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Detroit Allison shifter

4digger

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Hello. Wondering if anybody would be able to help me out with a wireing diagram of the Detroit Allison 24v electric manual shifter for a allusion 6-5000 series trans. Long story short the old shifter went bad and we were to find a replacement but I think it might have been reconfigured. Any info is greatly appreciated.
 

kshansen

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Hello. Wondering if anybody would be able to help me out with a wireing diagram of the Detroit Allison 24v electric manual shifter for a allusion 6-5000 series trans. Long story short the old shifter went bad and we were to find a replacement but I think it might have been reconfigured. Any info is greatly appreciated.
Dam you're about five years too late! Where I retired from back in 2015 we had several trucks with those transmissions. We had a test box that you could attach to the shift tower and go through each gear step by step and check all the switches to know if one or more was not activating when it should. It would also test the coil for the downshift block-out solenoid and even the light bulb for night running.

You could also plug it into the cable to the transmission and test the solenoid valves in the valve body and then connect it direct to the valve body and test again to confirm the problem was not in the harness! Might take half an hour to go through all the tests!

Trying to remember if there were 8 or ten micro switches in the shift tower. I know many times I would disassemble them and replace the switches. One time we ordered a new switch assembly and the price was outrageous! I did some searching and found I could but the individual micro switches from Graingers for some thing like $1.50 each and in less than an hour replace them all and 95% of the time have a like new switch assembly for less than $50.00 when I think a switch assembly went for $500.00 from Allison!

One thing you need to be careful of is Allison used the same basic shift tower on many different transmissions from the 5000 series up to the 8000 series. Problem is the cam in the various switches were different and also the way the various micro switches were connected inside the shift tower. So even though on the outside they looked identical and would hook up to harness they would not work.

One more thing that can bite you is the solenoids in the control valve besides being different from 12 volt to 24 volt systems at least back in the 1990s or so there were some that were polarity sensitive. In other words if you swapped a transmission from a negative ground truck into one with positive ground depending on the age of the solenoids they might not work even though everything else in the transmission was identical. And trying to get answers on that from Allison at least back then was like trying to get the launch codes for a nuclear missile!

Depending on how things go the next couple days I might try contacting my old boss to see if there is a chance he would let me borrow some old books assuming they have not been tossed out since I retired. I don't think anyone still working there would have the faintest idea of what a CLBT5860 Allison was they went pretty heavy over to Cat equipment that last ten years I was there.

Have you tried searching online to see if anyone on Ebay is selling a 5000/6000 Allison service manual?
 

kshansen

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4digger,

I did find a manual online so if you could go to the "Start a Conversation" and give me an email address I could forward it to you the secion on the shift control stats on page 154. It is a large file in PDF so don't think I could attach it here!

Ken in NY
 

4digger

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Thanks for the info kshanson. We’ve been having trouble with this truck for a while. It was equipped with the atec system but could never get the truck to move. So we decided to convert it to electric manual 24v system. We have a book for that setup as well. So when we did the test in the trans plug the sequence was way off. Long story short we tried to correct it but now the sequence is worse off than before. I tryed doing a search and looking in the book for a scamatic to try and put the wireing back to factory settings. But no luck. Doesn’t seem to be much info on the shifter itself.
 

kshansen

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Have to say not familiar with atec system.

Attached in the diagram out of the service manual I found that shows how to wire the solenoids in the control valve:
solenoid body.JPG

And here is what I find on the manual shift control in the service manual, see attached PDF:
 

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  • shift control info.pdf
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4digger

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Hey Ken. I appreciate your your efforts. The Allison Service manual illustrates the same diagram. We tried to get the shifter lined up with the solenoid pattern at first by switching the wires at the micro switches on the shifter. From there things went completely off course. Right now for all the gears the wrong solenoids engage. So we’re desperately trying to find a way to correct all the wireing at the micro switches.
 

kshansen

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Are the micro switches numbered in the controller? I have the wiring diagram but it does not tell me which switch is which.
switch wiring diagram.JPG

I'm thinking that if it is an OEM switch assembly there should be numbers telling you 1 through 8 on the individual micro switches. Now if someone had done like I did and disassembled the switch assembly and replaced the micro switches with generic micro switches they may not have labeled them and that would be a problem!

