A Mystery Story: "The Ghost of SkipShift Past"

[formula_gramps]

O.K......some may think I have lost my mind. Naturally, I can't be the best judge of that, because if it were true I'd likely be the last to know.

Going back about 15 years ago now, when I bought my 94 Formula, I remember vividly taking one out for a test drive. Obviously, I fell in love with the car and ordered one.

When I got my car, I immediately noticed a problem with shifting. What the heck was this nonsense of it not allowing me into second gear from first? Well, I consulted the manual and discovered all about the wonders of the GM Skip Shift. Are they kidding?, I thought!

It was less than a week later I called the dealer and said I want to disable this feature if possible, as I considered the car undrivable in some circumstances. I explained to them that people don't elect to by a high performance car so they can have software in a chip designed by a treehugger tell them what gear they need to be in!!!! They protested at first, but when I threatened to bring the car back, especially since I knew they had it disabled on the test drive vehicle, they finally saw it my way.

So......here I am, after 15 years of shifting bliss, and when I went out for a drive yesterday--- it was back!!!! At first I didn't believe it. But no, it is working again!

Now how the *bleep* can this be?

My understanding that to bypass the S/S on an obd2 vehicle, you substitute a resistor in the connector that normally goes to the solenoid. That makes sense. PCM still sees the load on that line and thinks everything is normal.

Mine is obd1 though, and I thought that all you had to do was simply unplug the thing. I have assumed all along that is what they did. Never had an SES light, though the skip shift lamp on the dash would light during the times it would normally be activated. I remember because it made me laugh from time to time.

I haven't been under the car yet, but I'll have a chance to get it in the air tommorrow. How on earth could this have been disabled, but then start up again by itself?

If they used the resistor method, and the resistor fell out, it still wouldn't allow the solenoid to work. It couldn't have reconnected itself!!

Does anyone know if the dealerships had ways to "program" the pcm to ignore the skip shift?

Interesting, infuriating, and mysterious--- all at the same time...

[sneitzel]

Interesting...

The skip shift was the first "mod" on my car as well.
I went for the SLP skip-shift eliminator module since it had the same nice waterproof connectors the GM plugs have.

Has anyone else been under the car at all? Someone who night have "done you a favor" by re-attaching that plug?
Oil change?
State Inspection?

[formula_gramps]

Interesting...

Has anyone else been under the car at all? Someone who night have "done you a favor" by re-attaching that plug?
Oil change?
State Inspection?

No......that's why it's the craziest thing!

No one has been under that car in a couple of months, and at that time it was me!!! And I don't know anyone who knows enough about the car to play a prank like that. If one of you guys lived around here, then I'd have someone to suspect......LOL!!!

Can't wait to get a look at this thing.

I can't help but feel it had something to do with my obd1 scanner, and when I was troubleshooting the A/c recently, and told the scanner to erase the history codes. Of course, it didn't show anything about the skip shift.

That's why I was wondering if anyone knew if the dealers had "programming option" to take that infernal gadget out of action.

[Injuneer]

My understanding that to bypass the S/S on an obd2 vehicle, you substitute a resistor in the connector that normally goes to the solenoid. That makes sense. PCM still sees the load on that line and thinks everything is normal.

Mine is obd1 though, and I thought that all you had to do was simply unplug the thing. I have assumed all along that is what they did. Never had an SES light, though the skip shift lamp on the dash would light during the times it would normally be activated. I remember because it made me laugh from time to time.

There is really no difference between OBD-I and OBD-II, except the fact that OBD-II turns on the SES light when the code for the faulty circuit sets, and OBD-I doesn't turn on the SES when DTC 84 sets. They are both disabled the same way - unplug the connector. The code can be avoided by adding the resistor.

If the "skip shift" light is still coming on when its supposed to, the function is still programmed in the PCM. I'm running a TH400 tranny, and my "skip shift" light still comes on. T56 is long gone.

Perhaps rather than unplug the connector from the solenoid, the dealer pulled the wire part way out of the connector on the PCM. Maybe he just pulled it part way out, and suddenly it moved enough to complete the circuit. If its unplugged, there is no way for it to function. Maybe he figured out some way to bugger the solenoid itself. Maybe he just put a piece of tape over the pin to interupt the circuit, and the tape wore through.

Guide to the tranny connection locations:

http://www.injuneer.com/images/photo...n/T56Conns.jpg

[Al 96 Ram Air T/A]

The first skip shift bypass I used failed after a year. When it did, the car did what yours is doing. Check the plugged-in connector on the tranny. The resistor can fail, causing your issue.

I had to replace mine...and it's been good since.

[formula_gramps]

Yup, it has to be something like that or one of the possibilities that Fred mentioned.

We had good weather today, and I was going to get the car up on the ramps but decided to use the available time to replace my window motor instead, since my driver side window hasn't worked in weeks....LOL.

Got it in o.k. with only one mishap. When I replaced the large speaker in the door I apparently had the tiny circuit board attached to the back of the speaker jammed in somewhere it wasn't supposed to be. When I tightened up the screws.....it snapped. So, out with the soldering iron to make a jumper repair. All is well now.

Nice having two operable windows again!

Probably tommorrow I''ll get under there and unplug that silly thing. But I am curious to find out how the dealer addressed the problem originally........ I don't remember ever seeing anything unplugged under there before.