545rfe ?s

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billshotrod

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I am going to be using a standalone ecm in my car and would like to use a 545rfe. What options do I have to control the transmission?
Thanks Bill
 
Good question! I'm not too sure the aftermarket has a stand alone controller for the 545rfe trans, but if there is, someone on here will chime in.
 
I don't know of anyone who specifically supports the 545 RFE transmission. I do know that the makers of Megasquirt a DIY ECM for fuel injection also make a DIY transmission controller.

No one has yet used one to control a 545 although there is a guy in the process of getting one to work behind a 47RE. I do not know if the transmissions are similar, but at least it may help get you started.

http://www.msgpio.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25

http://www.msgpio.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=125

http://www.msgpio.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24

Hope it helps.

Regards,

Joe Dokes
 
I have spent alot of hours looking for this. I have found no one that makes one. I was told TCI did, I called it is not even on there radar.
 
The guy I talked to here in austin runs a 545 in a dirt truck and told me to get a TCM from a 2002 Jeep grand Cherokee. they are stand alone and he said it could be flashed to shift the tranny as needed. We'll see.
Andrew
 
All these years later has anything changed on stand alone 545RFE controllers. Someone give me some good news
 
moparspares said:
All these years later has anything changed on stand alone 545RFE controllers. Someone give me some good news
Click to expand...
Call Chris at Hotwire! He has exactly what your looking for, He makes custom harnesses that utilize the 545rfe trans that use oem control units.
 
I will try him. I have looked at there site before. The problem I am having is I have a 2004 5.7 Hemi which I believe came from a Ram but didnt get ECU or harness. I then have a 45RFE from a 99-01 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.7 that came with its own TCU (56041814AD).

I did Email another company several times Modern Muscle Performance about a harness and a ECU using my trans and controller but they never bothered to get back to me. I would just like some questions answered like which ECU I should use so it will work with the TCU I have before I go ahead and buy a harness. Just want to be sure it will all work together before I start shelling out.

Also they guy I bought the trans from said it was flashed to unlock the extra gear so essentially it should be a 545RFE. Pic of Trans controller attached.

56041814AD.jpg
 
I talked to Chris at Hotwire a few years ago about my needs for a harness. I have a 2006 5.7 Hemi from a car, and a 2007 545RFE from a Chrysler Aspen (fancy Durango). He said that wouldn't be a problem, and could supply a harness and a factory ECM that would control both. He said I could add an aftermarket tuner to it that would allow me to control the tune of the motor, and also adjust the shift points of the transmission. At the time, he was working on a way to make cruise control work...so that is why I held off buying, as I want cruise. I'm going to call him next week and see if he's coming to the Mopar Nationals, and if so will he bring me a harness.
 
You can get an ECM out of a junk yard for $75 bucks 2005 truck will not have to be flashed I have bought several here at home for guys doing the swap with no problems. Mine was an 04 with 545 if you can't find one let me know.
 
They say the 05 because it can be tuned easier. I ran the 04 ECM for 2 years with no problems.
 
I have a TCM out of a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee in the shed and it will give the 45RFE the extra gear (545RFE). They are the same trans and yes I did test this. At the time I used it in my 2002 Dakota with the 4.7. I don't see any reason you couldn't use the 2003 Ram controller or the jeep controller to stand alone control the transmission as long as you give it the appropriate inputs. If using a G3 Hemi with it, then just get a hotwire harness setup to run an 05 PCM. The 05 has some trans tuning functionality the 04 does not support. 03 used a dual setup that had one for the engine and one for the transmission. There is probably a way to make that operate regardless of which engine is in front of it.

In all honesty, unless the engine is stock I would stay away from the 545 or have it built to handle more. Several guys have put 6.1's in front of them only to kill the trans pretty quick. So if at any point you want to go to a performance build you may want to investigate this.
 
kb67mopar said:
In all honesty, unless the engine is stock I would stay away from the 545 or have it built to handle more. Several guys have put 6.1's in front of them only to kill the trans pretty quick. So if at any point you want to go to a performance build you may want to investigate this.
Click to expand...

