K80
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- March 18, 2007
- Messages
- 118
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Oklahoma City, Ok
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1989 Aerostar
Howdy, all. I found Glacier991's thread about his "bullet-proof" A4LD rebuild. It was a godsend! Though I do not intend to be stopping bullets with my tranny, I DO need to get down the road fast, as the A4LD in question is from my D.D.
I'm a broke S.O.B. with no $$. I have NEVER even worked on a transmission before, so some may question the wisdom of tackling this rebuild. However, I am not without some measure of tool skill and experience in other fields, so the basics do not escape me. I understand that some may cry that I don't have an Explorer, but so what? I have an Aerostar that was 2wd stock with the cargo and towing packages. It is the only minivan I know of from the late 80's which was built on a truck frame and even is classified as a truck by many aftermarket manufacturers. It's basically an Explorer with a van's body. I bought it for $1 back in Nov. of 2006 from a family who had let it sit for over two years because it "won't go over 30mph".
It has the strangest shifter I've ever seen, in that it has TWO drive gears. I have playfully called it a "manu-matic" due to the necessity of manually shifting it into 2nd and 3rd because it won't go on it's own.
A bit ago I went 4-wheeling in the rain down a muddy road. Made it a surprisingly far distance before getting laterally high-centered on a mud bank. It was then that I learned all about Hi-Lift jacks.(Excellent product, BTW.) From this experience I set out to slowly convert my puny, ugly, rusty Aerostar into the baddest-ass rock crawler on Earth. All so I can go back to that road one day (I don't care if it's ten years from now, or even twenty) and OWN it. For anyone interested, this "road" starts at 57th and Docking just S.W. of Topeka, Ks. You can find it on Google maps. Be sure to use the sat. view, though it doesn't do the road justice. It's very steep in places. I had to blast down it at around 40mph just to keep going. Spent less time actually pointed down the road than in other directions, though I kept it going straight ahead the whole time.
Anyway, so now I'm rebuilding the tranny because I can't afford to have it done, and I've never done one before, so it should be fun. I have spent just $149.99 in actual parts for the tranny, and I invested in a glasspack and new exhaust bracket because I had to cut the old one down. THAT was because the idiots who put in the muffler for the former owners (prob. [SIZE=-1]Meineke[/SIZE]) tack-welded the ENTIRE exhaust line rearward of the catyls. I can't afford to buy the tailpipe, so I took a piece of 2" fence post, flared it with an exhaust pipe flaring tool, and ran it straight off the back of the glasspack. I won't be including all of THAT in the parts/tools cost because I assume there's at least a better than 50% chance that YOUR car was not owned/serviced by idiots. Oh, and fencepost is a LOT cheaper than exhaust tubing.
So my goal here is to post the DIFFERENCES between my build and Glacier's. He dropped eight bills. I can't. He did mention something about a budget thread, so here it is. AND it's being done by a total knoob to boot, so it ought to be as much fun for those who know what they are doing as it will be for me while I learn.
Any sugg./comments are welcomed. Just expect to get your head backed over by a $25 tire if you suggest I get a $200+ part or kit. Remember, I AM BROKE. LoL. But when it comes to jerry-rigging (sensibly and SAFELY, of course) bring it on.
So. Glad to be here, and I hope you will look forward to my next post.
I'm a broke S.O.B. with no $$. I have NEVER even worked on a transmission before, so some may question the wisdom of tackling this rebuild. However, I am not without some measure of tool skill and experience in other fields, so the basics do not escape me. I understand that some may cry that I don't have an Explorer, but so what? I have an Aerostar that was 2wd stock with the cargo and towing packages. It is the only minivan I know of from the late 80's which was built on a truck frame and even is classified as a truck by many aftermarket manufacturers. It's basically an Explorer with a van's body. I bought it for $1 back in Nov. of 2006 from a family who had let it sit for over two years because it "won't go over 30mph".
It has the strangest shifter I've ever seen, in that it has TWO drive gears. I have playfully called it a "manu-matic" due to the necessity of manually shifting it into 2nd and 3rd because it won't go on it's own.
A bit ago I went 4-wheeling in the rain down a muddy road. Made it a surprisingly far distance before getting laterally high-centered on a mud bank. It was then that I learned all about Hi-Lift jacks.(Excellent product, BTW.) From this experience I set out to slowly convert my puny, ugly, rusty Aerostar into the baddest-ass rock crawler on Earth. All so I can go back to that road one day (I don't care if it's ten years from now, or even twenty) and OWN it. For anyone interested, this "road" starts at 57th and Docking just S.W. of Topeka, Ks. You can find it on Google maps. Be sure to use the sat. view, though it doesn't do the road justice. It's very steep in places. I had to blast down it at around 40mph just to keep going. Spent less time actually pointed down the road than in other directions, though I kept it going straight ahead the whole time.
