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Newell Gurus
Allison Key Pad Cateyes - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Allison Key Pad Cateyes (/showthread.php?tid=8917)


Allison Key Pad Cateyes - Poweron - 04-15-2026

Had a little scare on our way to Richmond, VA. Taking I81 which is hilly as heck. Just outside Roanoke, the Allison keypad starts dinging and then goes blank, except for two vertical division signs. None of the buttons work. Automatically assumed in my panic that it was stuck in 6th.  I was afraid it would bog down exiting 81.   So, I did what any other 1999 Newell owner would do….call Richard of course. He corrected my description and told me those were called Cateyes and I was screwed. Ok not exactly. He agreed with my decision to not stop until I found a safe spot. Our planned campground was out in Buchanon (back in site). I decided to press on to Richmond. I knew worst case there’s a decent Allison service place. Not stopping brought about an interesting issue to a 60 plus guy that loves coffee and needed a bathroom. I sacrificed a couple bicycle water bottles as my wife relayed them to the bathroom. I decided to do a trial run coming to a stop in a rest stop. Luckily it downshifted and went back up again leaving the parking lot. Arrived at the Allison dealer after closing. Parked, shut it off and began diagnosing based on Richard’s suggestion. Spot on as usual. I plugged and reseated the plug on the back of the pad and on the TCM. started the coach and the pad came back to life. I looked up how to check codes with the pad (Richard) and it threw a 2312:  shift selector or cable fault to TCM, Cateyes may display. Since we had a long way to go on this trip, I decided to have their tech do a diagnostic the next morning. They basically found exactly what Richard said in between telling me none of these parts (keypad, TCM) were in stock. Too old. We cleared the code and I thanked them by scratching out a $450 check, that hurt. So I left still afraid it will happen again and looking up where I can send the computer and keypad for rebuild just in case. I’ve attached their diagnostic sheet if that helps. 50 miles so far and it’s working fine!  Fingers crossed. 
   

RE: Allison Key Pad Cateyes - Richard - 04-15-2026

Thank you for the update. I was wondering if you slept on the side of the road or made it safely. Glad I could help.

The boys over on the Wanderlodge forum have a shop they use for keypads. Jeff may know.

I might take my chances to see if it occurs again since a simple plug and unplug was the cure.

RE: Allison Key Pad Cateyes - markkitch - 04-15-2026

I had the TCM on my wanderlodge rebuilt by these guys, maybe 7 or 8 years ago, it was a bit cheaper back then, around $500. I dropped it off and picked it up two days later. Maybe this helps: https://goecm.com/pages/product-result?rq=yr_2003%7Emk_detroit-diesel%7Emd_ddeciv%7Ewp_ecm

RE: Allison Key Pad Cateyes - Poweron - 04-15-2026

Appreciate that. I’ll take a look at that site. Richard, hoping the plug seating did the trick. Thanks again for talking me off the ledge.

RE: Allison Key Pad Cateyes - Johnnyboy - 04-16-2026

I have had this issue on other coaches, more than 3 times in my coach ownership life. One trick is to take a hairdryer and warm the Allison TCM box. If this persists send it to Transmission Instruments is Texas. Around $600 for repair, capacitors go bad in these boxes. If you go to Allison they will sell you a rebuilt box for $3500.

https://www.transmissioninstruments.com/

RE: Allison Key Pad Cateyes - [email protected] - 04-16-2026

(04-15-2026, 01:14 PM)Richard Wrote:  Thank you for the update. I was wondering if you slept on the side of the road or made it safely. Glad I could help.

The boys over on the Wanderlodge forum have a shop they use for keypads. Jeff may know.

I might take my chances to see if it occurs again since a simple plug and unplug was the cure.

Cannot say I know of someone specific other than one of the members Andy who has been doing mainly DDEC ECM work. I know he has become a DDEC expert, but I think the TCM stuff is a bit more difficult, especially programming.