Wholesale auto trans manual lockup kit - anyone tried?

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L

Lallirafn

10 Year 15 Year
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Oct 23, 2006
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103
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Iceland
I have a HDJ80 1993 with the A442F transmission and a trailer and am seriously interested in the lockup-kit from Wholesale Automatic Transmissions as described here: http://www.automatictransmission.com.au/release.asp?NewsId=42068

Has anyone here tried it? Or can describe to me how it works? it sure seems simple enough on the photo but how to connect it and how does it work?

I would be glad to just buy the kit, but I have sent them some emails and they never respond. So if this is a simple kit, I would like to fabricate it myself if I can.
 
There was an article in 4wd Toyota Owner last year I think about this kit and their converter. I haven't talked to them but the guys at West Coast Cruisers are their US distributor and I talked to them about this setup. I would highly recommend you give them a call. They, WCC, are good people. Mike is who I think I talked to and I am sure he would be glad to answer your questions.
 
I installed it on my 1993 HDJ81 with the electronic A442. It was relatively easy to install but the crimp-on connector to get the right wire for the transmission was REALLY hard to reach as I didn't want to take my dash apart to get it.

Basically it's a Normally-Closed relay that operates your transmission like stock under normal conditions, but when the truck gears down out of overdrive you can override it to get it back on.

From Rodney, he said never use it when the truck is stopped or in first or second as the transmission/torque converter isn't designed for it.

I haven't used it as much as I thought I would, but for towing up hills and such it works well.

Craig.
 
Thank you lumpy70 for the info. is there anything else in the kit? just a normally closed relay and harness for it? so, when you want to override the default function, the only thing this relay does is disconnecting the wire?

can you tell me what wire it is and in what harness? I am having a real trouble contacting wholesale auto trans because Rodney is on a vacation and nobody else seems to be qualified enough to answer my query....
 
Email John from Radd Cruisers (http://raddcruisers.ca/) or Steve from Extreme Bends (http://www.extremebends.com/) both on this list as I heard they were both developing their own similar kits. It is a relay, a fuse, and a switch all in one harness.

As for the correct wire, I have lost the install sheets that came with the kit but either of those guys could answer your questions.

Craig.
 
I hear you on the 'i can't believe it thing' , two years later and you haven't heard from wholesale or any of their distributers. Lucky its only a wire thing on the electronic 442 for lockup vs the v/b reruting for the full hydro. Try the Prado section they all seem to be doing the lockup thing I think. Do you know which wire controls each siliniod and which wire is the extra overdrive wire for lockup.
 
I found this posted on another LC site a while ago, haven't tried it on mine, and a transmission builder here I spoke to recommended against it, he advised to just have a trans temp gauge and don't overheat it.

"I used a change over relay (narva 68048 ) and a switch (narva 63021BL ), I used this switch as it fits in the dash with out cutting the dash.

This is how I did it, the wire from the ecu is green with a white trace, I put the relay behind the left kick panel. Find the green/white wire and cut it, the end from the ecu is connected to pin 87a on the relay.
The other end is connected to pin 30 on the relay.( this goes to the lock up solenoid ).
Pin 85 on the relay goes to earth.
Pins 86&87 are linked and connected to the power out on the switch.

How it works,
With the switch off pins 30&87a are closed and the lock up works as it was intended by
Toyota.
When the switch is on, pins 30&87 are closed, supplying power to the lock up solenoid."
 
So when would you use this? Pulling a trailer and being able to be locked up if you had to downshift to 3rd for a hill? Would it still downshift as usual if you had the switch on, with the tranny in 4th and then needed to downshift? Seems like a very simple solution that anyone could piece together themselves.

Edit: NVM, visited the site and they answered all my questions and more.
 
weeks after the first post of this thread, they answered but would not send me information on how to locate the wire unless I bought the kit.
That is why I wanted to do this myself but nobody seemed to be able to pinpoint me to the wire.

SeaJay, I will look for this green-white wire from the ECU, thanks. this is a starting point at least :) If I feel confident and actually try this, I will post my results.

IanB, I am told that the automatic will shift up and down in lockup but the shifts can be a little harsh. This lockup thing works between the torque converter and the gears, it does not "lock" the automatic in a specific gear. The A442F can lock up in 2nd,3rd, and OD but not 1st. that is just how the valve body is designed.
 
yes, it will not lock up in 1st unless you change the valve body, not sure I would leave it on while shifting gears, tho it may help keeping the transmission cool if you were in 2nd or 3rd in boggy sand for a long time, or you had to use 3rd up a long hill and wanted to lock it up. As I said tho, I was advised that monitoring the trans temp was more important, and they got there $ off me for there temp gauge set up, just not for the lock up switch :)
 
I seem to remember a green/wht wire...but can't be sure.

When I bought the Wholesale Automatic kit there was a very bad diagram pretty much drawn on a napkin, and it's long since gone.

Sorry I couldn't help more.

Try Steve Tetu at EBI.

Craig.
 
the green and white wire seems to be correct from the 1993 EWD ECT section:

ect1993.webp

lockup.webp

ect1993.webp


lockup.webp
 
From what I can tell the a343 uses a different color. From the 1997 EWD:

ect1997.webp
lockup97.webp

Can you purchase the electrical connectors for the engine harness individually? If so it looks like you could build a jumper with the relay on the correct wire and snap it into the EC2 connector to avoid cutting a wire.

ect1997.webp


lockup97.webp
 
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