AOD won't shift out of low gear. Reverse works fine, stays in low , will not shift automaticly or manualy. Just happened suddenly, no prior warning. 5.0 and tranny from a Mustang transplanted into a 82 F 100 PU, supposedly as a unit. Bought it this way, so know no prior history other than was shifting fine until a few days ago. What do I need to look for, other than the obivious fluid level check? Leaving now to go to work, will check in as soon as I can next week for posible answers.
I does sound like a throttle valve adjustment problem. If it was not hooked up or / and adjusted then you are probably looking at a rebuild. Were you driving it with the overdrive on? That makes everything worse. Good luck.
I've yet to check the tv cable. Son was driving it, had been shifting fine. I drove it a time or two, seemed fine to me. Yes, he was driving it in od, not regular drive. Didn't happen going down the road, happened after it had been sitting a few days .
Gold, Isn't that what I said? Now combine misadjusted or no TV cable and drive it in OD - It makes it a lot worse. Using the weakest link in a AOD without the TV adjusted or installed and it is a mess. My son ruined three of them that way and I took them apart - I could have stopped the distruction if I had known that he was not installing / adjusting the cable.
A little update: Finally got to check the TV cable, all still hooked up, no signs of slippage, works freely. Tranny was about 1 quart low, topped off. Truck hasn't been run since last post, so I decided to try it out after topping off fluid. Shifted through all the gears twice from a stop, then next time started off, stayed in low again, no shift. I think something must be gummed up and sticking, what say you?
Is the TV cable properly adjusted? Is it adjusted with a pressure gauge or the on-the-fly book adjustment? If it started all of a sudden perhaps you broke a second speed band...?Can you run it up to 30 in low and start letting off on the gas pedal until it shifts? (it would or should shift into high at that point.
I haven't changed the adjustment on the cable and have no idea how it was adjusted when it was installed. Was told the engine and tranny were from a "Stang and put in as a unit. As far as the shifting goes, when it won't get out of low, nothing helps. Run it wide open, let off no change. Shift manually, no change. One thing I remember my son saying is when it first starting doing this was it felt like something was locking up in the tranny. At first he thought the rear end had locked up. Said it felt like the truck was binding on something. I'm about ready to just junk the AOD and put a C4 in it.
It may be that you have some debris from wear going through or getting stuck in the valve body. If it doesn't shift to second the problem can be that the clutches for second gear have failed but that is not usually an intermittant thing. You might try having the transmission professionally flushed (pressure flushing) which is done through the cooler lines running pressurized ATF through the system until it has been cleaned. That would be the cheap fix and it might work.
Is there any way to do that at home? It's about 25 miles from here to the nearest commercial auto shop, and about 45 miles to a tranny shop. I have a air compressor, maybe rig up some kind of a pressured tank of atf to force through it?
Anything is possible. Two 30 gallon grease cans with bungs on top might be able to work. Run a 3/8" fuel line (metal) from the top of one can to the top of the other. Make sure they are air tight. Put a 5/16" fuel line (metal) on the bottom of both cans. On the rear can bring the tube up to the top of the can and then run a connector to the rear cooler fitting on the tranny. Fill the rear can with 7 gallons of type "F" ATF. Run the tube that went to the rear cooler fitting into the front can. (you have connected the cooler with the two barrels and then back into the tranny.) Start the engine and run it (Both barrels HAVE TO BE SEALED AIR TIGHT) you will pressurize the barrels and push the new fluid from the rear can into the tranny and catch the old fluid in the front tranny. You could do this in neutral with the car on the ground but I would put the car on blocks or jackstands (don't use just the jack) and run it through the gears as it was moving the new oil through the tranny. Since you have no way to tell when the rear can is getting empty put both barrels on a 2 x 12 with a log in the middle like a teeter-totter with a barrel on each side of the log at equal distances from it. Log on the ground - 2 x 12 over it so the middle of the 2 x 12 is on the log. the two cans that are connected together on the 2 x 12 at equal distance fron the center. As the rear can empties the front can will fill and when the front can gets heavier it will tip the board the other way - when that happens shut the car off. You will have run about 4 gallons through the tranny and it should be clean. NOTE: I have never done this but it sounds like it should work. It may take a moment to build enough pressure in the rear can to start moving oil so you may begin filling the front can before oil leaves the rear can and goes into the tranny. If your tranny starts to slip then stop right then and add three quarts of ATF to the tranny - that will overfill it but when you start the process again it should not slip again. (You could over fill the tranny by a quart to begin with and eliminate any possible damage that might occur.) I don't know if this will work for sure - I repeat that I have not done this - you will be doing it at your own risk and it could conceivably hurn or ruin your tranny (doubtful but it could) Best wishes, Paul
Well, the tranny was toast. Pulled the pan off and it was full of metal, mostly small fine stuff but also a few big chunks. Something inside broke, and self destructed the rest of it. Tranny was clean as a pin,but filter pickup was full of metal shavings. My son went ahead and put the C4 in it, but even with me telling him NOT to use the 73 flexplate, he did it anyway . Now he has got to pull it back out and get the correct 50 oz 157 tooth flexplate. Anybody got one they want to get rid of cheap? Oh, and thanks PaulS for answering my questions, I know my way around engines pretty good, but trannys have always been a dark mystery to me.
Sorry to hear that the tranny was busted up - I do think that you will have no problems with the C4 as long as it was made for the engine that you have. Even though the tranny from a 250 will bolt up to the 302 and 5.0 you don't want to use it behind one without changing some parts to make it stronger.
