Hi All,

As some may recall, was having problems with my ED down shifting at times, due to me having my diff ratio changed to 3.45:1.

http://www.fordmods.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=46476

Following up on the post that i made and some of the responses, I talked to Steve McPhee (02 46458852) one of the service managers at my local Ford dealership, Macarthur Ford, who knew my car rather well.

I explaned the problem and told him some of the responses I got to the post I made.

He said to contact a mate of his, an ex-BTR guy who now has his own shop: Craig's Autos. E-mail: automatics@bigpond.com.au

After a pretty long discussion, we agreed that (somehow) providing the corrected shift points to the gearbox was the only way to go about fixing the problem. We also came to the conclusion that the only way to do this was to get a GT/Sprint TCM. The only real alternative being to have my TCM re-mapped. With GT/Sprint TCM's no longer available, I figured the only way to fix the problem (right now) was to get my TCM re-mapped. For that, Craig gave me the contact details for Silverwater Automotive Services.

I called them up, pretty much expecting to hear "Mate, you've got to be kidding" like I've heard from a few other places previously.

After checking with the programmer, the manager came back on the phone and said "Yep, we can do that. When did you want to book that in?"

I think that I asked him another two or three times, just to make sure he heard me right first time around:

"I'm taking about a 1994 ED with a 4-Speed BTR Auto here.."

"Yeah, so what's your point?"

So, I booked her in for late July to get the TCM chipped and have it programmed with a standard GT/Sprint shift pattern (I provided the shift points from the workshop manual). They gave me the option of picking a more customised shift pattern, but decided to stick with what I initially specified.

It took two days for the work to be done, including test drive and time on the dyno to check the shifts.

Its now been two months since the work was done, and I can say that I'm certainly happy with the results. I've driven it quite a bit since then, in all conditions. The car hasn't downshifted and over-reved itself once yet. The shifts seem to be smooth enough. Keep in mind that I haven't driven an auto GT or Sprint yet, and so, its hard for me to say if they have gotten the shifts perfect or not. Unfortunately, no 'calibration' sheet was provided that lists the exact speeds that the shifts occur at.

Only issues have been that the gearbox has this weird tendancy to lock itself into power mode (despite the switch setting). This has happened two, maybe three times since then. I think its reasonable to believe that there might be small short, or maybe the wiring harness isn't sitting properly, shorting out the switch.

Its something that I've got to sort out. I'll check that the wiring is all okay first, but if its related to the chip, I'll take it back to them.

Other than that, performance wise, I've noticed that it takes a bit longer for my car to get up to speed in power mode, than when it's in economy. Keep in mind that my engine is still stock - at least, for the moment anyway.

The cost for all this work was:

Labour: 1.25 hours @ $95.00 per hour = $118.75
"Custom Program - Ford TCM" @ $375.00 each = $375.00
Chiptorque ROM Board DIL 28 @ $495.00 each = $495.00

Including GST, that comes to a rather cool $988.75.

In all honesty, I could think of 1000 other things that I would have rathered spent $1000 on (like 4000 Redskins for instance), but with all the money that would be spent on the engine etc, and as I not only wanted my gearbox to shift, but also to shift well, I figured it was worth it.

The guys seem pretty good there, and they're were willing to discuss the issues at hand before getting stuck into it, so, there is a pretty good chance that I'll be going back to them to get my ECU done (at least).


So, if anyone is interested in contacting Silverwater Automotive Services:

Unit 1/141 Silverwater Road, Silverwater.
Phone: 02 97481300
Fax: 02 96472805

web: www.silverwaterauto.com.au
e-mail: info@silverwaterauto.com.au


Will

Thats pretty nifty, but I can't help but think un necessary, when you could have just given the TCM an uncorrected speedo signal so it's getting the tailshaft speed it expects.

Exactly. I did just that, gave it a modified signal, for a grand total of $130. Could have done it for less useing the Jaycar speedo corrector, but got shiftkits.com to do it for me in a nice little box and all.
I just wired it in.
Brett

oh snap !!

Hi All,

The speedo corrector was actually one of the first options that I looked at.

I talked to a few transmission guys about the pro's and con's of using a speedo corrector.

The common theme I got from each one of them was that the corrector 'is good enough...but not ideal' due to manifold vacuum etc.

I asked them about chipping the TCM and most replied that they didn't know of anyone who could do it, even though, they replied, that in theory it would be the better way to go - short of not being able to find a suitably calibrated TCM already around.

...and I was fore-warned about the potential price, even if I could find someone who could do it.

I figured that with the effort and $$ that would go into the engine, I should probably put some similar effort and $$ into the gearbox as well.

The chip allows flexibility of having the shifts to be spread around (as it were) as opposed to just being shifted up or down together.

That was probably the key reason why I went for it, I'd say.

So, if other's don't need or don't want that flexibility, then why use it? Go for the Speedo corrector.

At a grand for the initial set-up, and a few hundred dollars or so for a re-tune, it's bound to have a limited appeal. The guys there even said that it had been a while since they had done one.

It would have been good if the whole job wasn't so expensive, considering just how much that little IC would have cost to make, but in anycase, I still got it.

Will.