T87 Swaps

kidturbo

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Honestly I couldn’t tell you. It was in a truck I rebuilt, and threw up the shift inhibited after running for about 5 min so I replaced it after seeing the non factory vent hole. Figured someone swapped it before it made it to auction.

Cut it open and see what’s going on inside if you want. If you get jammed up I can send another out of one of the other trucks I have in progress.
Yeah it's doing same for me. Runs fairly clean at startup if ya clear the code. Then after 5-10 minutes it kicks the Range Code and bunch of other gear ratio ones. Thought it was just unhappy with my wiring, We'll list that one under the Icebox Challenge. A buddy had one in his LML that if he left removed from the truck and left in the icebox overnight, he could run the truck for about 2 hours before limping.. Rather than 5 minutes.. It's the main MPU solder connections to the board.. CBM can fix it, 50/50 chance. But so long as I know, will work around.
 

pl_silverado

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Yeah it's doing same for me. Runs fairly clean at startup if ya clear the code. Then after 5-10 minutes it kicks the Range Code and bunch of other gear ratio ones. Thought it was just unhappy with my wiring, We'll list that one under the Icebox Challenge. A buddy had one in his LML that if he left removed from the truck and left in the icebox overnight, he could run the truck for about 2 hours before limping.. Rather than 5 minutes.. It's the main MPU solder connections to the board.. CBM can fix it, 50/50 chance. But so long as I know, will work around.

Can you remelt the solder with a heat gun ?

Not worth sending to cbm in my opinion. New ones are now readily available, I have 2 in stock and 2 more on backorder.
 

kidturbo

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Can you remelt the solder with a heat gun ?

Not worth sending to cbm in my opinion. New ones are now readily available, I have 2 in stock and 2 more on backorder.

I've watched a couple video's on it, and issue is there is a couple other important chips under that main MPU. So heating one without the back side set falling off seems to be the issue.. But not a big deal as my main concern is just verifying the TOS pulse details and our normal CANbus data. That's done. So for the bench work, I was just using it to map out all these sensor values before we move over to the T87 platform.. I can icebox with my bottle of Crown until called for again..

:geek:
 

pl_silverado

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I've watched a couple video's on it, and issue is there is a couple other important chips under that main MPU. So heating one without the back side set falling off seems to be the issue.. But not a big deal as my main concern is just verifying the TOS pulse details and our normal CANbus data. That's done. So for the bench work, I was just using it to map out all these sensor values before we move over to the T87 platform.. I can icebox with my bottle of Crown until called for again..

:geek:

I was merely offering the option of tearing into it while under the influence of said crown if the curiosity gets the best of ya. I don’t really need it back, so it’s yours to do with as you wish.
 

kidturbo

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UPS Truck delivered a couple of boxes of goodies yesterday.

First up is our missing valve body hardware to finish my bench build with all OEM parts. Many thanks, @pl_silverado

The second box is our 3rd and final for now I hope, rendition of the A50-Delete connector.. Last one was darn close, but bound up and I snapped the ears off our locking pins when I cranked down on the lever.

We checked a few clearance spots, tightened some tolerances, addded the 2 little catch tabs that latch it into starting position [last pic], and I ain't been able to break one yet.. Now, to terminal one up and see if it's remains idiot-proof...


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kidturbo

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Okay, the price just went up by 400%. Or everyone receives a connector, bag of terminals, and a free bag lunch.. Start assembly on a full stomach... LOL.

I started out by cutting all the leads exactly 16" long from a spool of white wire on the bench. Then I realized ya can't crimp a 16GA wire into a 20GA terminal.. So laying to the side was another chunk of T14 transmission cable. It's not new wires, but they all match perfectly.. And it fits together.

Now I gotta do the T87 end.

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kidturbo

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Now for the big question, how are we going to mount all this stuff?

While it can probably support without issues, I hate to hang all this cabling off my nylon 3D printed connector..

We can flip things around with the two different T87 connector options.

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pl_silverado

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Now for the big question, how are we going to mount all this stuff?

While it can probably support without issues, I hate to hang all this cabling off my nylon 3D printed connector..

We can flip things around with the two different T87 connector options.

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Those studs on the bracket serve no real purpose in lmm/lml applications, I was going to cut them off. But, thinking out loud here, any way to get ears printed on the connector so that it would fit on and mount right to that t87 firewall bracket?
 

kidturbo

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Those studs on the bracket serve no real purpose in lmm/lml applications, I was going to cut them off. But, thinking out loud here, any way to get ears printed on the connector so that it would fit on and mount right to that t87 firewall bracket?
That second pic, I was exploring those options.. However not sure how much I would trust the printed part being our mounting point.. I feel this last rendition is pretty good quality, but the previous versions, I knocked off my bench last night, and shattered a chunk outa of it. My bench ain't that high... So we are investigating. This resin is a UV cured Nylon. It's all plastics to me. :geek:

But I'm with ya on using what's available. Also looked at the Camaro mount without those posts, and how that plastic tab on the fan shroud held the T14. And how we are going to use a Bolt rather than push pin, so this doesn't get wrapped up in a our belt... Never had such issues in boats.. lol

For now I'm just trying to commit to which 60 pin connector to go with on this build. Have both left and right exits. Might go carlot shopping tomorrow and test fit your unit. I prefer the new firewall spot personally. But the KISS principle keeps overriding me.