Also not that some shift towers have 10 micro switches, those are the towers for the "Automatic" shift systems for the manual shift you would only have the 8 micro switches!
 

4digger

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Wow. I believe that’s exactly what I have. My shifters got 8 micro switches numbered 1-8. I’m gonna look at my shifter later on today. I really appreciate it, I was starting to lose hope here.
 

kshansen

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Wow. I believe that’s exactly what I have. My shifters got 8 micro switches numbered 1-8. I’m gonna look at my shifter later on today. I really appreciate it, I was starting to lose hope here.
Just be careful when reading the letters on that 16 pin connector I know they are a bit small markings and sometimes hard to be sure which pin the letter is for! N ote that the "H" and "I" sockets are not used so that can help you be sure of the others.

PS forget if you ever mentioned what this transmission was in?
 

4digger

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Hey Ken. I tinkered with it for a little bit yesterday.had a lot off wires out of place. Have to go thru and double check. We’re mating the shifter to a terex 3307 off road haul truck with the Allison clbt6952 that was an atec system. We’re hoping this does the trick. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks
Thanks.
 

kshansen

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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Hey Ken. I tinkered with it for a little bit yesterday.had a lot off wires out of place. Have to go thru and double check. We’re mating the shifter to a terex 3307 off road haul truck with the Allison clbt6952 that was an atec system. We’re hoping this does the trick. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks
Thanks.
Closest thing to that I worked on was a Terex R35B. Yea, I know if you talk to Terex people they will say "no such thing never made a R35B" you must mean a Euclid! Well we had three of them brand new built in Brazil! They were close to the old 74TD/R35 Euclids we also had but just enough different to at times be a real pain! We got them in 1983 think the last one went to auction in 2011.

Sad thing is the truck was still usable but engine was in need of work. What really hurt was I learned after truck was loaded on trailer to leave the new owner took a torch and cut the front wheels off to get height down. When My boss asked why they would do that he was told all we want is the transmission the rest is going to scrap yard!

Not one of ours but found a short video of a R35B, does look just like the ones we had, but does not smoke like the last one did!
 

4digger

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Hey Ken. Tinkered with the shifter and schematic over the weekend. Was able to get the wireing back to factory configuration. Now I have the correct solenoids engaging in each selection. Now just have to get everything on the truck and try it. Will keep you posted. Thanks for the help!
 

kshansen

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Hey Ken. Tinkered with the shifter and schematic over the weekend. Was able to get the wireing back to factory configuration. Now I have the correct solenoids engaging in each selection. Now just have to get everything on the truck and try it. Will keep you posted. Thanks for the help!
Got fingers crossed, hope it works once on truck!

Not sure if you have more than one truck with one of these Allisons but building a shifter tester would be a good project if you have any spare time, like a mechanic knows what that is!

It works a bit different than the device we had but should work just as good. Many of the parts needed you may have or could get from the local NAPA store. I'm attaching the pages out of the manual that shows the diagram.
 

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  • Allison shifter tester tool.pdf
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4digger

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Hey Ken. Just wanted to share the out come. Got the shifter on the truck, but for some reason we burned up a couple more micro switches. I think the shifter cam was out of sync.. We switched them out reinstalled shifter and everything seems to be working properly. I appreciate your help and insight on this. It was a big help.
 

kshansen

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Location
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Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Hey Ken. Just wanted to share the out come. Got the shifter on the truck, but for some reason we burned up a couple more micro switches. I think the shifter cam was out of sync.. We switched them out reinstalled shifter and everything seems to be working properly. I appreciate your help and insight on this. It was a big help.
That's great how about uploading a short video of the truck driving past goin' through the gears?
 
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