Supplemental Harness Install on AOD-E/4R70W
Recently finished installing the new Pro-M supplemental harness on my AOD-E '95 Mustang GT. Just thought I would post a little review and my experience so far with it plus do a brief comparison with the Baumann/US Shift Quick 1 controller I was using. Some of the info listed below was already mentioned in this thread, but I will also list a few side notes about minor things to be aware of during the install.
The supplemental harness is made up of two sections, the actual supplemental harness and transmission harness. Upon first receiving the package the supplemental harness came unwrapped but did include all necessary wire loom, harness wrap, instructions and speed sensor signal booster. The transmission harness was already in it's own wire loom. Also received a new calibration file and latest version of the Pro-M calibration tool.
Instructions for the wiring harness was pretty straight forward and easy to understand. Transmission harness itself was a plug-in and play deal but the supplemental harness will require connecting a few terminated and unterminated wires to the connectors located in passenger side kick panel, at both 50 and 70 pin ECU connectors and at connector in passenger side fenderwell that plugs into transmission harness.
Just a side note.. If not comfortable with doing connections such as just mentioned it my be a good idea to seek help from someone who is more experienced in this area..
Calibration tool is just how it was in the past but there are some new features and folders that current users will have to become familiar with. After using it a couple times I was able to navigate through and find necessary variables and folders needed just as I did before. There are now three user settings; Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. "Beginner" setting will offer the least amount of navigation with only basic variables to choose from while "Advanced" setting offers access to everything in the system (pretty much just like having the current calibration tool). Personally I like the new calibration tool a little better than the older/current version. Only thing I would miss is the dot matrix gauge option which is now gone:crying2:.
The installation went well but did require some time and patience to get everything done right. This will not be a quick install by any means. Passenger side seat will have to come out, will need access to passenger side kick panel and fenderwell plus good access under car to replace transmission harness.
Just another side note.. If car is an auto it may be a good idea to remove the exhaust midpipe to gain access to the plugs of transmission harness unless you have really small hands, trying to reach around exhaust pipes to disconnect and remove the old harness can be a challenge.. on Autos the VSS will not be used anymore for a signal to speedometer, that will now have a signal from the Pro-M EFI computer. What's nice about this is the speedometer can now be adjusted within .5mph of accuracy by adjusting the rear tire circumference size in the calibration. If using the earlier AOD-E on '94-'95 Mustangs the pan will have to be dropped and the torque converter clutch solenoid be replaced by a high impedance solenoid found on the 1996 and up 4R70W (ford part number F5AZ-7G136-A). This will add additional time to the installation if not done already. This was also the case with the US Shift controller, so I had done this already.
The wiring was pretty straight forward but patience is a virtue here. One minor issue I ran into when inserting the terminals from the new harness into the plug that connects to the transmission harness in fenderwell, was the slot for the tan wire (reverse lock-out) was blank at the back side of connector. I had to drill that slot out to insert the terminal. This was pretty easy though, I started off with a 1/8" bit but finished off with a 9/64" bit. After slot is drilled out there will be a small black plastic pin that should fall out from the front side of connector. Connector was cleaned off, terminal inserted and locked in with no issues.
Another side note.. be careful not to drill too far into connector otherwise the portion where terminal gets locked inside can get damaged, just an opening for the terminal needs to be made.. Drilling out this blank spot is optional being the "reverse lockout" is for T-56 transmissions only.
There is an optional unterminated light green wire in the harness used for controlling a dedicated relay for powering the wideband O2 sensors. At first I didn't choose to use this wire and capped it off, but after a brief conversation with Chris at Pro-M about it's purpose I went ahead and wired it up to a relay. Using this option makes the widebands only power up with KOER opposed to being powered with KOEO. I also chose to go with the optional Manual Shift Harness that plugs into the supplemental harness. Using this option will give the user the ability to manually paddle shift using the cruise control buttons on the steering wheel. You can choose whatever pair of cruise buttons you'd like to shift up and down.
Before start-up I went over calibration and read through the instructions that came with it. This is very important because it stresses on treating the installation as a new install. There are certain things that has to be ENABLED/DISABLED in calibration, also there will be a new idle procedure that has to be done once car is started and up to temp. Instructions should be read through from start to finish, I have to admit I did find myself at first starting to browse through certain things because a lot was already done when I first installed the EFI system a few years back, but there are new things that was added to original instructions the user should know about. I caught myself and went back to the beginning
. There was instructions sent for the new Auto Controls as well.
After car was started and up to temp. the idle procedure was the first thing done. It was very simple.
Just a side note.. follow along with the idle procedure in instructions, it's a little different from what we're all used to back in the day with the old stock computers.. After all necessary variables was checked it was time for the first drive. I noticed right away the car felt nice and strong putting it into gear which was something I kind of fought with before where when putting into gear the rpms kind of bogged down a bit. The car also shifted much smoother than it did with the Quick 1 (my AOD-E does have a moderate level shift kit that I used with the Quick 1 controller and still currently using with the new Pro-M auto controls). As car got to faster speeds it still felt really nice, I noticed it wasn't so eager to shift into overdrive right away which was nice. The manual shifting was also nice to have and worked well.
For comparison between the US Shift Quick 1 controller and Pro-M auto controls, they both work well. They both have the ability to adjust shift points, line pressures, enter differential ratios and such. Want to point out that my driving with both was with base tunes each system comes with. After my experience with both, I really like that the Pro-M auto controls can take advantage of the idle air controller and adaptive strategies within the engine management system where as the Quick 1 controller is only limited to a connection from the throttle position sensor and didn't work in conjunction with the EFI system. Will be driving car more over the next few weeks to allow the adaptive strategies in the new calibration write it's tables.
I hope this review was informative and help out anyone with the installation of the supplemental harness and the new Pro-M auto controls.
Cheers :wink2:.