- Joined
- Sep 17, 2005
- Threads
- 110
- Messages
- 638
- Location
- Vancouver, Canada
- Website
- www.jjadventuretours.com
For all you HDJ81 owners (seem to be more everyday), here is a piece of advice that may $$$ave you from needing a new torque converter.
The torque converters in these pre-1993 machines are real inefficient at low rpm. They get very hot going up long hills; hot enough to cook the TC on a long uphill. Fitting an extra transmission cooler will help keep overall tranny temp down a bit, but won't be enough to stop the TC itself from cooking.
If you can, fit a transmission temperature gage. The probe should go in the outlet union (the outlet from the tranny to the cooler), which can be drilled and tapped. Rodney at automatictransmission.com.au sells these ready-done if you don't want to do it yourself. A probe in the pan will only tell you the overall tranny temp, and won't tell you much about the torque converter temp, which is what tends to cook on these machines. Don't even think about towing without a gage.
If you don't have a gage to keep an eye on, the key is to keep the revs up around 3000 rpm when climbing hills if you can't make it up with the TC locked. The 1HDT has huge torque/power and will to go up big hills at 2000-2500 rpm, but this is TC-cooking range. Switch down a gear and keep the revs at 3000 +.
I have one of Rodney's gages attached to the outlet union of the TC and the temp will climb quite fast to 150 C plus when climbing a big hill at 2200 rpm out of lockup. Get the revs up to 3000 rpm and the temp never goes over 100 C.
Just my 2 cents' worth....
The torque converters in these pre-1993 machines are real inefficient at low rpm. They get very hot going up long hills; hot enough to cook the TC on a long uphill. Fitting an extra transmission cooler will help keep overall tranny temp down a bit, but won't be enough to stop the TC itself from cooking.
If you can, fit a transmission temperature gage. The probe should go in the outlet union (the outlet from the tranny to the cooler), which can be drilled and tapped. Rodney at automatictransmission.com.au sells these ready-done if you don't want to do it yourself. A probe in the pan will only tell you the overall tranny temp, and won't tell you much about the torque converter temp, which is what tends to cook on these machines. Don't even think about towing without a gage.
If you don't have a gage to keep an eye on, the key is to keep the revs up around 3000 rpm when climbing hills if you can't make it up with the TC locked. The 1HDT has huge torque/power and will to go up big hills at 2000-2500 rpm, but this is TC-cooking range. Switch down a gear and keep the revs at 3000 +.
I have one of Rodney's gages attached to the outlet union of the TC and the temp will climb quite fast to 150 C plus when climbing a big hill at 2200 rpm out of lockup. Get the revs up to 3000 rpm and the temp never goes over 100 C.
Just my 2 cents' worth....
