what are my options... (a4ld)

[badash]

Alright here is the deal, got my tranny rebuilt maybe 5 months ago, maybe put 6000 km on it, and it is goin again, obviously still under warranty and I will have it fixed, but I want to get rid of this damn thing!

so, what exactly are my options?
- manual tranny? what kind? where would I find?
- 5.0L swap, what kind of tranny then? and is it reliable?
- a stronger bolt on then the a4ld?

I would estimate I get it rebuilt, I probably will have 1 year before I need to do something, that gives me time to save and plan so give me some ideas!

 

[MrShorty]

Some of the options I see:

1) Manual tranny: Best bet seems to be the Mazda M5 series. These were used pretty much throughout the '90's in RBV's. Get one with a 2.9/4.0 bellhousing, since the 3.0/4 cyl. versions have a different bolt pattern.

2) 5.0 swap: Not familiar with all of the tranny combinations that came with the 5.0, but my father-in-laws E4OD in his 1/2 ton van has done just fine for I think 200K miles, the 4R70W that was used in '96-?? Explorers seems to hold up just fine to an Explorer.

3) Not really many other auto tranny options to put behind a 1st gen 4.0. You can get the adaptor and put a GM 700R4 transmission there, but I understand the adaptor is expensive. I keep waiting for someone to develop a stand alone transmission controller for the 4R55E/5R55E so we could use those in our 1st gens, but it hasn't happened, yet.

 

[badash]

yeah I am leaning more and more towards the manual tranny. a 5.0L swap would be a bit difficult cause it is still by DD, and to have it off the road more than a week is hard.

thanks for your input!

 

[MrShorty]

Wasn't sure whether to start a new thread, but I decided to follow up here, since it makes the most sense in context.

I keep waiting for someone to develop a stand alone transmission controller for the 4R55E/5R55E so we could use those in our 1st gens, but it hasn't happened, yet.

I heard a rumor the other day that someone does make a stand-alone controller for the 4R and or 5R transmissions. Google found me these guys http://www.powertraincontrolsolutions.com/content-4.html with a controller that claims to support the 5R55 (assuming the E should be there, unless there was a separate 5R55 transmission that I'm unaware of). It is a bit spendy, but:
1) If it works, would the 5R55E be enough of an improvement over the A4LD to make it worth the expense?
2) Obviously, the ease of the swap assumes that the 5R55E does indeed bolt up in 2.9/4.0 applications that used the A4LD.
3) Any chance anyone has used this particular controller? I've seen positive reviews for Baumann Engineering's TCS controller for the AODE/4R70W/E4OD, but I'm not sure this is from Baumann, and I haven't seen any reviews for the 5R55E.

My A4LD seems to go just fine, so I'm not yet seriously in the market for one these. But I would be interested in any thoughts. Who knows when my A4LD will die.

 

[BrooklynBay]

This looks like it covers a lot of transmissions, but not the 4R44E/55E. I wonder if they will eventually come out with that one, or just make a software change on it to accomodate that transmission. The cost of the controller is similar to pruchasing the actual transmission. I think you might be better off building a Frankentranny since it will have a lot of the 5R parts without the complexity of the computerized VB.