Transmission Options

[RolesvilleMarina]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

your engine ECM will work.. HOWEVER


unless you can program the transmission type parameter from 'allison AT / MT' to 'Allison MD'. your speedometer, engine high idle, and cruise control will fail to operate.. as also the ability for the ECM to issue kickdown commands will be inhibitied as it doesnt know how fast the bus is moving till about 20 seconds after you take off from a stop.. (if that.. it may not register speed at all)..



reason being is that the Speed signal on an AT545 is a 2 wire signal sent from a physical sensor to the engine ECM.. (it was the connector you unplugged from the 2 wure speed sender at the rear of the trans).. the allison 2000 uses a computer-generated pulse on a single wire to send speed to the ECM from the trans TCM. whenb you program the allison MD in your engine ECM it tells the ECM to look for speed on a single wire and to ignore the fact the other wire is either grounded or not connected at all..



changing this parameter requires either a IH dealer or the "god-mode" servicemaxx and a Nexiq or nexiq-clone device..



rolesville swapped the ECM from his donor bus which had the same engine. (and of course was set to allison MD) so he didnt have any isues with the speed sensor data..



I reprogrammed mine and then updated to a 2004 year ECM as it handled my transmission better than my 99 / 00 year ECM did.

Correct.. again I bought a whole bus and cheated to avoid the laptops

I did have to get my 99 ECM plugged in by IH and looked at and they printed up some sheets.. there was some values they needed to change on the 2002 ECM like my low profile vista tires and my 4.78 rear end. Maybe some other things but am not sure. I took it off the bus and took it down stand alone for this.

I know the bus immed ran fine and not in limp mode after I was done... likely yours will not right away.

another caveat is my speedometer is still 10ish miles off (slow) and seems no amount of program fixes that... the IH guy was stumped as the computer was telling him the right speed and all is good. I use the GPS

Also as Chris points out about the speed sensor this is again how I got lucky as I have stated my Allison 2000 sensors were plugged in and went to the TCM... but from the TCM the appropriate AT545 plugs were dangling and ready to plug into my buses AT545 harness.. Chris may be able to elaborate more on how I got lucky with that..

He seems to be missing some bits of harness, I am working with him via email for better pics to see, seems he only has the 1/2 of the J139 (ECM to TCM) and not the other part goes to the Diag port.


He will also need the new updated Diag port



I don't mind this thread becoming the defacto for Allison 2000 swaps either

whatever helps people out I am good with

Cheery bye
dave

[Diverdude0075]

Thanks Christopher. I plan to have IH dealer set to Allison MD once I’m finished. I also will ask them to turn on cruise control, bump hp to 210, and set speed limiter to 75-80. Four items total for them to set as far as I know. Dave is helping me with electrical via email as well. I will have to capture that here as well for others.

Here’s a helpful pic of my harness he sent with some description of what’s what:
“ I circled in colors on your pic.. here is what they mean

1. Red - this is the power to the TCM. Under your bus somewhere you SHOULD (dunno) see these there right about under the seat (ish) area on the frame... you will unplug them and put these inline so it will power TCM and continue to send power down to whatever it powers. Again this was on my bus this way, so I am ASSUMING yours is too

2. Pink is your PTO pug... should be capped off, ignore this

3. Yellow - this plug goes into the Allison 2000 trans, only fits one place so kinda no worries... it is the data lines from the TCM to the trans... easy peasy

4. White- this is the J139 and I think there is another near your foot out of frame... this goes to the ECM. However you see there is a place for another one....that goes up to the diag port and I don't see it

5. Purple/green circles - these are the plugs that will go to the various sensors on the trans. This is where I need more detailed pics... on my setup my reverse, nuetral safety, speedometer sensors from the trans were already plugged in and went to the TCM...then from my TCM there were connectors that my buses AT545 harness plugged into. so these will take a little more work to figure out for you maybe ”

https://imgur.com/gallery/1lBKpUa

[RolesvilleMarina]

Originally Posted by Diverdude0075

Dave is helping me with electrical via email as well. I will have to capture that here as well for others.

https://imgur.com/gallery/1lBKpUa

HA!

I am trying lol but you're color blind and I can't do numbers for shite

this is gonna be a good time

[RolesvilleMarina]

We finally got a warm break here in NC so We decided to go ahead and do our first long tow test with the Vista.

