'91 Lumina APV 3.1 Tourqe Converter lock

[Kellymighton]

Is thereany way to test if my tourqe converter is locking up without taking it to the shop.

[maxwedge]

Normally you can feel it engage at 50-55 , touch the brake pedal lightly should disengage and re engage upon lite acceleration.

[jeffcoslacker]

Unplug it and see if you still stall at stops.

[Kellymighton]

Originally Posted by jeffcoslacker

Unplug it and see if you still stall at stops.

How do I unplug it?

[jeffcoslacker]

You know your way around under the hood well enough?

Looking at the motor from in front of the car, the tranny is on the right side. Facing you on the side of tranny case is a four prong square plug with 4 terminals, like this:

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Carefully unplug it (don't wanna break the retainer or it won't stay plugged in later). Driving like this will cause a drop in fuel mileage at cruising speeds, and will cause the Check Engine light to come on, but will disable the TCC so you can be pretty sure if it doesn't do that stalling bit after it's disabled, that's your problem.

Don't drive it around like that any more than you need to. Just enough to find out if that's the problem or not. I've seen people drive them around for years unplugged, but I don't think it's a good idea.

I'll post a link to the repair description.

[jeffcoslacker]

http://autorepair.about.com/cs/doity.../aa011703b.htm

[maxwedge]

Jeff, a o/d trans in the 91 Lumina is electronic and that connector, I believe, will disable all the solenoids, this will only work on a non o/d trans which is not available on a 91, pretty sure here.