I the 545 is not so good, what would you reccomend? nagi is a nightmare from what I've read....
I'm trying to put together a 5.7 setup and trying to learn the easiest way to get power to the rear wheels
 
If you are building a driver there is absolutely nothing wrong with 545 there are trucks out there with 350k on them I drive mine like a madman gone 2600 miles in 3 day trip driven it to the east coast and west coast in my barracuda easy setup.
 
Teqsand said:
I the 545 is not so good, what would you reccomend? nagi is a nightmare from what I've read....
I'm trying to put together a 5.7 setup and trying to learn the easiest way to get power to the rear wheels
Click to expand...
Nobody is saying its a bad transmission. But in stock form it doesn't hold up well to a 6.1L's output. You could talk to a transmission builder about performance options to help it hold the power output or find another alternative. But for me, I'd never put an auto in my car...
 
There has GOT to be a way.............megasquirt, etc, to control one of those. "All we need" is a Mopar guy who writes programming
 
67Dart273 said:
There has GOT to be a way.............megasquirt, etc, to control one of those. "All we need" is a Mopar guy who writes programming
Click to expand...
I don't think we were talking about the controller side of it. We were discussing its ability to hold up to the power demand of a 6.1. I believe people have done stand alone controllers.
 
A little bit off subject , but not, if not the 545rfe then ? I'm going to use the 545rfe with my 6.4l and Hot wire took care of the harness issue(s). So the question that never seems to get answered is what is or would be the preferred (auto) transmission? Everything I read said the NAG-1 is a poor choice, use the 545rfe. Some where I read the 545rfe is nothing more than a 727 with overdrive, so unless you're flogging the crap out out of your car the 545rfe should be fine.

The good news is if you have a tunnel for the 545rfe everything else will fit.
 
retroron said:
Some where I read the 545rfe is nothing more than a 727 with overdrive, .
Click to expand...

No, that's the A518/ 40x series RE/ RH. The 545 is nothing at all like the 727 in any way. Someone above posted, and I've read this before, that the only difference between a 545 "5 speed" and "6 speed" is the programming in the ECU. The 545 is ALL electronically shifted from an external controller
 
Am confused over this all. Am going to try to use a 500 and keep it simple. Can't seem to find out info as to engine/ tranny connection. Which flex plate flywheel works with this combo.
 
moparspares said:
I did Email another company several times Modern Muscle Performance about a harness and a ECU using my trans and controller but they never bothered to get back to me.View attachment 1715069937
Click to expand...

I sent a message to David at Modern Muscle to ask about getting installation instructions (if there were any) that comes with his kits for the Hemi swap because I had two shops work on my 6.1 hemi/545rfe swap into my Duster. I was having some issues and if there were some install instructions I could use that to go back over what was done to make sure stuff was correct... Never got a response. So had to take a lot of time to figure stuff out by going over everything.

kb67mopar said:
In all honesty, unless the engine is stock I would stay away from the 545 or have it built to handle more. Several guys have put 6.1's in front of them only to kill the trans pretty quick. So if at any point you want to go to a performance build you may want to investigate this.
Click to expand...

Teqsand said:
I the 545 is not so good, what would you reccomend?
Click to expand...

With my swap I have about 800 miles on my 6.1/545RFE/8.25 rear with 2.73 gears. Going along with kb67mopar was stating... If you are going to look to be hard on the car, hard acceleration, do burnouts, and what not yeah you most likely will kill the 545RFE. Yet it would seem if you are looking to do more casual driving/cruising, That tranny will do you just fine as it has for me. I love the five speeds and overdrive. I cruise at 60 mph at about 1500 rpm and my Duster is a great hwy car.
 
Korican said:
With my swap I have about 800 miles on my 6.1/545RFE/8.25 rear with 2.73 gears. Going along with kb67mopar was stating... If you are going to look to be hard on the car, hard acceleration, do burnouts, and what not yeah you most likely will kill the 545RFE. Yet it would seem if you are looking to do more casual driving/cruising, That tranny will do you just fine as it has for me. I love the five speeds and overdrive. I cruise at 60 mph at about 1500 rpm and my Duster is a great hwy car.
Click to expand...

Actually when she goes into overdrive I can get to 80 mph with still being at around 1500 RPM as shown via my Dakota Digital gauge.

IMG_2874.JPG
 
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