tranny gauge, e-fans, transmission cooler

[rmsg0040]

Last year I bought an e-fan from pcmofnc. Recently picked up a transmission cooler, and afterwards got a transmission gauge with a pod.

So after doing some research I decided to tackle this long project today.

I decided to install in order the:

tranny gauge
e-fan
tranny cooler

Today tackled the tranny gauge:

Here is a link for the gauge install:

http://www.glowshift.com/instructions/7-Color-Series/GS-712-Transmission-Temperature-Gauge.pdf

I decided to use the transmission test port.

Jack up vehicle from drivers side.
Slide under the truck and remove the crossmember. It is held on by 10 bolts. 5 on passenger side and 5 on drivers side.



Next step is to drop the front drive shaft if you have one. It is held on by (4) 11mm bolts. Can be rotated by hand for easier access to the bolts.



Position it out of the way. No need to remove it from vehicle.

Next step is to remove the 13mm bolt (circled in red) that hold the transmission shift linkage. Bend it back a bit. Don't go crazy. Slide a long flexible wrench in between the bracket (circled in green) to access the test port bolt I forgot the size. Test port bolt is circled in yellow. It will take a bit of wrenching as the throw is small. It will feel like nothing is happening but the bolt will come out eventually.




Get your transmission temperature sensor and thread it in. I used a extra long flexible wrench to tighten it up.

Now go inside your vehicle and remove the (4) 18mm bolt from your drivers seat. Tilt the seat backward so its standing on its rear.
Remove the sill and lift the carpet. There you will see a rubber grommet in the floor. This is where the transmission shift linkage cable passes through.

Have some (2) 18 gauge wires ready. Strip them on one side.

Go back under the truck and crimp them to the 2 wires on the sensor. Wrap in electrical tape.

Poke a small hole into the rubber grommet underneath the truck and fish the wires through into the driver side area.

Get some wire loom and place the two wires from the sensor into it. Measure and cut from the sensor to the rubber grommet. Right behind the grommet you will see a small stud. Zip tie the wire loom to it.

Put back the 13mm bolt from the shift linkage.

Assemble the driveshaft into place and reinstall. I just hand tightened the bolt. Don't go overboard

Reattach the crossmember.

At this point your are done from underneath the truck.

This is the hardest part of the installation and the biggest PITA. Just trying to remove the test port bolt will have you cursing. Very hard to access. Impossible with a ratchet and socket.

Inside the vehicle now.

Take the black wire, and strip the end. I grounded it to the bolt that holds the seat into place.

White wire, run it to outside of vehicle for now.

Put the seat back into place. Attached the 18mm bolts.

Attach the gauge wherever you want. Wire harness plugs into the rear of the gauge.

Attach the green wire to the white wire. Crimp with a butt connector and wrap in tape.

At this point it was 3pm and was quitting time for me.

More to come...

 

[Mooseman]

I did not know about this test port. Good to know but seems to be a PITA to get at. I just use an ELM327 and Torque on my tablet to monitor stuff. I'm just lazy :blush:

 

[IllogicTC]

This is quite interesting, could potentially be or turn into Article material.

 

[AtlWrk]

Interesting I really wanted to permanently install a pressure gauge on that port but it didn't look like there was enough room for the sensor. I may have to take another look now...

 

[rmsg0040]

There is room but tight. I was going over it in my head last night as what I could have done differently to access that bolt.

Maybe chrome universal socket?
Maybe impact swivel socket?

 

[Ilikemy3s]

Very nice .. cant wait to read the rest on your work

 

[AtlWrk]

There is room but tight. I was going over it in my head last night as what I could have done differently to access that bolt.

Maybe chrome universal socket?
Maybe impact swivel socket?

I'm not worried so much about getting the bolt as how much space there is for the sensor itself once it's installed and everything is back together. Good call on the wire routing though I was going to run all the way forward to the firewall and come back through the main harness grommet.

 

[rmsg0040]

Some more pics to help those out:

zip tie the wire loom to the stud:



wiring going through the grommet:



remove (4) 18mm bolts that hold the seat into place, use a prybar or screwdriver to support the seat:



remove sill and lift carpet, pull wires through:



Mount gauge and slide wires down and through:



Ground black wire of the sensor (in my case I used blue), connect white wire from sensor to green wire of the gauge.

The gauge has a black wire that needs to be grounded.

Get 2 long wires of different colours and connect them to the yellow and red wire from the gauge. Run them to rear fuse block:

At this point DISCONNECT THE NEGATIVE BATTERY CABLE



Red wire will be a switched wire. Use an add a tap and connect to fuse 29 (rain sense)





Yellow wire needs to be constant power, so use an inline fuse and connect to power wire:



Connect the negative battery cable back and test to see if everything is working properly. If so, assemble interior and your done.

Thanks

 

[rmsg0040]

Update:

I wrapped up the install today, connected the battery, started the truck, checked to see if the gauge was working properly.

The gauge shot right up to the max. Something was wrong.



I read the instructions over and it mentioned that if the ground wire from the sensor is not grounded properly, then the reading would be inaccurate.

Check over all connections and everything was good. Started the truck and same thing. Triple checked the connections just in case. Started the truck and the gauge again went to the max.



At this point I was flustered. I decided to piece back the interior and clean up.

What could be wrong I asked myself.

I did recently purchase the generic pod and glowshift gauge from a local auction for under $14, could the gauge be defective?

Now I got to find out what's going on.

I am going to contact glowshift tomorrow and ask them what the problem could be.

FWIW:

This job has been interesting. It has done 2 things:

1) reinforce my automotive knowledge
2) a new learning experience

Either way I hope somebody gains some knowledge from this thread

 

[coolasice]

Update:

I wrapped up the install today, connected the battery, started the truck, checked to see if the gauge was working properly.

