A4LD Valve Body Rebuild Diary | Page 10 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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A4LD Valve Body Rebuild Diary

I'll assume that you're referring to the front pump seal in the bellhousing area. There might be a problem with the bushing which is causing the leak. The seal will blow out from overheated fluid at highway speed. You could enlarge the drain back hole as previously mentioned in the diary.
 



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Thanks for the response. Yes I removed the pump and found scarring on the bushing. Now I also found that this is next to impossible to get bushing replaced. Any info on where I can send the bell housing to have one installed would be appreciated.
 












Hey Brooklynn thanks for the info, I looked through your links, but must have missed it. Gonna order one tomorrow, will post results. Guess I'll call them for advice on pressing it in. Thanks again.
 






Well we got the bushing and had a machine shop install it. Aligned the pump with the TC and so far no leak. But pretty disgusted cause after the $200 in upgrades, now I have no overdrive. I did Sonax Boost Valve, Superior Shift Correction Kit and larger Servo's. Also drilled out 6 return holes on VB separator plate and enlarged return holes in bell housing and pump. Overdrive always worked fine. Now it will not go in. Any ideas? Thanks.
 






Check your case connector, make sure it's tight and no pushed out pins in the harness.
 






Thanks James, not sure which one it was but I disconnected and cleaned them, then made sure all were on all the way and that did it. Everything working as it should, shifts are really hard. Not sure if I like that. But the best thing is no leaks. I installed the correct seal for the A4LD, not the 5R55E seal recommended by another poster here. Keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks again. Will update after some more miles
 






Hello everybody !
I am the happy owner of a 2.5 TD FORD SCORPIO (1998).
The car has an automatic transmission A4LDe. This model has already been described in one of the forums of the website.

I appeal to your knowledge !
My car has always had problems with position "overdrive" in 4th, there are very low grip. So I started to rebuild the box.

When I opened, drum overdrive had deteriorated and the brake band was worn up to the metal.
I replaced them by new such parts just as all other wearing parts and to be sure to set the overdrive problem, I installed a new piston "AB".
Regarding the valve body, I washed him and I adapted kits "Junior Kit Shift" & "Shift Kit A4LD - superior transmission".

The result: excellent. The passages are soft..but guess what?
Overdrive always slips ..
I tried several settings on the band adjustment screw but it changes nothing.

After a few months, I again removed the box and I found the burned brake band and a wear early on overdrive drum. I inspected everything but I can't find the cause of this problem.
I suppose that there is a low pressure line or pressure against the OSR line, but I do not know how to check it or where does this problem.

Here documents illustrating the control of the 4th.
Namely: I have no solenoid in the valve body.

Thank you in advance !
I refuse to let myself be pushed around by a car! ^^

Cordially :)

Jérôme ANDRE

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Thank you, you're certainly right, I am fortunate to have a A4LDe for parts and on which the 4th speed was very good.
I will replace the case and you say hopefully better.
 






First off, great post.

I bought a 1989 Ford Ranger XLT with the 2.9 V6, A4LD Automatic Transmission about 6 months ago, and loved it, but it shifted a bit rough into second sometimes, idled pretty rough, and chugged when decelerating dropped it below about 1000 RPM. I wanted to try and make some improvements to it.

My Grandfather and I saw immediately that the vacuum line elbow connections coming off the Fuel Injector were very loose. We changed them out, and charged the AC (which still does not blow cold due to what we believe to be the electrical wire from the pump). The Ranger drove like a dream for 2 days. Shifting super smooth, idling smoother, and chugging greatly reduced. Third day, I backed out of driveway, drove down to the stop sign at the end of the block, and once I stopped and went to accelerate, it just revved up like it was in Neutral. I ran the shifter, which is on the column, through the gears to park and then back, and it drove like normal with no problems. Next night, the same thing happened. Once again it drove like normal for awhile. However, leaving work the next evening, it was happening at several stop signs, so I made it home as quickly and with several prayers and put it in the garage.

I did some research and saw that a vacuum modulator could cause similar symptoms, and I thought with changing up the vacuum lines it could make sense (I am no mechanic, obviously), so I cut off the rusted catalytic converter, which was a terrible experience, and replaced the vacuum modulator and Catalytic converter.

