Planning a4ld rebuild....advice?

[Ronin8002]

I'm going to be doing a performance rebuild to my 135k mile (no problems with it...ever) a4ld tranny in a few months so it can handle the power upgrades I will be doing to my engine. From what I've gathered from doing searches on the board, I plan on replacing the following:

-replacing stock torque converter with one from protorque.com

-doing the alto red-eagle clutch upgrade www.altousa.com

-installing either the superior or trans-go shift kit from
aceomatic.com

-using a aceomatic.com super rebuilder kit for the rest of the parts

Am I missing anything here or does this list look good so far?

I know I still need to do bands and the OD planetary....I know raybestospowertrain.com sells replacement bands but they don't sell the kevlar ones for the a4ld....what are my options here?

-also, a source for the beefed up OD planetary would be helpful....I heard of some place called aceron or something like that but i don't know anything about them other than the name.

Thanks to anyone who can give me guidance here.

-James

 

[SteveVB]

Some thoughts

You MUST replace the pump bushing, and the crank spacer. The best way to replace the bushing is to get a replacement bellhousing with the bushing honed in place. Find a good trans shop and talk to them about it.
Think about a new pump ( while your thinking Ill tell you I have a OEM Ford pump in the garage paid $110 + shipping- yours for $100 shipping included)

Take a good look at the govenor bore. Add the anti stick spring to the weight (its in the superior kit)

Get the later model seal for the front pump- Ill see if I have the number.

Double lipped seals for the rev servo- mod the servo as per the TransGo kit.

Drill the drain back hole in the bellhousing and pump to match the backing plate. I drilled the hole in the pump, and bell housing to 5/16" , the hole in the pump plate was already 5/16".

Adjustable vac advance unit.

May want to think about upgrading the clutch packs. Do a search. You can get the Alto power pack, or do some machine work to your drums to add plates and frictions.

I forgot to check you year, but upgrade the center support and drum if you have the early style.

REPLACE the sprags at the rear, and the OD.

Replace the OD clutch drum springs (in the superior kit)

Upgrade the OD sprag retainer

The thrust washer at the rear of the low sprag wears on the back of the case- check the case carefully. replace the thrust washer(Im assuming the super rebuild kit has the thrust washers- if not REPLACE them all.

I would buy both shift kits - they have some overlap, but they also have some specific fixes not shared by the other- like the govenor springs for the superior, and the Low/rev servo for the TransGo. The transgo also has an improved center support seals(which also seem to be found in later rebuild kits)

Thats off the top of my head- my notebooks out in the garage- I just buttoned mine up, and as soon as I get some other things out of the way Ill put it back in.

Take your time, and concentrate on one assembly at a time.

Good Luck

 

[Josh]

SteveVB.
What was the cost of your rebuild? I understand a lot of it is as needed but generaly what could you expect to pay? It would cost about 700.00 to just about replace everything in the trans. There is a place called Pheonix Transmission that sells dyno tested refurbs for around $650 with a $300 core. I want to do the rebuild for the experiance, but saving a couple of hundred on a tested refurb might be a better option.

 

[Ronin8002]

I may just go with the 700r4 swap seeing as I could do it with a stage 3 transmission and adaptors for about 2400. Rebuilding my a4ld completely with all the performance goodies would cost nearly that much, and the long down time where I can't use my truck during the rebuild makes it an even less attractive option for me. I guess i'll have to see where i'm at in terms of power once i finish my engine mods and then go from there....but it looks like i could do the swap more quickly than the rebuild...and i might have better results for my application.