I had to work a week over at work and looking over my options once again before I leave the rig here in Saudi and head home. I am looking in the next couple of days to buy my shifter online and couple of other things I need for my build so they will show up my first week at home.

Right now the 89 Roller 302, FMX is in place with the drive shaft hooked up. I have researched my shifter options and with modding the hell out of a cable shifter linkage the Lokar shifter for the FMX looks to be about the only option. I am keeping the Dana 44 and the 3.92 gears for now.

I have two AOD's in the shop. A 84 model and 89 model. I know the 89 is the one with the better oiling update. The 84 came out of a running car before it was pulled and stored indoor for the last 7 years. The 89 has been sitting indoors too but I have never seen it action. I am now debating swapping to the AOD before I get too far. I know I will need the shifter and the kick down linkage.

I think I will need to mod the shift arm on the FMX to get the shifter linkage hooked up, really didn't want to tear into the trans any. Anyone have any experience with this on a FMX.

I have some engine mods planned down the road and was going to do the AOD swap later on but I am rethinking that now. What are y'all opinions on this? Keep the FMX for now, then when I re-pull the engine later on for the boss 302 top end swap the trans then? I plan on this truck being a keeper.

 

I have a couple of thoughts, fwiw. If it's all set up as a running driver, and you want to drive it a while, then by all means do so. I will say with the 3.92 gears, the AOD would be a nice option and make it a lot more friendly to drive. OTOH, if it's still not running and you're willing to do a trans swap now, now is the time. The FMX and AOD are both real similar in size and shape, so doing the swap should be fairly straight forward. Then you're only messing with the shifter one time, also.

If I had 2 AOD's laying around, one being better than the other, I'd take the time to make that the one I would use.

I'm not sure from your post if your being home is a temporary thing and then you're back overseas again, or if you're home for a while. If time is of the essence and you plan on driving the truck while you're here, do whatever it takes to make that happen and don't do any more than necessary this go around. Save the big projects for later.