THATS RIGHT! However the A4LD has gotten a bad wrap.
From Ford they are a good little tranny, after 1994. The earlier ones have some serious problems becuase the internal parts are weak.
Now the problem with the A4ld is usually the rebuild. They last 80K miles on average from the factory. When they are rebuilt the rebuilders usually screw them up or do a half assed job.
Now there are several things that you can do when it's rebuilt to make it as good as or better then the original Ford unit. Part of the reason I went to an A4ld was timing. I happen to have a frined named Joe who is putting a 5.0L in his 93 X. SO I was able to buy his 160K mile, never been touched, A4ld with everthing I needed for the conversion, except the floor shifter for cheap.
Then I have a friend in the business who happens to know another guy, named Lynn that is Ford certified and has built high performance automatics (Ford mostly) for drag racing, 4x4ing, hot rods, towing etc for about 35 years.
Now since Lynn is a freind of a friend I got a hell of a deal on the rebuild. He made several internal modifications to this A4LD for towing and performance for me. There is only one other guy I know of in the country who can rebuild an A4LD like this, Dougs tranny in AZ which starts at $2500 and I would have to ship to and from AZ. Lynn gave me a 2 year warranty, we had a custom torque convertor built, and replaced every worn out part internally, including the entire overdrive. now he was also helpful enough to install the shift linkage from a 84 ranger a4ld, to work with my floor shifter.
the conversion was a big job, using the floor shifter from a 85 bii, the bellcrank from the same truck, kickdown and wiring from a 93 explorer, i ran into a few slight problems, like my jba headers had the 02 sensor pointing directly into the bellcrank linkage, so an exhaust shop had to re-locate it in my y pipe. The computer was swapped out and my truck required some serious modifications to the wiring to get it right (custom built 2.9L to 4.0L harness, was never right) so I just spent the entire weekend re-building mywiring harness. It's going back in tonight.
My 88 BII originally had the Mitsubishi 5 speed and it lasted for 160K miles before it started to show signs of wear. I then converted to the later model Explorer 5 speed, rebuilt by a budget tranny shop (mistake #1). I'm afraid they did not use the later model 5 speed but simply grabbed the nearest rebuilt mazda they had in the shop. It was never right.
The toyo Kogo 5 speed is the best of the 3 if you ask me. The synchro's in all the 5 speeds (they are all built by Mazda) go out early. My biggest gripe however is with the nydraulic clutch system and that stupid internal slave cylinder. somebody should make a kit to convert the 5 speeds to a cable operated clutch with a shift fork similar to a mustang.
I also considered the WC T-5 conversion however since i was un-able to gather enough solid information and i dont want to buy some $800 adapter from A-A to make it work. Apparently you can use a bellhousing from a 2.8L Capri or Mustang and then you dont need the expensive adapter to mount a T-5 to a 2.9L or 4.0L. The clutch pedals can be swapped out or extensive modifications made to mount a 10" mustang clutch and shift fork assembly. I have never seen this setup, and I probably would have gone this route if I had the time and $$$$ to mess with it.
Now I use my truck for towing and as a daily driver, as well as some 4x4ing, so an automatic is just the thing for me, I didnt want to do the C-4 because I wanted to keep my highway gears. I could have used a C-4 and an aftermakret overdrive or gear splitter, but again thats big $$$$$$ and some conversion is necessarry.
Now as for the type of clutch I used, well get this! I tried everything. I forst used a LUK heavy duty. Not impressed, so I tried a Borg Warner HD, again not happy. Finally I was going to purchase a Centerforce dual friction, when I found a guy here in town who makes a custom Keval lined driven disc for Mustang guys. I bought one of those baby's. Nothing more then a LUK HD unit that had the organic lining removed and a new kevlar lining rivited on. the Centerforce dual friction is similar, except it is keval on one side and organic on the other. the custom disc I bought was kevlar on both sides. The centerforce also uses a weighted pressure plate, I did not have this. This was the best gripping clutch I have ever felt!!! I would recommend the kevlar disc to anybody who has access to a shop that can make one. Man that thing gripped right away, no guessing, and no slipping period. After 10K miles it does not show any visible signs of wear either, of course the rest of my clutch is toasted from the bent input shaft.....