New A4LD family pan available

[Nate1]

www.dakotadigital.com makes nice guages and senders, but they are $$$

 

[410Fortune]

UPDATE:

Spoke to Brent about my A4LD pan.
the pan willbe here today (according to UPS) However it iwll require some modifications to get it to fit my A4LD...

I will have to: grind down the middle anti slosh rib, and trim 3/8" from the filter pick up tube (plastic)

They were not aware of this fitment problem with the 4x4 A4LD filter and are re-designing their pan to be deeper to accomodate the stock filter.

I will be installing my pan this weekend, and will follow up with pictures and what modifications were required to make it fit.

New pan design will be avail in 2 months.......

 

[Jefe]

I was wondering about the 2x4 vs. 4x4. I know there are different filters for each. . now I know.

 

[SteveVB]

Originally posted by RFR2212
looks neat, but seems expensive.. There isn't much special, and I bet it'd be pretty easy to make yer own...

I have a brand new in the box 2wd pan if you want to try. $20 + shipping
Cut the 2wd pan add a band to make the depth the same as the 4wd sump. Weld in a plug and a temp fitting and some baffles areound the pick-up tube and you are done.

Simple... when I was looking for a pan and none existed I was going to have one made- cheapest I could find someone to do it for me was $225, we came up with the plan outlined above, but he never finished. So... I figured I would give it a shot- 4 hours later all I have is a pan flange, a few strips of sheet metal, a plug and some washers. add in another 4 or 5 hours to weld it up, grind, check the flange and test fit etc.

If a pan is available and I can bolt it on in 15 minutes I cant really see taking the time to gather all the materials and do the work if there's a commercial pan that fits and is made from better material.

 

[410Fortune]

OKay the new pan is installed.

I took pictures, just need somebody to host them, or email me and I will send them to you.

Brent at yourcustomconvers was a huge help, excellent customer service.

They sent me the pan the day after I ordered it.
He promised it would arrive priot to Thanksgiving and it did.

However as mentioned above the pan needed slight modifications in order to fit my 4x4 A4LD. He gave me the option of sending the pan back to them and awaiting a new deeper re-design, should be available in Feb. I declined.

The modifications to the pan were very mild and well within my abilities. I used a 3" grinder wheel to remove 60% of the center anti slosh fin. The 4x4 filter pick up tube landed directly on top of this fin. Then the new 4x4 tansmission filter recieved a 3/8" trim to the pick up tube.

Pictures explain this much better.

INstallation was as follows:
1. drop stock pan and drain fluid. remove stock filter. Let transmission drip/drain for the entire rest of the process

2. Compare the stock pan to the new cast pan. Check to see holes line up, ford gasket lines up, allis well.

3. mount the new transmission filter. Put a small trace of ATF on the bottom of the pickup tube. Hold up new pan until contact was made with pivkup tube. This provided me with an idea of where the pickup tube would hit the anti slosh fin in the new pan.

4. Using grinder removed 60% of center anti slosh fin, sand down by hand till flush with bottom of pan.

5. Cleaned new pan thouroughly to remove any aluuminum dust/shavings

6. Removed new filter, marked 3/8" on pick up tube, trimmed with coping saw. I stuffed a rag insaide the filter to ensure that no shavings found there way inside.

7. cleaned and remount new filter

8. cleaned mating surfaces of transmission and top of new pan. Installed pan gasket to new pan using gasket glue (no silicoln for me)

9. Mounted new pan using supplied screws.

10. re-located transmission tempature sensor to the new pan, re-wired. Used teflon tape on sensor threads

11. INstalled new magnetic drain plug and copper washer.

12. Filled transmission with approx 11 quarts of ATF, until full measured on dipstick. Ran truck to temp and through all grears, checked fluid level again.
Drove truck, checkd level again.

I have had the pan installed for a week and I love it. My transmission tempature gage is more accurate, previously it was mounted in the cooler line and barely registered a tempature. I have also already done a drain and fill, it is now very easy to drain the ATF and re-fill to ensure it is clean and fresh. Cheapest insurance you can get!

The pan fits perfect, is leak free. the added capacity, cooling fins, drain plug, and temp sender port are excellent features and make this pan worht every penny IMO.

Also the customer support I received was excellent. This is a very well thought out product, it is well made, and there are people on the other end of the phone number willing to answer questions.

I would recommend this pan to everyone.