Speaking of KISS, your old T14 is terminal.... She's kicking a solid P0708 on boot. Now that I have all the sensors onboard, and range selector set perfectly in Park, it's still pissy.. But it accomplished what we needed. So next time my buddy comes by with a 50cal, I'll give it a proper YouTube send off.

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Cougar281

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What about planning on zip tying the a40/a50/t14 connector and adapter to the shroud, with enough wire to relocate the T87 to the firewall?

And I could see the potential for two options: option 1: a box of pins and parts that you have to put together for 'x' price (cheapest) or option 2: An assembled harness for 'y' price (more expensive). Considering what ats is charging, if the assembled kit was $1,000, it would still be a bargain.
 
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kidturbo

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What about planning on zip tying the a40/a50/t14 connector and adapter to the shroud, with enough wire to relocate the T87 to the firewall?

And I could see the potential for two options: option 1: a box of pins and parts that you have to put together for 'x' price (cheapest) or option 2: An assembled harness for 'y' price (more expensive). Considering what ats is charging, if the assembled kit was $1,000, it would still be a bargain.
We could do it as a "Build It Box" deal where each month you receive a box of parts, along with short instructional video on how to assemble your custom harness?? If you stay on schedule, you can have one built before your dealership receives your T14 backorder... I like it.:)

It did take me a few hours to pin out that new connector. Hit a couple bugs I wasn't aware of going in. Like fact there is break tab on the latches down in he middle. Pushing the terminal in to where breaks the latch print medium tab using a 20ga wire,, is like working with a limp,, never mind.. I used a pick to snap each one, after I got about 10 pins in..

So my young engineer is printing up few more cavities with varying terminal latch, length and width examples. Then he can sort it. But we don't have a secondary lock, so the latch has to latch.. Besides for that, time eater was installing terminal ends. I found someone with the tooling to machine assemble both ends.. That should knock out 90% of the assembly time. Just need to know how long to make each wire, cause he does like 1000 at a time. Like a minute..


As to your Zip-Tye option, I'm thinking there might be some involved either way..
 
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kidturbo

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Took a few minutes to check out this T87 firewall mount. First, we needed to chop off two legs sticking out on the back. Then I noticed that if you cut this little alignment tab, you can flip the TCM 180 inside the mount. That doubles our mounting options..

Then I headed off to the local carlot to test fit, and they were closed. So back at it tomorrow..

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kidturbo

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To celebrate those pioneers who came before, I purposely bricked a brand new out of the bag HPT unlocked T87A today. It looks recoverable, just not with EFIlive. And not sure my MDI is still functional..

Was attempting to hot swap OS versions as done on the T87, and powered it down between operations by accident. Now it fails on any OS recovery...

So I was gonna crack it open, but a buddy said he'd trade me another good to go model. Then I remembered I had this 2017 87A I picked up last week. Figure that would be a fine year to peak inside of anyways.

T87 on the left, T87A on the right.
Processors are identical, but some other layout pieces are new.

BTW, that T87 I hacked outa the case, it's still
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kidturbo

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The T50 adapter is finally what I would call fit for production. However, it's down to printing techniques and material. While some of this MLA and SLA stuff looks like it fell right outa Solidworks, it shatters when it hits the ground. And tend to melt at engine room temperatures.

Nylons are looking much better, but tend to warp during printing. But I'm thinking we can tweak the compound a bit and come up with something OEM quality pretty easily from here.

So a quick call out to any members who might play with plastics more than I for some suggestions. The mating side is injection molded >PPE+PA-GF10< . Which seems to spec out very well, but can ya print it? GM also used some PA66 on bail connector which looks tough as nails. On the other hand, I see the Ford EcoBoost valve covers are a PA-GF40, which looked good for about a decade before they all crack in normal use. I'm open to any insights here..

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2004LB7

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If you want heat resistance, you want Polybenzimidazole 😁

The issue you are going to find is higher heat resistant plastics are also going to require more heat to print with which will likely result in more warpage. I'd try and figure out what's going on with your nylon prints and see if that can be tuned to work before investing in another plastic. And as we talked about before maybe try out 10% glass to improve impact resistance at the expense of rigidity. I don't have any experience with 3D printing so I may be talking out of my a$$
 
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kidturbo

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I did a quick chemical test on the MJF Nylon version, and like it a lot. Gave it a good soaking in all the most likely things it could see under a hood, and srayed it off with brake clean. Passed with flying colors.

The cost for US base MFJ printing is considerably higher, but the choice of materials is better. So we submitted an order for a few more out of different nylon mixes to make the final call. So hopefully in 10 days or less, I can hook up a couple beta testers I owe a ride..

PS. That edge was warped on connector in pics before the chemical bath..

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