Hooked up the Stingray and we dragged it down to the summer house. I thought I would check in and report with some numbers and see what ya'll think.



The journey is 122 miles from my house in Wake Forest to the house down by the sea in Belhaven. It is mostly the expressway.



She towed a dream...naught to 60 was a bit slower of course



We ran down the motorway at my typical 64 mph with the cruise control set, running 2050 RPM Many people were taking photos as they passed us, one lass almost wrecked into my side trying to work her phone to take the photo.



The boat weighs 3200 lbs (ish)

it's mostly flat, but there are some hills... we didn't slow or lug even on the hills. This bus with the Allison 2000 combo is awesome.

MPG without pulling anything we were near 11 coming back from West Virginia, and she said that going TO West Virgina up those mountains we averaged about 5.5 MPG

Towing the boat on flats with moderate hills between we averaged again about 5.5 mpg

I was hoping for a bit better, at least 8mpg

Remember though I still only have the 175hp. Would turning up the heat help with the mpg or harm it?

So far the 175hp has been enough. We've pulled the boat for it's first long tow. I've flat towed the jeep, on motorway as a test and it was fine, and the 22 ft sailboat weighs about same as stingray. So I have been impressed with the 175hp so far


meanwhile we launched the boat, and got a lot of stares and comments...
Got out on the bay and it was too choppy, and although sunny the wind was freezing.. we turned around to come back and the boat quit (no spark) so being within site of the ramp we paddled back in





ahhh, making memories



We used 19 gallons.... I think the vista has a 25 gallon tank but I am not 100% sure.. it's not more than 30 i am sure, but I think is 25. And currently we are at $2.89 a gallon here in NC (and climbing, thanks Joe)

So is this horrible, good, or just meh average?

and I am hauling the Vstar in the back too

[sportyrick]

NEVER EVER strap a motorcycle down with the kickstand down, it compound leverages the opposite strap and will catapult like a rocket when that strap breaks, seen it a few times, quite exciting for the watcher not the owner. Also ratchet straps are not the tool to strap them down, motorcycle straps are made the way they are for a reason, more travel to compress the front shocks.

[RolesvilleMarina]

Originally Posted by sportyrick

NEVER EVER strap a motorcycle down with the kickstand down, it compound leverages the opposite strap and will catapult like a rocket when that strap breaks, seen it a few times, quite exciting for the watcher not the owner. Also ratchet straps are not the tool to strap them down, motorcycle straps are made the way they are for a reason, more travel to compress the front shocks.

I'm unsure what you mean by "motorcycle straps"

I've used ratchet style straps for over 30 years and never had an issue.

These however, are actually the wheelchair ratchet straps that came with the bus and they used to strap in the wheelchair kids. I think they will be ok. They hook into the rails in the floor and those rails are still in the "garage" and I left them for this purpose.

but as for the kickstand I understand, and this is one of the "looks are deceiving" things.. She's tied down proper mate, no weight really on the stand... I can't strap her "upright" as you are thinking, BUT, she's also tied down on the frame in other places you can't see due to the unique wheelchair straps hook into the floor. It's proper sorted and it's actually been strapped there for over a year as I need to finish getting the bike woke back up. She's been in storage 7 years..

Oh, and otw back we pulled 6.5 MPG

so my in town driving is the real killer, as on the way to the house we were in a spot of 5 o clock traffic in Washington NC

So I will continue to gather data based on what I tow and where I go

cheers

[Mountain Gnome]

Originally Posted by RolesvilleMarina

We ran down the motorway at my typical 64 mph with the cruise control set, running 2050 RPM Many people were taking photos as they passed us, one lass almost wrecked into my side trying to work her phone to take the photo.

A favorite bumper sticker:


If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?

[Oldyeller]

Very Nice Rolesville. Love the bus and love what you're using it to do. Makes me want to get mine done this summer so I can spend next winter traveling in it.

[Truthseeker4449]

As for as MPG goes, it seems pretty decent. My two pusher buses have empty weights around 22,000lbs and average 6 mpg in town, and 8 mpg on the highway. My 1997 7.3 pickup averages 13 mpg, though if I gently accelerate to keep the boost down then I can squeeze out a couple more.

