Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.

xecute said:

Mike, you wont mess this up. Do yo Thang.


I was totally wrong about your resolve to make this work. Toyotas are and have always been a living hell to service, and the whole time Toyota has meddled with the production line sixes from the iron M series Crown days, its just been a non Siamese bore kind of BMW M20/M21/M51/N54 thing. Just personally to me, a trumped up turd, a kind of over Engineered BMW 91 mm bore-spacing engine with 92 mm iron bore spacings .

Although I've done plenty of the these engines as Twin Cam four cylinders for my children and wife, the ToJo in line six just gets so much worse as its a 2.0 Tojo with another 33 and 1/3 rd % of different and extra specific mistakes, it gets bigger and more cylinders, its just designed for a tenacious Drill Sargent who wont be mastered by anything. Your that guy who was meant to have one!

However, I was wrong about how you'd respond to the challenge, and your making this thing really good. Rebuild that trans. And thrash it and Really Enjoy Yourself! Your beloved is gonna love it.

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Meh,....we all have our opinions, and our likes/dislikes. You were being pissy because I jumped off of the neolithic-era ford I-6 i’d been so vainly trying to make do what it wasn’t intended to do.
I’d have never lost you for a minute had there been a SOHC or Barra six in the plan. And there would’ve if it was as easy to get stuff for as it has been for it’s Little Japanese Kid-brother.

And after weighing that option it was a no-brainer.

I’ve started drilling the holes that are spec’d for the valve body. Only one of them didn’t seem right, but I double-triple checked the location..it’s where they want it to be.
Unlike the same modifications I made to the 4r70w, where the instructions detailed how to wire in the necessary toggles for 4th gear, and converter lock up, A 4l80e will manually shift through 4 gears, and only the converter needs the toggle to lock it up.
The problem is.....Unlike the ones that came with the 4rkit, there are no instructions included detailing how to wire that on the 4l80 version.
So I called them last week.
I don’t know if any of you have spoken to any of the guys at transgo, but these guys are all about 100 years old. Last week, I got ahold of the trans Yoda that runs the place. He tells me something about the Lock up solenoid being PWM, and that you had to add a resistor of some “unknown value” “maybe” in parallel ( I don’t remember what he told me) to condition the incoming voltage so you won’t burn the solenoid up when forcing it to stay on.
I told him I wasn’t ready for that step at that time, and asked if it would be ok if I called him when I actually had the trans open.
He said that’d be fine.
And now, one week later, I’m there.
So I call them..Turns out ol trans Yoda has had a heart attack. * Yoda voice ( Unfortunate he was, get well he must).
I get some Duke Transwalker instead. Annnddd as luck would have it, isn’t automatically familiar with all of the tweaks and jinkies required to make certain things do certain sht.
He has to look at his notes....he has to to cipher and compute...he gets out his book, he gets out his scientific calculator. “ Oh yeah! You’ll need to install a 1/2 watt 15 ohm resistor wired in series, doesn’t matter which leg, and that’ll condition the incoming signal enough so it won’t burn up the solenoid.”

“ In series? I thought old dude told me in parallel”.
“ Nope, in series”.

“ And it doesn’t matter whether I’m applying 12v or a gnd signal to that line that has the resistor on it?”
“Nope.”
“ Cause the way it’s wired now for the 4r70, I’m switching it to ground.”
“Don’t matter”.

So this leaves me conflicted. The One thing I do NOT want to have to do is drain that damn trans to replace a burned up lock up solenoid after I get that big bitch up in there..
I’m sure one of you electro-geniuses can tell me if Duke Transwalker is steering me down a a path to the dark side....
@a91what, @jrichker ?

a91what said:

A resistor in series is going to have a voltage drop across it.
E=I×R I dont know what the impedance of the solenoid is so I have to assume its somewhere between 10 and 30 ohms. This will bring the solenoid voltage down to a range of 5-8v roughly.
From there it's all about power used... by lowering the voltage you decrease the wattage at the device. Loads in series add the ohmic values E/R=I so more resistance is less total current in the circuit. This is true because source voltage is the sum of the voltage drops according to Mr Kirchhoff...
Of course the math follows a set of laws set forth by George Simon Ohm but this would not be possible without Charles de Coulumb and Andre Ampere pioneering ahead of him.

If you place the resistor in parallel with the circuit then the total impedance for the circuit will decrease and it will draw more current with no change to the voltage current or power across the solenoid.
In short dont wire it in parallel.

Also be careful when wiring, if you step on the wire you can crush the amp ears... they dont like that, also dont forget to tape the end of the wire up or all the ohms will pour out and you will have to get a bucket of ohms and soak the wire overnight.

Click to expand...

I’m assuming you think I understand any of that.

I’m also assuming the last couple of lines was some sort of electro-geek humor.

I think dude said that it was a 30 ohm solenoid. I’m guessing I can somehow put an ohm meter on the two socket pins and confirm that? If so, and I wire in a soldered 15 ohm resistor ( covered in shrink wrap to prevent the ohms from pouring out), I ground one end to the case, and I toggle 12v to the leg with the resistor installed,..and I get.......????????

And how will reduced constant voltage to a solenoid that was designed to pulse guarantee that it will be enough voltage to keep the path to the clutches open to make that sht work?

Bunch of stuff on for tomorrow...

Plan 9 from outer space details that I focus totally on modding the trans.
In order to remove the front pump to get it out, and get to the forward drum assy, The trans has to be removed from the engine stand, and stood vertical so I won’t upset the clutch pack alignment when that drum is removed.

Now, when you go online and see how these guys are doing that, Low budget Larry is standing the transmission on end in some small trash can..How in the phck he got that trans into that trash can is one thing,.......How he’ll get it out is another thing completely.
Professional trans dude has a bracket that is mounted to his bench that fits into the two holes that are built into the trans for that purpose. Once bracketed and clamp-U-lated to that fixture, the trans spins horizontal, upside down, and vertical with one finger.

Im thinkin I prefer that method of working with the trans to the trash can method.

That means that some part of my day will be dedicated to building that bracket.. and I’ll use the engine stand as a “ fixture” to hold the bracket...that holds the transmission.

The adapter was supposed to be here last Monday, but there was some issue with the bull sht order process...( can only place orders through the website, even though I was talking to the guy) Anyways,..the order got missed the first time around, and replaced days later...Finally shipped out on Tuesday,..will be here tomorrow.

I won’t be ready for it anyway...I expect the trans mods to take up the majority of the day....One things for sure,..I’m not starting anything with an open transmission on the bench.

So,..we’ll see how it goes. What gets done, gets done.

Thanks for all the info guys, it appears that new Dude at Transgo can indeed be taken up on his advice.

My usual routine...( it’s all a “perfect world” when i’m back to my usual routine), is to get up on my day off, get a cup of coffee, and sit down for the time it takes o drink that. During that time, i’m here, sharing a plan or a gripe. By the time 2nd cup is gone, this thing gets put down, and i’m on a mission.

Either to have a good, or bad day.

The bad day comes as a result of an unexpected obstacle(s), miscalculation, or a blatant phck up on my part. You might look at this and think,..no Mike, you make your own luck...Obstacles are to be expected. You need to make them part of the plan. Miscalculations are the result of not fully embracing the “ measure twice, cut once” work ethic, and blatant phck ups come when trying to jam too much of what can’t be done into your timetable. And when you fully adopt that plan....then the only day you’ll have is a good day.

As it should be.

*And which one of you positive thinkers just sent me that “mind vibe” that made me write all of that positive goo above?