Where to begin. I guess the best place to start is here, the use of exhaust brakes with automatics is going to cause wear on your torque converter and transmission.
The question is how much wear is it going to cause? The answer to this question depends on the driver, the brake, and how often and when he uses it.
Forcing the tc clutch to stay locked up during de-excelleration for the exhaust brake to work is a must, without forcing the lock-up to stay engaged the exhaust brake on the automatic is pretty much in-effective.
As DTT is a torque converter and transmission based company interested in the longevity of our products we must also acknowledge the potential harm products like the exhaust brake, mystery switch and various lockup devices can cause.
We also acknowledge there is a safety need for exhaust brakes during towing. Our challenge was how to balance the two.
The torque converter has one advantage in its favor, its called centrifugal force, however the Dodge ram owners do not appear to be taking advantage of this force. What I mean is this, the higher the rpms the greater the centrifugal force within the torque converter. In other words using your exhaust brake in the higher rpm range, is going to cause less damage to your transmission and torque converter than in the lower rpm range.
The ideal situation from a transmission and tc point of view is using your exhaust brake from between
1500rpms and 2500rpms. Most of you have probably felt tc shudder when your tc is locked up below 1500rpms when cruising or accelerating , this can be harmful to your tc.
If cruising at 1500rpms can be harmful, de-excellerating below 1500rpms can also be harmful.
Keeping your tc clutch engaged during hard excelleration or during heavy towing can also be harmful.
We could not find any safe solution on the market to protect the tc from the above described potential damage so we decided to build our own tc protector.
The TC SAVER is designed to dis-engage the tc clutch under hard acceleration or full throttle applications.
This is programmable by the driver to suit his or her driving needs.
High hp, stock hp, heavy towing , light towing whatever you wish. It is a simple user friendly wire in item.
2nd gear lock , there is a lot of instances where guys have told us that they really could have used 2nd gear lock up. All DTT vb. ’s are prepped with 2nd gear lock capabilities. For safety reasons we decided to go with an electronic system rather than a mechanical one.
During light to moderate driving conditions or exhaust brake applications our 2nd gear lock up systems is programmable to dis-engage at a pre-set speed (adjustable by the driver) . It is also designed to auto-disengage tc clutch while still allowing you to remain in 2nd gear if you so choose. The tc clutch portion of this system is adjustable to dis-engage under hard excelleration or full throttle to suit your personal needs.
The SMART CONTROLLLER has all the above features in one, plus automatic dis-engagement of od at an adjustable speed (depending on ones gear ratio, tire size etc. ) in case you forget to dis-engage od.
It also allows you to go from OD LOCKED UP to 3rd LOCKED UP ,( no more having to accelerate to de-excellerate, having to use the exhaust brake this way always bugged my wife, why do I have to step on the GAS (lol) she kept asking to slow down it makes no sense. ) I have to admit I agreed. You guys can thank Shanti for this feature.
The SMART CONTROLLER also has a automatic dis-engagement of the tc clutch at an adjustable speed to kick you out of lockup while de-excellerating . (ie 27mph, 37mph etc. what ever you choose it to be depending on load and gear ratio)It will go a lot lower if you choose and still maintain higher rpms in 2nd gear lock up application.
There are several reasons why I chose to work with Pac brake, I like their 5 year warranty ,the new nitrite coating Pac Brake is releasing prevents rust, and no more sticking butterflies and it is the most aggressive brake in the mid-rpms.
Most importantly it balances the needs of the tc, as the centrifugal force in the tc decreases, the Pac Brake load on the torque converter decreases accordingly reducing the amount of wear on the tc clutch.
I would like to personally thank a few of the guys like Jack Nutter, Charlie Paska , Arlan ,Steve Hurd , whose field testing and input was in-valuable.
Bill Kondolay
Diesel Transmission Technology
[This message has been edited by Bill Kondolay (edited 01-17-2001). ]
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