LifeRunner

Man that's a nice colour, I'm no fan of the 4th gen bumper but that looks like a nice truck. I went over to my dad's and stole his scan tool, left front ABS sensor is dead shorted, new on order. There was a few codes in memory from before, VIN mismatch, short circuits here and there but only the left front remained after deleting DTC's. Though now it's making a strange "poof" noise when ignition is on, but seems to work fine other than the odd noise on startup. The seat belt warning was giving me a "Pressure Switch Circuit Open/Short" and "SCTM Fault", the first one vanished after fiddling around with the SCTM for a brief moment but the SCTM fault remains, but no warning light. Hooray!

I sadly don't have a trans temp gauge, it's on the "to-do" list, amongst a whole lot of other things. I'm just puzzled by the sudden loss of lockup, always imagined it would start slipping worse and worse before going bad. Placed an order for a new billet heavy duty single disk converter this morning, so we'll see next weekend.

Yes, as previously mentioned it's slowly setting in I'll have to put a new one on order.. While I've got the transmission out it'll probably get some upgrades done as well.

Right, I've done a little testing and redid the wiring for the lockup switch, this time with a resistor. The guy who sold it to me didn't use one so I figured I'd implement one; the lowest I had was a 1kOhm resistor, but I suppose that'll do? Regardless, still no lockup. Absolutely no reaction at all from flipping the switch. Unless there's something that's suddenly gone wrong inside the VB, I'm slowly realising I might be looking at a new converter, unless there are more checks to do before shelling out?

Alright, thanks. Hoping the problem isn't the module, as things like seats aren't all that easy getting a hold of over here. Albeit the drivers seat could really do with a replacement.

Will check this, thanks. OD and TCC Solenoid assembly including contacts is new. Got some things to check this weekend now.

Okay, noted. Is there any way to see whether the PCM is commanding lockup or not? Also, if I wire up a lockup switch for troubleshooting purposes, shouldn't the converter lock regardless of PCM state?

That's where the supply for the solenoids comes from, yes? Measured this to see if anything might have short circuited to B+.

Hey again guys. Picked up a '99 2500 today with a few issues, chief amongst which is the converter not locking up. Overdrive works just fine. I began troubleshooting today, but I could use some input. It had a bunch of codes before I began measuring, most seemed to be related to the previous owners lockup switch because once I removed the jump between the relay 30 and 87a pins, and installed a relay in its place the codes could be reset and wouldn't come back. Now, according to the previous owner the lockup suddenly stopped working, not gradually. Solenoid assembly is new, and I've checked the contact at the transmission, it looks good and clean. When I measured the TCC cable from the PCM I read 12v at pin 11, contact A2, this didn't make sense so I removed the lockup switch thinking this could be throwing it off due to poor routing and bad handiwork, after this I no longer saw 12v while measuring from pin 11 on A2 to B+. Resistance from pin 11 in contact A2 to B+ was about 0.9k ohm iirc. Oddly enough, measuring from pin 11 on receptacle A2 on the PCM to B+ also results in 12v, which doesn't make sense in my mind. The resistance value from the PCM receptacle was very high, so it doesn't seem like a short circuit. If for some reason the converter is the problem, I just want to be 100% it's that, to avoid wasting $1000 on a new converter. Is there any way to see whether or not the PCM is trying to command lockup? If I wire up a new lockup switch and splice it into the orange/black TCC wire as close to the transmission as possible, shouldn't the converter lock regardless of the PCM?

