• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Aw4 without comp

AZXJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Mesa AZ
Can an Aw4 be run without the comp.. Just manually shifted.. My rig is trail only and I'm sick of stirring soup...
 
AZXJ said:
Can an Aw4 be run without the comp.. Just manually shifted.. My rig is trail only and I'm sick of stirring soup...

Yes. In fact, removing the fuse is one of the diagnostic procedures. When controlled manually, it omits either first or second gear -- sorry, it's late and I don't recall which. If you have a FSM read the diagnostic procedure and it's all spelled out for you.
 
Eagle,

I'm runnig a 5 spd now and want to swap to an auto. I can score a good Aw4 for a great price and the comp doesn't come with it.. Thanks for the help..
 
yes it can! i am going to swap an AW4 into my MJ from the BA10 5speed, and rather than messing with all the electronics and sensors, I'm going to make it manually shifted.

I am going to make mine pushbutton, where I will have 5 switches probably on the dash. 1-4 will be momentary switches, one for each gear, and the fifth will be an on-off switch to lock/unlock the torque convertor. It gets pretty tricky with lots of relays and diodes to accomplish this, but I finally got it all figured out and I'm going to be making mine in the next couple weeks, I could make you one as well. I could also make it so there is a rotary knob for 1,2,3,4 and a button for the TC lock.

you still need to use the shifter to select Park and Nuetral, then just put it in "D" and use the buttons for full manual control.
 
Mad,

That's sounds pretty sweet. What are you charging to make this setup?? I like the push button idea.. But for the mean time, Would just manually shifting it through the gears work??
 
mad maXJ said:
yes it can! i am going to swap an AW4 into my MJ from the BA10 5speed, and rather than messing with all the electronics and sensors, I'm going to make it manually shifted.

I am going to make mine pushbutton, where I will have 5 switches probably on the dash. 1-4 will be momentary switches, one for each gear, and the fifth will be an on-off switch to lock/unlock the torque convertor. It gets pretty tricky with lots of relays and diodes to accomplish this, but I finally got it all figured out and I'm going to be making mine in the next couple weeks, I could make you one as well. I could also make it so there is a rotary knob for 1,2,3,4 and a button for the TC lock.

you still need to use the shifter to select Park and Nuetral, then just put it in "D" and use the buttons for full manual control.

Wouldn't it be simpler just to get a stick :D
 
I'm trying to eliminate the Stick.. It's not fun anymore..
I've spent 5 years wheeling with a stick, time for something diffrent.
 
AZXJ said:
Mad,

That's sounds pretty sweet. What are you charging to make this setup?? I like the push button idea.. But for the mean time, Would just manually shifting it through the gears work??


I haven't decided how much I would charge yet, after I make mine I'm going to think about making more and selling them if I can keep the cost reasonable.

I could also make it so that if you already had an auto tranny, you could flip a switch to deactivate the computer and activate the pushbuttons. This would use a few more relays and would cost more.

I think I'm gonna shoot for making the one for manual only control $80, and the one for auto or manual $100. If I can't reasonably do it for that, then I will probably abandon the idea.

In the meantime, you can shift with the shifter, but there will be no 2nd gear, and the torque convertor will never lockup. So you can get around, but not the best scenario.
 
Kejtar said:
Wouldn't it be simpler just to get a stick :D


Torque convertor will roughly double your crawl ratio! You will notice that everyone rockcrawling these days is going with auto trannies, and many of them spend several hundred dollars on manual valvebodys. the same things can be accomplished on the AW4 electronically for less $$

For me, it's also an issue of getting rid of the BA10 before it blows up on me.

and pushbutton shifting is just plain cool :greensmok:
 
you guys might want to look for the archives of the big XJ list @ moab offroad as IIRC someone there has built what you have described....
 
Kejtar said:
you guys might want to look for the archives of the big XJ list @ moab offroad as IIRC someone there has built what you have described....

huh... I have never seen that site before

I used the search function and couldn't find anything, and I scrolled quickly through the first 25 pages and didn't see anything
 
Actually, you can do it with only three switches, and simplify your electronics. There are two solenoids which accomplish the system, and one more for the TCLockup. This would eliminate the need for the complex electronics, as simpler is always better. I don't have everything handy at the moment, but I'm pretty sure I have a "truth table" somewhereabouts for the AW4 shifting, and the approach was rather simple...

I don't have anything against electronics, I just don't like complicating systems unnecessarily...

5-90
 
5-90 said:
Actually, you can do it with only three switches, and simplify your electronics. There are two solenoids which accomplish the system, and one more for the TCLockup. This would eliminate the need for the complex electronics, as simpler is always better. I don't have everything handy at the moment, but I'm pretty sure I have a "truth table" somewhereabouts for the AW4 shifting, and the approach was rather simple...

I don't have anything against electronics, I just don't like complicating systems unnecessarily...

5-90

you are correct, there are only 3 solenoids on the tranny

2 of them control gear selection via different on-off combinations, and the third is a simple on-off for the torque convertor

however, I have figured out the simplest way to do pushbutton gear selection and it still uses multiple relays and diodes.

for the 2 for gear selection, yes you could wire in just 2 toggle switches, but you would have to remember which one goes up and which goes down or both up or both down for each gear, and then you would also have to switch them perfectly simultaneously. this requires way too much thinkin and effort. I want 4 buttons, where I tap "1" and it goes to first gear, etc.

I am thinking about also figuring out how to do it with just an upshift and downshift button (and 3rd for TC lock), but that may get confusing without some sort of indicator light telling you what gear you're in, which requires another couple components....

so would people rather have 1,2,3,4,TC Lock -or- Upshift, Downshift, TC Lock ?
 
If you'd like, I can review your design and see if it can be simplified or otherwise improved. Feel free to bounce me an NDA message first if you want - I just like to make sure mods will work. The core idea is yours, and I respect that! I just find that a little outside input on many projects will help things... Besides, I'm interested in your solution...

I have to see if I still have that binary demux ckt around that I was going to use for a gear indicator...

5-90
 
I;m sure that my design is as simple and effective as it could be for a 1,2,3,4 pushbutton shifter, I just need to find cheaper, smaller components to make it better

actually I've already had a fair bit of input from both Jeep mechanics and electrical type people. my brother has some fancy-shmancy electrical class at UCSD and is going to help me with this stuff over christmas break. I already have it reduced (with some help) to the simplest, most effective denominator for the 4 button shifting I want to do. My brother thinks it may be possible to cheaply/easily integrate the whole thing on one little circuit board thingy, we'll see about that, I already have it figured out for normal radioshack type components.
 
Visit www.bigoffroad.com (tech articles) and see for yourself.

I used two Radio Shack diodes (part# 276-1114)@ -$5, a pair of switches@ -$10 and a spool of wire. All done in 1/2 hour for under $20!

One switch controls TC lockup, another shifts or holds 1-2 & 3-4...depending where the shift lever is. I put the push-pull switches on the front of my console, along side the handbrake lever (no reaching...I ride with my arm on the console anyway so the switches are 'right there')

With this setup, Put the lever in 1-2 and I can start off in 1st or 2nd, and hold those gears, plus select 1st with TC lockup for steep trail decents. With the lever in D I can downshift from 4th to 3rd on uphills with no throttle-induced kickdown, Hold 3rd if need be, and get TC lockup at any RPM I want it.

*I "DO" have a TCU though (89 model with seperate TCU), but I don't see why one couldn't just wire up the switches to manually control any AW4. I 'don't' think the momentary switches mentioned in the posts above will get it...the rotary might, but still require some shift lever input.

HTH
Woody
 
Back
Top