Data and Observations Page

Shifter Travel Chart

1. It takes about 10ms for the actuator to start moving once the solenoid is actuated.
2. Shifts in lower gears take longer, this is most likely due to the larger difference in RPM that needs to change for gear shift dogs to align.
3. In first gear the travel slows considerably waiting for gear shift dogs to align.  What motion is recorded while the curve is in the flattened area could be deflection of the entire shift system as the pressure continues building in the actuator and the string pot ‘catching up’.
4. In high gear the travel path is almost straight, but not quite.  These high gear shifts had fuel cutoff times around 30ms, there doesn’t seem to be a significant performance advantage to delaying the engine kill to build up actuator pressure when ‘no lift’ shifting the car, this would likely lead to higher forces and increased wear as the gear shift dogs are trying to engage during the RPM drop for the lower gears. 

Voltage Plots from Data System

1. First plot shows 5 shifts in sequence, system had a timing circuit that held the upshift actuator solenoid engaged for 300ms, this device overcame some gear jumping issues most like associated to a worn and abused gear box and possibly an inperceptable ECU hiccup that might have caused momentary driveline unloading at the end of the shift event.  Whatever the cause of the jumping out of 2nd gear, this holding open the upshift solenoid completely eliminated it and is leading to my developing a commercially available circuit .
2. The green line indicates the travel of the cylinder and the red line indicates voltage to the upshift actuator circuit. The blue line in the plot is an inverse of the voltage applied to the injectors, the no lift system in this application killed engine power by removing the positive feed to the injectors when the upshift solenoid was actuated and then re establishing the injector power feed when a limit switch was actuated by the shift lever ending its travel.  Most ECU injection systems have a positive voltage source to the injectors and then control the injection events by grounding the injectors through the ECU.  I have personally used this sytem on Haltec F9 and Electromotive systems. As I get feed back from other people I’ll add that information
3. the no lift system in this application used a mechanical 30 amp relay in the normally closed circuit.  The relay actuating coil is energized when the upshift solenoid is actuated and then deactivated when a limit switch is actuated by the shift lever ending its travel.
4. The shift times for this system are determined by the amount of time the injectors do not have a voltage feed which had typically been 50-60ms in first gear, decreasing to 30-40ms in 4th gear.   Any time that the voltage is applied to the injectors it is assumed that the engine is making power.  In theory the ECU would not or should not notice that the power has been removed from the injector.
5. The time for the mechanical relay to drop the injector voltage is consistenly around 5ms.
6. This mechanical relay circuit should have no problem passing the SCCA ‘No electronics’ rule.