Tranny A4LD I'm guessing. gone or sick?

[Tony H]

Writing for a friend. '92 X with 4WD 170K on the clock. I'm guessing the '92 came with the A4LD.
Three days ago, car feels fine, two days ago he comes to work, thinks he feels a little shimmy during acceleration, Yesterday, he heads to work, The car accelerates through a gear or two, then slips like crazy.
Obviously the infamous weak trani issue but is this baby a gonna or can he bandaid it somehow? He slightly over filled the trani thinking it might help.... no go.

Is this the typical symptoms when this type trani dies or are there many different symptoms? I know it's about $2400 for a rebuild with labor and all. He wont go there with this X it has served him well and if he can't do something cheaper than the rebuild, He's going to retire it.
He's going to hit the Junkies over the weekend but that's a crap shoot with these week tranis at best.

Any ideas would be appreciated

 

[Glacier991]

Like you said the range of failure symptoms is large. 170K on a trannie in a SUV is not bad though. Beware the Ebay $700 trannies....but s shop might be able torebuild it for less that the 2400 you stated. Or you and your buddy could do it yourself! (See the "My A4LD Rebuild Diaries" in the Useful threads forum.

 

[Tony H]

I was reading and following your POST.
That's beyond what he (or I) will tackle.
Doing the labor to remove and replace is no biggie. Other then opening the bottom up to modify The Valve body (shift kit) I'm a'scared to dive any deeper.

The down time for him would be too long too. This is his daily commuter

 

[V8Exploder]

Those A4LD's, for having whatever inherent problem, seem to run a very very long time in some cases. My brother went over 215k miles on his bone stock A4LD, only having to change the governor once and a few tranny services throught the years. He recently had it rebuilt and it works just fine. Has anyone tried the seafoam tranny treatment ?

 

[maddogmauldin]

I had a 94 ex 4x4 and had the tranny rebuilt at 150000 for $1200 at a very reputable local shop here in Mt. Airy, NC. Worked really smooth till my wife flipped it 10 days later in Michigan. Insurance company took it then. Oh well, win some, lose some.