Start the car, drive, tcc may or may not lock up. If it does, great. I am crusing along, and most of the time, it just unlocks for no reason. There are no hills, i am not being a leadfoot, or anything.

Sometimes it does not engage at all, or it takes its time to engage. I will drive 10 kms, then it'll engage. Few kms later it will disengage.

Any ideas on how to control the tcc myself, from a switch that i can rig myself? What I'd do, is bypass the wire that feeds the tcc, and run it into the cabin, and into a switch. when on, the tcc would be supplied with the usual 12 volts from the battery. Is that possible? If so, what color wire should i supply the 12 volts to?

If thats not a good idea, any idea what else I should do? I checked my connections.
Thanks

I believe the TCC lockup is controled by switching the ground to the TCC solenoid ON or OFF from the PCM. This can be monitered from the data connector, i forget the pin exactly as i don't have my service manual with me. I'm thinking if you tap into this wire (i know it'* tan with a black tracer on my car) and attach a switch that is grounded, you could essentially control the lockup of the convertor. But i'm only guessing. A gearhead will chime in soon.

How are the rest of the gears shifting?? Reason I ask is that my TV cable was out of adjustment, it had too much tension on it, so the tranny thought I was pressing the gas more than I really was. All my gears shifted higher then they were supposed to, plus I had no OD at all anymore.

Here is how to adjust it.

One thing to remember is that I had to push the cable back in, away from the firewall, since this way of adjusting put more tension on it. I made sure that I had just enough tension on the steel cable after I was done so that it was not loose. When you are pushing it back in, you will not hear that click like when you pull it out, at least I didn't.

The TV cable sure does sound like its giving problems. At highay speeds, the TCC is locked up, at 100 kph or more.

Could a bad temp sensor cause this too?
I am gonna post another topic on the temp sender anyways..
Thanks for the help. With the price of gas, I cannot afford to lose any!!!

I thought it was a bad temp sensor also since it was a new engine I installed, but figured out that a 2 minute fix, was all it took.

I would go outside and have a look at how much tension is on that cable, ( the exposed steel part of it). Mine is not loose, but not tight, it is enough to hold it in place. So you should be able to move it around easily.

Hey guys, can I ask a question? What is "TCC"?

Thanks

TCC= Torque Convertor Clutch

Check that the brake switch is adjusted properly. There may be two or more switches on the brake arm under the dash. The TCC gets it'* 12 volt power through a switch on the brake pedal, at least it does on my Reatta. The ECM switches the ground on and off to engage the TCC. If the brake is depressed, or the switch loses contact the power goes away. If the TPS voltage drops to near the idle position it will unlock, also caused by the ECM opening the ground. It also has to be in closed loop operation, so a bad temperature sender (or thermostat) can be a fault as well and it would also ignore the O2 sensor signal. One of the pins in the ALDL under the dash connects to the ground for the TCC, and it could be used to manually apply a ground to see if it will stay engaged. Someone with the proper manual will be able to tell which pin it is. Only do this at normal lockup speed, the clutch is not designed as a heavy duty unit and is designed for maintaining speed and light acceleration, not a heavy load.

OOPs, reread the post and it is fixed?

Two things often affect the TCC
1) brake switch set too tight. When brack switch turns on, TCC drops out.
2) No or stuck open thermostat: coolant must be reading over 146F for TCC to engage. Several years ago we were driving to Indiana in the fall. When night came the TCC suddenly dropped out. Stopped at a rest area and everything was fine. Started up again and five miles later the TCC dropped out again. Turned out the thermostat was not closing all the way. In Florida it was fine. Headed north and air temperature started dropping. Soo did coolant untill TCC dropped out. When stopped briefly the engine would "hot soak" above the dropout and TCC would work until 70 mph air cooled it off again.

Fellows, thanks a bunch for your replies.

I wanted to ask questions about what common problems for a non engaging tcc would be. It is getting cooler, and definitly not like the summer months when the engine was able to warm up quickly, and not cool as fast in the heat to disengage the tcc.

Since the thermostat and coolant temp senders are relatively cheap things to replace, as opposed to getting bad mileage when gas is 1.11 a liter! (CDN) I will prolly replace em, but the PIA is the thermostat.. The engine had 122,000 kms on it when i installed it, and I've put 14,000 kms since April, so thats 134,000 kms, a tune up is not really a bad idea.

Any ideas if the O2 sensor should be replaced? It has 134,000, and has not trown codes, but is it a good idea?

And yes, I will check the brake switch, My cruise does not work well either, so maybe they are related somehow. :P