Anyway, so now I'm rebuilding the tranny because I can't afford to have it done, and I've never done one before, so it should be fun. I have spent just $149.99 in actual parts for the tranny, and I invested in a glasspack and new exhaust bracket because I had to cut the old one down. THAT was because the idiots who put in the muffler for the former owners (prob. [SIZE=-1]Meineke[/SIZE]) tack-welded the ENTIRE exhaust line rearward of the catyls. I can't afford to buy the tailpipe, so I took a piece of 2" fence post, flared it with an exhaust pipe flaring tool, and ran it straight off the back of the glasspack. I won't be including all of THAT in the parts/tools cost because I assume there's at least a better than 50% chance that YOUR car was not owned/serviced by idiots. Oh, and fencepost is a LOT cheaper than exhaust tubing.
So my goal here is to post the DIFFERENCES between my build and Glacier's. He dropped eight bills. I can't. He did mention something about a budget thread, so here it is. AND it's being done by a total knoob to boot, so it ought to be as much fun for those who know what they are doing as it will be for me while I learn.
Any sugg./comments are welcomed. Just expect to get your head backed over by a $25 tire if you suggest I get a $200+ part or kit. Remember, I AM BROKE. LoL. But when it comes to jerry-rigging (sensibly and SAFELY, of course) bring it on.
So. Glad to be here, and I hope you will look forward to my next post.
the a$$h0l3 who designed the drum brakes in the rear of my van!) a couple of weeks ago; and while it tells you how to get the tranny out, it says nothing about what to do with it afterwards--save for a timid recommendation that it be retired to the nearest pro rebuilder shop. 
Well THAT"S no good, but at least I can get it out without pulling the engine. If it weren't for that, it'd be over before it started because I can't afford a $150 cherry picker. So I got to work and everything was going fine until I got to the crossmember bolts. They required a tool I did not have, and though I'd already made five trips on foot to the Advance Auto Parts and back I would have gone back had they been opened.
P.O.S. Anyway, I had to use an included adapter from the socket set to have it work with a standard-design ratchet. Got the transmission down after nearly screwing up big time by forgetting about the T.C. bolts.
: But I remember reading the ingredients list on one can of it a while ago and there's acetone in it! So I bought 11 9oz. bottles of nail polish remover (acetone) for a buck apiece and one can of store-brand brake cleaner at the Advance Auto Parts (A.A.P.) for $2.50...and this stuff doesn't even have acetone in it! So I'm thinking I can just dump 99 ounces of nail polish remover into a tub to let parts soak in, and use the can of brake cleaner to spray off where needed. Definitely one of those times when I hope like hell I know what I'm doing.....
Long story longer, that necessitated re-flaring the end of the brake line...a cut...with the wrong tool, of course: the cheap roto-tool ($10.00) from Harbor Freight with one of the included sanding disks.
After massacring that poor disk, the line was cut and smooth. Had a bauxite mines' worth of Au inside as well. A bottle-and-a-half of brake fluid later, it was clean when I slid the nut on the line. ...you know, taken out of context that last line is pretty suspect....
yeah...so the screwdriver flares the tube, but scrapes the hell out of it and leaves behind more shavings.....two q-tips later I am trying to re-seat the jagged ground edge of the tube into the W.C. when I realize I have to detach all but one of the clips that hold it to the axlehousing because otherwise it won't reach now. Because of that, it's very easy to tell -after the nut has been tightened all the way- that the brake line moves in the bore. And then there's the steady flow of brake fluid seeping out between the inside bore of the nut and the tube. I re-cut and flanged the tube in a more careful version of before and the leak was cured. ....until now.
OFF because the flaring tool is a CHEAP P.O.S! The size I need to use it for is the smallest one (0.1875 or 3/16 in.) which happens to be in the middle of the frame between the two over-size, slippery-smooth wing nuts used to tighten the assembly around the tube. The tube keeps slipping in the tool, so I put vise-grips over the middle of the frame to help it clamp harder. That helped, but it still ain't with it. So I'm going to try wiping it down real well and wrapping a layer of electrical tape (remember -just in case? 