 

[Jefe]

Originally posted by 410Fortune
I took pictures, just need somebody to host them, or email me and I will send them to you.

Send them my way and I'll host em: Jefe@jefethegreat.com

 

[410Fortune]

OH FYI they included a nice little set screw (allen wrench) with the kit to plug the temp sender fitting hole in case I didnt have a gage yet.

I am VERY happy with this product to date, tranny tempature is lower now then before, but hard to say by how much since the temp sender is in a new location.

 

[Felix]

what is your acctual fluid temp now that you have this pan installed. Also what has been your max temp sence the install and what conditions were you in to make it that hot.

Thanks for the info..

 

[410Fortune]

Felix,

OKay first off I have:
custom A4LD from a 93 Explorer. HD converter, and valve body modifications. 15K miles on rebuild

Class A motorhome Hayden tranny cooler with erubber lines

Ford 3 core aluminum super cooling rad

Autometer Phantom trans temp gage, elec.

System holds just shy of 11 quartes of fluid with new pan

I am using semi cheapo ATF right now, so I can flush out the old junk. I have done 4 fluid changes (4 quarts each) in the last 1.5 months

My trans runs at approx 130 degrees for daily driving, coolant tempature is approx 185-190

Trans temp reaches 150 for uphills
Highest it has been (with new pan) is 165 when towing my 19' Bayliner up hills

My info says conventional ATF breaks down at about 200 degrees, synth is good to 250-275

Now keep in mind I have only had the sucker installed for a week or so, and the time I did tow the boat was about 10 miles.

 

[Felix]

Sounds good so far.

I think we need to talk about those cooling mods you have made to your rig.

I have been looking into changing some of my stock items around. I would like to get a slightly larger radiator, a better/more efficent fan system, and a better trans cooler. I am also interested in better looking trans cooler lines.

I will be purchasing one of these pans in February when they have the new 4x4 pan for sale.

Also where did you mount your trans temp gauge? I was looking for an A-piler Pod for the 91-94 Explorer/89-92 Ranger, but didn't find anything.

Thanks for the info

 

[Jefe]

Here's 410's Pics:

 

[rocklaurence]

Great! Ive looked high and low for a deep pan but was unable to find one. Ill get the pan when I do the shift kit. BTW, where is the best place to purchase a TransGo shift improver?

 

[410Fortune]

You can get that shift kit just about anywhere, truckperformance.com I think too

IN that 5th picture (pan inside) you can see 4 black dots.
The black dots are marking the location of the filter pick up tube. I had to remove that section of the center anti slosh fin with the grinder (just for my early production pan)

Pan works awesome.

Felix on my BII there is no center console. I used a standard 3 guage chrome hanger for my gages, under the dash, in front of the floor shifter.

I will be building a custom center console in the future

I changed the ATF again yesterday, I can get 4.5 quarts out of the pan thourgh the drain plug, thats 1.5 more than I got dropping the stock pan.

 

[rocklaurence]

Im using an A-pod built fpr the 2nd gen for my gauge. The pod is flexible and fits perfectly on my 93.

 

[rocklaurence]

OK, all the suppliers must be hiding their TransGo kits. Ive been to many sites (Explorer Exp, Truck Per, 4WD Wholes, etc) and no one lists a kit for the A4LD. Where can I get one? Thanks guys for any direction.

 

[SteveVB]

Originally posted by rocklaurence
OK, all the suppliers must be hiding their TransGo kits. Ive been to many sites (Explorer Exp, Truck Per, 4WD Wholes, etc) and no one lists a kit for the A4LD. Where can I get one? Thanks guys for any direction.

Rock try Mako distributing -

A4LD valve body parts

They have the Trans Go and the Superior kit - I used parts from both in my A4LD. They have similar but not the same parts. The superior kit has a govenor anti stick spring - good idea judging on the number of posts relating to the speed govenor.

Also the Sonnax boost pressure valve is a must on any rebuild.

Edit-: forgot you will need to get gaskets seperately- also a good idea to get a few filters, and may want to get the soft rebuild kit- it comes with the updated Low Reverse servo seal, seals and gaskets about 30 bucks I think.

 

[rocklaurence]

Thanks Steve, Im not rebuilding just trying to tighten the shifts. I got 120K out of the old trany before the rebuild (Ford dealer) and now its past the 1 yr warranty.