Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) VBA Question

[DPelzl]

I just installed a Goerend trans and tc. My question is about the Valve body assistant. First of all what does it do and does it need to be installed? Second, according to the instructions it says to attach the black wire from the VBA to the brown wire with black stripe on the black connector. My problem is there are 2 brown with black stripe wires on the black connector. Which one do i use???? Thanks for your help. By the way everything you guys have said about Goerend and Dave are right on. Great trans and great guy.

 

[Reb.B]

either black/tan wire will work. They are both grounds. The VBA is a zenier diode. What it does is take the actual pressure (voltage) up to 90 psi (or so) and bleeds the rest (voltage or pressure above 90 psi) and sends it to ground. Other companies just put in a resister, but that moves the whole scale down. The VBA reads accurate until it bleeds the rest off. They work excellent.

 

[DPelzl]

thanks for the reply. Not to sound stupid but you explained very clearly what it does but what is it for. Why is important to bleed off (voltage or pressure above 90 psi)? What can I expect the transmission to do differently?

 

[Reb.B]

if the PCM sees that the pressure is too high it can send the trans into limp mode. I was talking to Dave about this the other day and he mentioned that dodge has a reflash to allow higher pressure signals without going into limp. When a trans goes into limp, the hot trigger wire going to the trans relay is not hot any more and the O/D solenoid, lock up solenoid, and the Gov. Pres. solenoid are turned off and all you have is third gear.

 

[DavidWhite]

Where do you get a VBA? I have the resistor in mine, and I may have hit limp mode sunday.