A4LD - Rebuild it or maybe just the VB?

[sumless]

Greetings, I have a 1994 Ford Ex, 4x4 about 180k. with the A4LD trans.
Over the summer I started noticing some odd shifting behaviour,
on occassion (usually when still cold) the downshift
when accelerating hard would kick down and immediately act as if it was in
neutral. Since then I've been babying it along, and as long as I didn't drive
it hard till it was warmed up things were fine. Along with some other Misc
issues (non-trans related) I started to notice that the trans would take a
few seconds to shift from park into drive or even reverse. Reading through the
forums it looks like this is a common problem, and more an annoyance than
anything else. Something that could wait till warmer weather. Well, all bets
were off this past weekend. On the way home from work seemed to get stuck
into first gear, backed off the throtle waiting for second the engine
drop to idle, but didn't want to upshift until I manually selected 2. Once
I drove a bit more, I selected D and it upshifted to 3rd. When I slowed for
traffic, and took off it felt like the trans was stuck in 3rd. It was late
and on the highway limped home. Next day I started it, let it warm
and no engagement in any gear selected. I didn't rev it or anything, fear
of burning things up. I checked the fluid and looked low. Borrowed the wife's
car and got another quart of tranny. Poured that in and was able to get a
responce, but very slow to engage. A short ride seems to reveal the shifting
is still messed up, gets stuck in 2nd and 3rd. Not wanting to totally mess
it up I let it sit for now. My question is, short of rebuilding the entire
tranny, I'd love to do this, but time and lack of warm weather,
would it be possible that my issue is limited to the valve
body and Servos or is it fatal. I have another A4LD in another Ex, but again
the weather and resources are lacking at the moment. After reading Glacier991's
write up, I was hoping to build up the second tranny at my leisure, but..

Any advance would be greatly appreciated!!!!

-Joe

 

[Glacier991]

At 180K.... you probably have many potential issues. Mind you I have 224K on mine, so I am not counting you out.

Since a rebuilt VB would be a good thing in a rebuild, why not pull it and rebuild along the lines a shown in the A4LD VB rebuild Dairy in the stickies above. If you reinstall it and you solved your problems, GREAT. If not, well your VB is pre-rebuilt for your trans rebuild to follow.

I think a VB rebuild has a better than 50/50 chance for you.

 

[sumless]

Thanks for the pointers! Wish me luck.
If I had the time and weather I'd certainly rebuild the whole thing. And your
rebuild documentation is wonderful! Thanks for sharing that info, its going to be very handy.

-Joe

 

[pusecat74]

Greetings, I have a 1994 Ford Ex, 4x4 about 180k. with the A4LD trans.
Over the summer I started noticing some odd shifting behaviour,
on occassion (usually when still cold) the downshift
when accelerating hard would kick down and immediately act as if it was in
neutral. Since then I've been babying it along, and as long as I didn't drive
it hard till it was warmed up things were fine. Along with some other Misc
issues (non-trans related) I started to notice that the trans would take a
few seconds to shift from park into drive or even reverse. Reading through the
forums it looks like this is a common problem, and more an annoyance than
anything else. Something that could wait till warmer weather. Well, all bets
were off this past weekend. On the way home from work seemed to get stuck
into first gear, backed off the throtle waiting for second the engine
drop to idle, but didn't want to upshift until I manually selected 2. Once
I drove a bit more, I selected D and it upshifted to 3rd. When I slowed for
traffic, and took off it felt like the trans was stuck in 3rd. It was late
and on the highway limped home. Next day I started it, let it warm
and no engagement in any gear selected. I didn't rev it or anything, fear
of burning things up. I checked the fluid and looked low. Borrowed the wife's
car and got another quart of tranny. Poured that in and was able to get a
responce, but very slow to engage. A short ride seems to reveal the shifting
is still messed up, gets stuck in 2nd and 3rd. Not wanting to totally mess
it up I let it sit for now. My question is, short of rebuilding the entire
tranny, I'd love to do this, but time and lack of warm weather,
would it be possible that my issue is limited to the valve
body and Servos or is it fatal. I have another A4LD in another Ex, but again
the weather and resources are lacking at the moment. After reading Glacier991's
write up, I was hoping to build up the second tranny at my leisure, but..

Any advance would be greatly appreciated!!!!

-Joe

I had the same problem with my 96 Ranger XLT 2 yrs ago it turned out to be the Torque convertor. I talked to a tranny guy and it is a common problem. If this doesn't work it is probably the bands in the tranny.