oh damn...and if they find piston parts in it...do you think it will be covered?

[Greenpea]

The filter should have kept any pieces from getting into the converter. don't think that is an issue, it was just a damn good thing we found it now, instead of after the trans would have failed all together.

[LosLS2]

Try this config

I have added this to my config list. Thanks a bunch.

[Greenpea]

Have sent off the converter back to TCI, will keep you posted on what they tell me on this one. Just an update.

[MNR-0]

I had that happen to me - with the stock converter. Its not the converters fault - rather the line pressure was too much for the accumulator piston to hold. That has to do with either tranny programming or tranny mods.

I dont think there is anything wrong with your TCI.

[Greenpea]

How do you figure that it is the accumulator causing the problem? The accumulator is to cushion the shift, and even if the accumulator piston was broke, forcing the converter to lock with the scanner should have made it lock up no matter what. Help us to understand.

[Greenpea]

Told you I would let everyone know how it turned out, so here it is. TCI called me and told me that they cut the converter open and found that the clutch linings had come off the clutch discs. The good news is they are going to stand behind their product and repair it at no charge to me, even though it was out of warranty by 3 months. TCI gets a thumbs up from me, not to many companies out there that would do that. Thanks for everyones input on this thread, you have been great.

[Zick]

Glad to hear TCI is taking care of you.

[BigBlackAv]

I was having the same problem (as indicated by the thread topic) and mine was fixed by moving the VSS connector to the front location.
I just did the 4l80e swap and it has 2 VSS senders on the drivers side of the transmission body. I had originally plugged in to the rear sender and was not getting lock up. EC Tune suggested I try the front one and, I don't know why, but that did the trick.
I know this doesn't have much to do w/ Greenpea's issue, but, still thought the info would be helpful here.