The gauge shot right up to the max. Something was wrong.



I read the instructions over and it mentioned that if the ground wire from the sensor is not grounded properly, then the reading would be inaccurate.

Check over all connections and everything was good. Started the truck and same thing. Triple checked the connections just in case. Started the truck and the gauge again went to the max.



At this point I was flustered. I decided to piece back the interior and clean up.

What could be wrong I asked myself.

I did recently purchase the generic pod and glowshift gauge from a local auction for under $14, could the gauge be defective?

Now I got to find out what's going on.

I am going to contact glowshift tomorrow and ask them what the problem could be.

FWIW:

This job has been interesting. It has done 2 things:

1) reinforce my automotive knowledge
2) a new learning experience

Either way I hope somebody gains some knowledge from this thread

just for the hell ofit run a jumper from the gauge ground to the sensor ground... possibly bad ground from the seat post?

 

[rmsg0040]

I tried to grounding to different spots but same thing happened each time.

 

[coolasice]

I tried to grounding to different spots but same thing happened each time.

check for continuity across the sensor, possibly a bad crimp? (I hate crimps...solder solder solder)...

 

[rmsg0040]

It would be tough to solder that connection. The sensor has 2 wires coming from it. Underneath the truck is hardly any room.

So if I soldered that connection and thread the sensor, the wires will end up twisting around each other. Wires are pretty thin, maybe 20 gauge, all the twisting might break the wire, that would be a problem.

I was reading on other forums that some guys picked up the same gauge and it was faulty right out the box.

Remedy was to ship it back to glowshift, they test it, and depending on what the results are, they ship you a new one.

Considering the fact that I paid under $14 for the gauge and a generic pod from a local auction, it wouldn't be worth the time and money to ship it back, and most likely I would need a receipt to obtain the warranty.

Here is a youtube video on how to install the gauge:

around 5:30 you will see what I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6gl73jiq-4

 

[coolasice]

If I were doing the install I would have soldered and heatshrinked the connections prior to putting in the sensor, but to each their own. Have you tested the continuity of the sensor? test resistance also, if you cant get continuity or resistance then the sensor has a bad connection or is faulty.

 

[rmsg0040]

will check it out tomorrow

 

[coolasice]

will check it out tomorrow

and? what did you find?

 

[rmsg0040]

Kinda busy now to take a look at it,

plus the weather is starting to get to me.

Tomorrow is expected to be -27C with the windchill in the morning and -22C w/ windchill in the afternoon.

Will update with results when I can.

 

[rmsg0040]

Update:

Since I installed the gauge and sensor, I noticed a small tranny leak at the test port. Remedy was to add tranny fluid to compensate. Not a fix but a band aid solution for the time being.

On Saturday I was able to test it out and it turned out to be faulty.

I guess there's that old saying, buy cheap buy twice

On Sunday, I was on the look out for a transmission gauge, searched local ads and ebay.

I found an autometer digital gauge on ebay for a fair price, decided to buy it. I had some money in my paypal account so it softened the impact on my wallet.

Yesterday I decided to get a head start on the install, still waiting for the new gauge to come in.

Dropped the crossmember (10) 15mm bolts easy enough.

Removed the (4) 11mm bolts holding front driveshaft in place easy enough.

I then removed the driveshaft completely from the vehicle. (should have done this the first time around).

I cut the 2 wires off the sensor.

I used an impact swivel with a ratchet to remove the sensor. (this made it easier)

I hand threaded the original test port bolt into place. (11mm)

Used an extra long 11mm flex wrench to tighten it up. (had to remove the 13mm bolt as shown in the pics above and slide the wrench through)

No more leaks.

Put the crossmember back, driveshaft still off the vehicle.

Removed old gauge.

Waiting on new gauge.

update to come...

 

[Kelly@PCMofNC]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing, and we really appreciate your purchases!

 

[rmsg0040]

So I received my new gauge yesterday. Installation was the same, except that I wrapped the sensor with plumbing tape to prevent leaks.

Hooked up all wires, started car and no go.

Double checked wiring, tried again no go.

Tested the harness to see if I was getting voltage and I was.

Started to play with the harness and if I ever so slightly plugged in the harness into the gauge, it lit up. When pushed in all the way the gauge went blank.

Contacted autometer and they are sending a new harness to see if that will remedy the problem. If that doesn't work, I got to send the gauge in.

 

[Mooseman]

Damn. You really are having a bit of bad luck with the gauges. Might of had better luck with CCC

 

[rmsg0040]

What's CCC?

 

[Mooseman]

Cheap Chinese Crap. The kind you usually find on eBay.

 

[rmsg0040]

Yesterday received new wiring harness free of charge from autometer. Installed it and voila! Everything works fine.

Side note:

instead of using a switched source from the fuse box, I changed up my wiring and put in my own switch. Very simple to do. No guesswork if you are unsure about what fuse to use. All you got to do is remember to turn the switch on/off:

Here's a cheesy schematic:




Already took it out earlier this morning, reading from sitting while I installed it:



Took it for a short drive, residential then highway, max temp I hit was 156F



Sitting on driveway after the drive:



It seems like you got to drive for at least 15-20 minutes before hitting the optimal temp of 160-180, If your doing short commutes you might not be hitting the optimal temperature range. For me my drive to work is under 10 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon.

I don't know if the temperature outside affects transmission temperature, outside right now is -4C with windchill, if anybody knows chime in.

Maybe in the future I am going to pickup a Bluetooth OBD2 port and get the android app for my phone. Just to cross reference if there's any difference.

Finally I am able to move on to the next mod of installing the e-fans.

Will report updates of transmission temperatures.

Thanks