Hey y'all, long time no see. Having been Ram-less for about two years, I could hardly live with myself anymore so I caved in and went ahead and picked up a '99 2500 today. It has some issues, two of which are the warning lights for the parking brake, or brakes? They're to the left of the seatbelt light in the instrument cluster. I've tried some googling, but getting few answers. I don't really know where to begin with this, I've checked the switch for the parking brake underneath the dashboard. Unplugged it, but it made no difference. Since I'm based in Norway, the chances of finding someone with an actual Dodge scan tool that will read anything other than engine faults are slim to none unless I fly them across half the country. The other issue it's having that isn't drivetrain related is the seatbelt light, it'll come on after about 30-60 seconds after startup, whether or not the seatbelt is buckled makes no difference. I have electric seats, and I've found the SCTM underneath the middle seat but this entire system seems like a bit of a mystery to me. Looking for any pointers on where to start troubleshooting and things to verify and check.

Cheers dude! @Dynamic help me out

Has anyone done this? I have a '00 24v and I'd like to have a manual lockup, so I can lock it in 2nd as well! So I don't have to come screaming up all the hills in my area, sounding like I'm doing 120mph Pros, cons, and whatnot.

Not to rub it in, but I can tell we have it nice here in Norway, and I feel kinda sorry for you guys overseas. I like to complain about high taxes, but damn it's worth it if you ever get sick or anything that requires medical attention, free healthcare and all that. @Mopar1973Man I wish you all the best, but you only get one body, take it easy and work at a pace which your body allows you to.

The revo settings change the duration though, if I read into it correctly. This is why I'm getting a Quad in the near future

not many other names that fit the spelling

No there's not many 2nd gens around these parts, more 3rd gens. Don't think you got that name right though, I give you 10/10 for effort though, since I probably get what you meant

See any more what now? I'm not all that on slang knowledge

Went out and bought the girl some new shoes today, I'm completely in love with the look and the fitment, came out extremely nice! Sits about flush with the flares all around

Does anyone know of a good and "reliable", for lack of a better word, VIN decoder for the Dodges? I'd like to see how my truck was configured when it was new, back in the day.

Yeah that's just one of the downsides of the smarty. I've shot an email to Diesel Performance Converters, to get a new converter and prepare my truck for the Quadzilla. I've had it with the Smarty

My man, this article should be pinned somewhere, great writeup! If anything, the conclusion we can draw from this thread is this: Smarty probably works, somehow, with a stock truck. Not really recommended though, so just get a Quadzilla to be sure.

Very much appreciated; great article as it sheds some light on a tuner with surprisingly little research into it, despite being so common.

But I'm going to shell out whatever a Quad costs. It's definitely the way to go.

Aha! You see I'm getting a Quad, there's no doubt about that, but it'll be later this year as I just blew $2600 on new wheels and tires Until then, I'd love to know what the smarty is up to, especially with the timing now that I've got somewhat control of the fuelling. This, because I don't have upgraded studs as far as I know, and y'all have me worried that the OEM ones will suddenly stretch and cause me a real headache.

I read up on it real quick, it's controlled by an internal timing piston coupled to a cam ring inside the pump, where the piston is moved by fuel pressure, and the amount of pressure in the piston assembly is then again controlled by an internal pump & solenoid. I'd assume this is what the Smarty fiddles with, but as I'm saying, I can't hear any difference, I've seen @Me78569's logs, and they state that it definitely fiddles with the timing. To me, it looks like it does so, extremely harsh, and just about immediately commands about 18* of timing the very instant you touch the throttle, sure, you're going to need some extra time to burn all the fuel the smarty throws at it, but to me it sounds like it would be really rough and not so good. Me and my dad once reflashed a 3500 with the common rail 5.9 (If my memory serves me right) because it ran like crap, the owner had a Smarty S-06 which we then connected and tried out, it did NOT like ANY of the tunes with the added timing, it ran like crap with those tunes and rattled so bad you could mistake it for running on gravel rather than diesel. Ran good with any other tune, but it definitely didn't enjoy any added timing by the Smarty. Shame I don't have the datalogger handy, I'd like to find out how the different timing levels behave, since it now fuels more naturally relative to the throttle position, it would be nice to find a setting where it just doesn't instantly bump the timing to 18*, but start at maybe 12 or 14* and work it's way up from there.