Could try cleaning your exhaust backpressure tube and sensor on the passenger side of the engine. It plugs up over time with soot. The sensor is used in fueling calculations by the PCM and has an effect on fuel economy as a result. The overall benefit may be small, but every little bit helps. You can find the tube coming out of the front of the passenger side exhaust manifold and going up the front of the engine behind the accessories.

[Jdevloe]

Hello, new to forums and don’t know if I’m doing this right. I’m wondering what program is used to change the parameters of the ecm. I’ve read about people doing it on here but can’t find anything. Thanks for any help.

[o1marc]

Yes, any HP increase will decrease fuek economy. It will also require better cooling capacity.

[Jdevloe]

Thanks for the comment on hp but that’s not what I was ask. I did a swap and would like to change things around and don’t know what program to use.

[Booyah45828]

What you need depends on what ecm you wish to access, and how you want to access it.

Some aftermarket units are self contained and have everything you need to connect to the bus/truck. Those units are nice because they typically have better customer service and are more oriented to those unfamiliar with the HD software, and they're more likely to train you in the unit's operation. The problem is that those devices aren't always fully functionaly like their oem counterparts.

Most of your oem stuff is pc based, so you'll have to have a laptop device in order to use it. You'll also need a vehicle to pc interface device, such as the nexiq usb-link, in order to connect the laptop to the bus. This software is fully functional, but it typically comes with little support though, so if you aren't familiar with it, or capable of teaching yourself, you might quickly find yourself out to lunch.

I prefer to use the oem software over aftermarket. I was taught in college on the oem stuff, and I'm young enough to figure out this computer stuff if I don't know it. We demo'd an autel unit once, and I thought it seemed lacking in functionality, so we've stuck with the oe software.

[jazty]

Originally Posted by RolesvilleMarina

another caveat is my speedometer is still 10ish miles off (slow) and seems no amount of program fixes that... the IH guy was stumped as the computer was telling him the right speed and all is good. I use the GPS

I only just noticed this comment and was wondering: do you have one of these wretched dash clusters, as I do?




If so, the speedometer is in fact adjusted by a bank of DIP switches at the top back of the cluster.





As for what values to use? It's a mystery. I'd say that if your speedometer reads 10mph below an actual speed of 60mph then you might need to reduce the expected number of pulses per mile (I think?).


If you post a picture of the current state of the DIP switches we might be able to convert the current value from binary to decimal then recommend a new DIP switch value. Could be fun ;)

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Jdevloe

Thanks for the comment on hp but that’s not what I was ask. I did a swap and would like to change things around and don’t know what program to use.

I must have misunderstood this as a question.

"Remember though I still only have the 175hp. Would turning up the heat help with the mpg or harm it?"

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by jazty

I only just noticed this comment and was wondering: do you have one of these wretched dash clusters, as I do?




If so, the speedometer is in fact adjusted by a bank of DIP switches at the top back of the cluster.





As for what values to use? It's a mystery. I'd say that if your speedometer reads 10mph below an actual speed of 60mph then you might need to reduce the expected number of pulses per mile (I think?).


If you post a picture of the current state of the DIP switches we might be able to convert the current value from binary to decimal then recommend a new DIP switch value. Could be fun ;)

I have the printout at home (im travelling) for the dip switches and whgat to set them at.. in one of my posts in my DEV random thread and also in someone elses rear swap thread I posted the pictures of the manual pages..

[johnbloem1974]

Can't you just adjust the parameters in the ECM like we did on mine with changing the pulse count?

John

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by johnbloem1974

Can't you just adjust the parameters in the ECM like we did on mine with changing the pulse count?

John

if he is running the cluser wit hthe switches its not a Datalink cluster, its using a direct speed sensor.. id have to look and see if there is a datalink variant in the switches for that...



John does yours have the full circle oil P gauge and the 230 top temp? I was thinking yours is the later one wit hthe 280 top temp

[johnbloem1974]

CadillacKid - here's a pic of mine...it's the 230 one...



John

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by johnbloem1974

CadillacKid - here's a pic of mine...it's the 230 one...

Attachment 56606

John

yours is a wierd one.. it has the communicating style oil pressure gauge but the 230 temp like the non communicating did.. im guessing that panel doesnt have switches on the top (and if it works i wouldnt disturb it to find out)