ATX theory

[SHOstoppin93]

New to automatics.. what is required for the torque convertor lock up? Rephrase... under what conditions does the torque convertor lock up?

 

[Off Road SHO]

I believe it is told to lock up by the PCM. The PCM gets input from various sensors and makes the decision to lock up from those.

Tom

 

[shoteen95]

does the TC only lock up in 4th gear? or 3rd and 4th..

All i know is, mine must have a personal distaste for locking up until it's taken it's sweet time..

 

[DigDeez]

Anyone care to explain all this in layman terms for a no knowledge guy like myself?

 

[Ian Macoomb]

Anyone care to explain all this in layman terms for a no knowledge guy like myself?

The torque convertor slips a bit kinda like a clutch. When you're crusing at a constant speed the convertor will lock-up and stop slipping so that there is less drivetrain loss and the rpms drop giving you better mileage. But it doesn't only lock at cruising speeds. The Gen III convertor locks up in 3rd during a 1/4 mile run. It drops the rpm from about 4800 to 4200 and a lot of people confuse that with a shift. I found that the car makes a bit more horsepower with the convertor locked. How's that for layman's terms?

 

[Mike93]

does the TC only lock up in 4th gear? or 3rd and 4th..

All i know is, mine must have a personal distaste for locking up until it's taken it's sweet time..

Mine does the same thing. It's funny because I drive about 15 miles of highway to work and it seems to lock up at the exact same point every day. I've self diagnosed the problem to be a faulty sensor...

 

[BenBrausen]

Converter is basicly 2 halfs. It doesn't lock up til the fluid is at the right temp, which dependin' on the weather and driving, can take a while. It's been posted lots of other times on how to tell if it's locking up, etc. Mine doesn't seem to wanna lock now after a preformance rebuild. Thinkin' they may have replaced it with a non locking converter but I have no clue where they'd find that would accept a SHO stator shaft as it's not the same as a normal Taurus and even SHO years are different ('93 vs '94/'95). Who knows. It runs amazing and it plenty cool with the additional cooler as is.

 

[DigDeez]

The torque convertor slips a bit kinda like a clutch. When you're crusing at a constant speed the convertor will lock-up and stop slipping so that there is less drivetrain loss and the rpms drop giving you better mileage. But it doesn't only lock at cruising speeds. The Gen III convertor locks up in 3rd during a 1/4 mile run. It drops the rpm from about 4800 to 4200 and a lot of people confuse that with a shift. I found that the car makes a bit more horsepower with the convertor locked. How's that for layman's terms?

...Very good Daniel Son! :laugh_ti:

 

[rrg93sho]

it can lock up in 3rd or 4th if you arent on the gas too hard

 

[95SHO32]

The ax4s and ax4n converters are all lockup.the computer varies the rate and percentage of lock up on many variables, like tps angle, load %, gear lever postions, temp, rpm,and many more. If you think your not in lockup try this,after driving your car for a at least 3-5 miles to warm both the engine and tranny, (The computer looks at both for temps before lockup is used). At a speed above 45, leave your right foot on the gas pedal and litely touch the brake pedal and watch the tach, your rpms should rise, this will unlock the converter. if not ck for codes and ck the mlus( modulated lock up solenoid