Once complete, the Ranger would shift and transition through all of the gears on the column shifter, but when driving would not transition out of first gear. It would just drive in first gear. I could manually shift it on the column into second and it would shift into second, but not automatically shift out of first while driving in drive or overdrive.

I had purchased everything to follow the valve control body rebuild diary, so I thought I would go ahead and take the opportunity to do so. The 1-2 transition valve in the control body would compress and stay compressed. I felt pretty good after reinstalling that I had fixed the issue with the rebuild, but once everything was put back together, the Ranger will now not shift into any gears. Every gear I put the column shifter into just revs up like in Neutral. At one point, there was a glimmer of Drive, but nothing useful. I can hear it and feel it clicking through the gears, but no reaction in the transmission to it.

The suggestion was made that my issues could be from not having enough vacuum, and also that my it could be in my solenoids. I was just wondering if there was any advice for going about checking it out, as my attempt to improve this truck have made it a little worse each time, and left me feeling pretty defeated.

I love the truck, knew it was going to be a learning experience, but thought I would at least be able to drive it as I progressed among the projects.

UPDATE:
I checked the levels of the fluid, turned on the Ranger, and checked them again, and there was a good drop in the fluid. I added some more fluid, and it started to engage in all of the gears as I shifted on the column. During a quick road test, I found that it is back to where it will not automatically shift out of first gear into second in drive or overdrive. I can manually shift into second gear on the column, but it will not transition normally while driving.
 






This thread has been a real inspiritation and so I have just taken apart a valve block on a transmission that got badly overheated, due to a cooler line coming undone. There are a few differences so far. The gearbox is an A4LD early model with a real cable kickdown (not a solenoid) and just the TCC solenoid. Engine was the 2.9i as fitted to the Ford Granada and Scorpio over here.

So far I have found that I have eight check balls, whereas the charts show a maximum of six for any model. It looked fairly good on stripping apart from a badly scuffed shuttle on the 3-4 bore where the later solenoid would be fitted. Does that need replacing?

I couldn't get the kickdown valves to come out and one other bore refused to give up its deeper parts. I took lots of pictures on my expensive SLR but they are actually not as good as my iPhone pictures. Probably because I didn't want ATF all over it!
 






I was going to post pictures here, but it seems that I can't?

Pictures are posted to the UK Scimitar forum and here are the linked images...

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I have just had an email from my supplier of parts in the UK, who tell me that item is one they can't supply. Any available over there please?
 






There is no need to replace the aluminum sleeve that you have pictured, it just sits in the bore and allows the valve that sits in it to operate, the scratches on the sleeve should not cause any issues.

I only count seven check balls in your valve body, the four in red and the one in blue are good, the yellow one is only used when you don't have the 3-4 solenoid so that one is good.

The pink one is odd, my info says no ball here, maybe someone at one time installed one there. Put the separator plate back on and see if there is one or two holes above the check ball pocket, if it has two holes I would leave the in, if there is only one hole I would remove the ball.

I highlighted the blue ball because you can remove it to help with a delay in reverse, you can also drill out the Low-Reverse feed hole in the plate to .073" - .076".

Hopefully the valves that you could not get out to move freely by working with them in the bores using air pressure and a pick.



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Thanks James.

Sometimes I wonder if I should be allowed out in public when I can't even count in single digits! Yes I only have seven balls in my Ziploc bag. I think it will be a useful exercise to not rush the swapover and dismantle the other valve body after removal. I can then compare checkball locations etc side by side. The other box is slightly later, featuring a solenoid to pull the kickdown cable but only a TCC solenoid internally.

I had managed to track down that part, via an Ebay seller, but haven't bought it yet. He wants Ten pounds Sterling for it which I think is about $14, so I may just buy it anyway.

This project comes about because the other gearbox I fitted to replace this one has no TCC lockup. It is perfect otherwise. I have tested the solenoid and it measures 30R. However, I could not detect any clicking from the sump when activated manually, so my guess is that the solenoid is jammed. I was a bit surprised to see that the solenoid appears to have no moving parts! I was expecting a mechanical plunger to emerge from the end and physically operate a valve. As it doesn't and the operating end has holes in it, I take it that the valving is internal hydraulic switching. I can see the plunger operating through the holes in the nose and as it came out of a gearbox that worked OK, it must be right. Those holes are very small though and it wouldn't take much to block them.

I am waiting for a Transgo kit to arrive from over there, so work will be delayed by a couple of weeks.
 





















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