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I'm not in the designer's head so I can only speculate. I suspect it's able to be turned off in case it acts up or needs to be serviced, just like the air suspension system.
In a nutshell, Torque Modulation is simply varying the shift points to increase or decrease torque for the load at hand.
Torque modulation is the PCM's ability to alter the torque output of the engine,and has absolutely nothing to do with the shift points themselves.
On the pre drive-by-wire vehicles, it involved manipulation of the spark advance to decrease the torque output the engine during shifts, and on the drive-by wire vehicles it manipulates the actual throttle angle to decrease the torque output of the engine during shifts.
JL
Whether spark advance is varied, throttle angle is manipulated, or little hamsters start running on the serpentine belt, the result is the same; the shift point changes along with the output torque.
Ok...can anyone tell me how to set the torque modulation with a hand-held tuner that is good for towing?
For the most part, torque modulation is for nothing more than the reduction of NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness), and is not necessary. Now, with that said, in some applications,it is necessary for the equipment to survive(typically turbodiesel applications).I'd turn it off completely for the 5.4L and 6.8L applications with no worries at all.There is a right way and wrong way to do this,and how it's accomplished is depending on what actual parameters your handheld tuner changes.
JL
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