'91 A4LD Trans. upgrade? swap?

[Bryce]

This is a little long, if you dont want to read it, skip to the bottom. Otherwise, its interesting.. read it.


I've got a '91 XLT with 230K. This has been the best truck I've ever known. Its never needed anything, been extremely reliable.

About 4 days ago, the transmission stopped shifting, WHILE I WAS DRIVING IT. It was very strange, because even though it was old, it has been working flawlessly. Now it can be coaxed into shifting, but 3rd and 4th are progressively more difficult. The only other symptom is harsh engagements, which were never present before.

I was thinking it might be a clogged or dirty valve body. I'm not certain what that is, but it matched the symptoms in the repair manual.

The real reason that I came to the message board was to gain info on what others have done to their transmissions. I have gathered that the A4LD (light duty) tranny's are not the toughest available. More recent trannys have also been known to fail, as I have gathered from other boards. Ford seems to be now using the 5-speeds, probably because they are better built. Someone told me that the V8 transmissions are tougher too.

There is nobody in my area that will look at the car until a few more days. I am worried that they will not make an attempt to fix it, they will just want to charge me a few grand and put a new one in. I think that this one is fixable.

HERE is where EXPEREIENCED OWNERS SHOULD READ:
Does anyone know if it is possible to get a better tranny in this truck? Can I upgrade the A4LD? Can I put a 5-speed in it? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Maniak]

You can definately upgrade your tranny. Doug of Doug's Transmissions in Phoenix, Arizona can modify you tranny to not only make it much stronger but even a 9 speed.. and even manual shift/lockup if you want.

A decent rebuild from him was around $1300 which included r&r and a tranny cooler. The hardest part is finding someone in your area that is very familiar with the A4ld tranny. Most placed I called said they could do it, but wanted well over $2k to do it and did not do many of thems. If you don't mind being down for a little while you can ship your tranny to Doug and he will work on it and ship it back (at least he used to)...

It is not a bad tranny.. just a little light duty.. with a few mods you can make it last.. One of the mods we wanted but couldn't afford was the manual lockup torque converter. With the converted locked and the truck in first (low) it is just like having a manual tranny (engine braking).. except the gearing may not be as low as a manual... but you get the idea..

 

[mrboyle]

The 5 speed auto was originally created to go behind the OHC 4.0L. An OHC engine does not build torque like a pushrod engine, so to overcome this Ford put an extra gear between 2 and 3 or 3 and 4 (not sure which) in order to keep the OHC engine opperating in it's power band. I'm not sure if the OHC and the OHV 4.0L have the same belhousing, but if so I don't see why you coulden't put a 5 speed behind the OHV engine. The problem with this swap is that it would require a custom computer to controll the tranny, since it never came behind the OHV. Personally, I don't see any reason to attempt this as it would cost more for the computer than it would to have your A4LD rebuilt, and I don't know if the 5 speed is any stronger than the A4LD in the first place.

 

[rockylaurence]

My understanding of the new "5 Speed" is that it is an electronically controlled A4LD. It doesn't have an extra gear, but it shifts in-and-out of overdrive between 2nd & 3rd affectively giving another gear ratio (neat idea). The V8 tranny is an E-AOD and will not bolt to the V6. I agree with the above post that it wouldn't be cost effective to try and upgrade to the E-A4LD. Finding a performance rebuild for the old tranny seems to be the best ulternative.

 

[1hotjava]

Well, if you have gotten 230k miles out of your A4LD, and you dont do any heavy duty towing and such, I would say rebuild it.

Trying to switch to the newer 5speed auto (which internally is the A4LD) would be a hastle on the electrical side (you would need to find a complete tranny, computer, and harness). Also I'm not sure how integrated the tranny computer is with the newer EEC-V engine management (where your Exp and mine have the EEC-IV).

The V-8 trans (AODE) wont work simply because it has the V-8 bellhousing which is not the same as the 4.0L (either OHV, or SOHC). Anyway, the AODE really is not that much beefier than the A4LD (they most likely used it because it was "off the shelf engineering").

-Paul O.

 

[FMExplorer]

Bryce,
Having just had my tranny rebuilt, follow Maniaks advice - I wish I knew about this guy when mine was being done. I checked into a swap for a manual and the cost was way too high. It's more involved (obviously) than just the tranny. You need all of the clutch mechanism and it is very labor intensive (according to my shop). $1300 is a bargain to get it redone right...

JonM

 

[MW4HD]

Hey Bryce, I think the main problem you may be having is the planetary gear which houses some spiders and rides on bronze bushings. These bushings wear out and leave all kinds of black and gold crap all over everything. My Ranger had the same exact thing happening, one day perfect, the next, shifts out of 3rd into...nothing. S_ _ _!!! On an on-ramp during rush hour. Not a pretty picture going through my mind at that time. Anyway, I pulled over and stuck in neutral and then into OD and it shifted through all the gears this time with no problem, although I know it slipped a few times. Anyway, the Ford internal components are what you need to stay away from. When I lived in San Diego I had a place called Valley Transmission rebuild my POS. They used NO Ford internal parts and it worked sweet when it was done. No slipping, chattering, over-firm shifting, it even held gear to a higher RPM for better top end accelleration. It was all around perfect to me. So if you're in that area, look 'em up. I think they had two shops in El Cajon, I went to the one on 2nd St. Talk to John...