Im going to put Allison’s in a couple of my dump trucks That have standard transmissions at the moment. I posted on here earlier about a stand alone harness but believe I have that taken care of now. The next issue is getting the right flex plate and ring gear with adapter. I have been looking for used ones with zero luck so I may have to get new ones or at least if I had the numbers of whit I needed it might be easier to come up with used ones. If anyone could help me with the correct numbers that would be very helpful. I need the transmission adaption kit number and the engine adaption kit number and would like a break down of the parts included with numbers if at all Possible. I have called Allison and they are less than helpful unless you are a distributor. They just give you the number of your closest distributor who really doesn’t have the time or desire understandably so to help. I’m wanting to put a rds4500 behind a 2000 cat c15 in a kenworth the second is an Rds4500 behind a 1999 Cummins n14. Any help at all would be appreciated. Also I’m going gen 4 electrical pre prognostic which is 2006 to sometime in 2009 i believe. I could use a shifter keypad number that works with the gen 4 Pre prognostic.
Have you tried calling Weller's remanufcaturing? I had issues with an Allison a while back and they were incredibly helpful, especially since I was buying the parts from them. 1-800-872-6697, ask for Joel. Any of the folks there are good, but I worked with Joel on my issue. I also discussed converting one of our forage trucks to an Allison and he sounded fairly informative on what we needed. We didn't convert our truck though, it had other issues and we opted to upgrade instead.
Really can't help you with part numbers, but this should help you with the gen 4 operational. file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Allison%20Transmission%20TS3989EN%20Troubleshooting%20Manual.pdf
On a cummins 8.3 I went the other direction, from automatic to standard transmission, when repoweriing some equipment. There are two different flywheel housings for the 8.3, one for automatics, one for standard. Automatics have a deeper flywheel housing to account for the torque converter. I would guess the same to be true for the larger engines. So you will likely have to find the deeper adaptors for the engines. A good resource would be a shop that works on buses. Like the big tour busses. They have been running allisons for a long time.
I just want to know why you want to replace standard with auto?
You & me both brother. Manual transmission to AMT I could understand. Manual to automatic not so much.
I think converter and clutch (Allison) are far superior in soft ground, steep hills, etc. to anything direct drive. If it was up to me, I would only use standard shift for long haul. I have never used an AMT but all I hear is complaints about them in local work.
AMT's can have three modes-manual, performance and economy,
Most complaints I’ve heard about AMTs is from drivers who had no idea whatsoever how to drive one.
That's a fact.
I guess Im just old school. I learned to drive on a standard and have always preferred them.
So am I, but the great thing about the AMT is it gives you the option to drive it in manual or automatic mode - and a few other modes as well.
But I HAVE to have that super stiff clutch z-bar link set-up to feel like I'm driving a standard. That's why my left leg is bigger than my right.
The advantages I am talking about are inching around using the converter and not having to be burning a clutch. Be it manual or automatic. That plus the first few upshifts when trying to take off uphill. Frequently around here the truck comes to a stop before the engine RPM can drop enough to get into the next gear. Allison transmissions do not have that problem.
With manual mode on the AMT you can tap the button on the stalk and it up shifts fast on a incline.
what about off-road, soft ground and fully loaded?
I just don't understand what would make an AMT preferable to an Allison. The Allison eliminates the clutch which is a constant source of headaches. Plus it has been around forever and is well understood, while the AMT can tend to be somewhat proprietary and strange.
All 3 types will give you problems for sure, but I lean towards the Allison as well. On the newer Gen 4 and 5 models im having trouble in the 80 pin connectors being insufficient and not robust enough for gravel truck app. When you have to measure "pin drag" in a connector thats getting to be a little much. Just my 4 cents (inflation).
an allison in a tandem silage truck worked better on a short haul compared to any of the other standard trucks we used to run over the years. plus, we could put a 16 year old kid( boy or girl ) in it and only spend a minimal amount of training time. 6V53 with an MT650. noisy but it got the job done
For hauling asphalt and loading millings most everyone around here is buying new trucks with Allison’s. One of my trucks was an auto shift when I bought it and I liked it when it worked but not so much when it wouldn’t shift with a load of asphalt on. It also wouldn’t shift when they were pushing you with the asphalt buggy unless they slowed down or stopped. They weren’t fans of that and got a little cranky. I converted that transmission to a manual 18 about 5 years ago and it’s worked great. However there aren’t enough drivers around here and for sure not enough that can drive a manual well. Plus after riding the clutch all day or night in front of the milling machine my knee gets to killing me. Sucks getting old. So I’m going to put an auto in one of my trucks and if I like it convert the others if not I’ll wish I hadn’t and mark it up to not one of my greatest ideas. Thanks for the weller suggestion I’m Going to call them next week.
I do not have much experience with dumps but I bet asphalt work is about the thing that Allisons were made for, you can creep at any speed for as long as you want and no clutch to burn up.
Vanderhaag's, LKQ and alderman's are big players in the junkyard game. I would think a wrecked donor would be cheaper and easier than just trying to buy all new. Busses and garbage trucks. And just as a aside. I've always had manual transmissions. In the last two years I've acquired two cranes that are torque converter automatics, one allison, one ZF. I live in a hilly little corner of the state, lots of short steep hills, some with stoplights half way up them. The automatics are really really nice for that. The manual is dirt simple and can last the miles that over the road trucks put on. But CM1995 really liked the allison he had, and I took the plunge on one and its working out pretty good. I'm sure I won't like them when something quits working, its hard to beat a manual because there's so little to go wrong. I could see the auto in front of a milling machine being a great application.
All things being equal I think that less goes wrong when using an Allison in a steep, stop light infested, residential or off road type area. With a Roadranger the driver is always getting frustrated trying to make shifts as fast as humanly possible and that leads to other problems. Worn out clutches, broken drive shaft parts, twisted shafts in the transmission, worn and bent shift forks, did I miss anything? One of my pet peeves was always the range box. They did not seem to like going from high to low while in motion very quickly or predictably, especially on a 10 speed where the step is so far. I suspect that Fuller did not consider it much of a problem because when out on the highway you mostly only ever do it at a stop light while already stopped. But when climbing a muddy hill in 6th gear and you would rather be in 5th (10 speed) or 4th, the range box often could not complete the shift before the truck ground to a stop, or your lever movement would beat the range box, and leave you in neutral because of the synchro protection thingy. None of those problems with an Allison, it bangs into whatever gear you want it to be in.
Beware if you buy a older Allison that did duty in salt ridden roads. I have had two in my old 1978 Ford single axle gravel truck. Both corrioded right thru the rear section of the aluminum body. Plan on drilling out every bolt if you need to take the pan off.
Old iron, I don't know if the salt problem is just limited to Allisons. They use so much salt anymore its unbelievable.