Hello to all,

I am researching a transmission rebuild for my 1993 Aerostar V6 3.0L with A4LD transmission. I am in Europe, but have a relative in St. Louis who will be coming out to visit me on Aug. 15th. My cousin is willing to bring me a transmission rebuild kit if i can find one and get it to him prior to his departure.

HISTORY:
1st owner, 130,000 miles, changed ATF every 30,000 miles since new.

PROBLEM:
The transmisison still works(forward gears) , but unfortunately reverse no longer works. In PARK and REVERSE, when i give it gas the van slightly lurches forward, in NEUTRAL , OD, and D the van drives forward and seems to be shifting fine.

When i put it in reverse, the reverse lights light up so this leads me to believe that the shift linkage is ok. From the research i've done so far, it seems like the problem is probably a STUCK CLUTCH PACK.

One more thing that i thought i'd mention, prior to reverse giving out , the transmission would sometimes slip when starting from a stop on uneven roads(hills), otherwise , on level roads(in the city) there was no slippage from a stop. Anyone ever experience this problem?

Does anyone think that the 1st gear slippage and the stuck clutch pack are somehow related?

If so , could you please provide me with some info to solve the 1st gear slip and rebuild this transmission?

NOTE: my goal is to rebuild the transmission without investing too much money into it, since the van will probably see less than 1,000 miles per year(probably 300-600 a year, from now on) and will not be doing any towing, so it will basically be light usage.


REBUILD KIT:


I would really appreciate it if the guys who have already rebuilt the 4ALD/experts, please provide me with suggestions on what transmission rebuild kit to purchase.

thanks

Pete

 

You need a rebuild kit, a valve body rebuild kit, a shift kit, plus any hard parts that might be damaged, which means you have to disassemble the transmission to see what you might need. You will also require a new torque converter. If you reuse the old one, it could contribute to an expensive and premature failure. Even if using it light duty, get one that is all brazed construction with torrington bearings.

Even if you are using it for light duty, if you rebuild the trans to stock specs, but it is still older, it will not last. If you are only going to use it 1000 miles a year, is it even worth rebuilding at all, you will never get you money back at that low a mileage.

Some other parts I recommend is the later production 4.0L planetary gear set. It is larger and stronger, and uses needle bearings instead of plain bearings or ball bearings, so it suffers less wear. You can forgo this, but if you find the stock assembly has any wear issues, you might as well upgrade. Depending on how much hard part damage you have, you could still be into this a lot less than $1000 if you do it yourself. I think it would also be a good idea to have an A4LD repair manual, that way you have access to the specs, and if its a factory one, it will probably tell you what to check for.

 

hi,
just my 2 bits worth: why not buy an already rebuilt transmission? By the time you add up parts, shipping costs, hours researching, mistakes made, etc., etc., you will have spent more money and time than it will cost you to buy a rebuilt unit.

As Khan hinted, rebuilding a transmission is not as easy as replacing this part or that part, there's a lot more to it than meets the eye, and if you don't have experience, chances are you'll end up with a failed effort, wasted money, and a disabled Aerostar.
.
there's a fellow in Florida who sells A4LD already rebuilt. Here's is a link to his ad in Florida Craigslists:

Ford F-150 1996 - 2005 Transmission AODE 4R70W

 

Before jumping into a full blown rebuild, make sure the basic checks are done. You still might have an improperly adjusted shift cable. Very simple to check and adjust. Any repair manual will instruct you on the how-to. FWIW, after doing my own A4LD rebuild on a '91 4.0 and installing a shift kit, I regret having done so. I think those kits were more for the earlier year A4LD transmissions and by the '90's most shift problems were resolved.

 

Not trying to disagree with you Jose, but there is a reason that I did not recommend that. Most already built transmissions are sold at a fixed price and are built around a budget. You have no idea what kind of parts were installed, no idea what was checked, and no idea why it failed in the first place, and no idea if it has been repaired in such a way as to prevent the same problem from occuring again. There is a reason that a brand new stock A4LD will last between 70,000 - 100,000 miles on average, but the average off the shelf rebuilt unit only makes it 50,000 - 70,000 miles.

I can tell on little story, which shows a typical scenario. My brother needed a van for work, so he found this guy who was selling a 1997 Ford Aerostar 4.0L AWD. We didn't want to buy a lemon, so we trying to find out what major repairs and maintenance he had performed. One of things was he recently had the transmission replaced, at that point it had about 20,000 miles on it. So after a little thinking he decided to go a head and buy it. He used it for a while, until my '94 van got totaled, then I purchased the van from him. By this time he had put another 14,000 on it. The very first time I pulled a trailer with it, guess what happened. Thats right, I destroyed that transmission. Why? When we got it all pulled apart to rebuild it, we found a 2.3L planetary assembly, the valve body had not been rebuilt, from the amount of wear that had occurred to several other parts it was obvious that they had more than 34,000 miles of wear and had not been replaced. When you buy an off the shelf rebuilt transmission, you are buying a mystery box. Unless the seller has a detailed breakdown of what has been replaced and updated, I would not recommend buying an already rebuilt unit.

I agree with the above statement, in fact, I have taken transmissions that had severe delayed engagements in forward and reverse and made them behave pretty much normal by simply replacing the old worn out fluid.

 

yes I understand Khan, but a knowledgeable buyer can ask the seller exactly what parts and updates have been included in the rebuild.

If the seller is a reputable rebuilder, he will not have any problem answering the technicalities, and if someone who knows, (like you) asks the hard questions, you can confirm if the rebuild is up to a given Standard. If not, we can walk away.

this seller does say his transmissions have a "lifetime guarantee", of course we don't know whose life he's talking about :-))

BTW: I love the 5-speed transmission in my new 1997, but I am noticing some symptoms I am worried about, however I don't want to hijack this thread with my troubles! I will get to that when I'm finished refurbishing the cosmetics, then I'm getting into the mechanicals.

 

I had my A4LD transmission rebuilt about a week ago after only 202,000 KM.

The planetary gear was shot. The torgue convertor was shot. The various pins were shot.

I got it repaired at an ATRA shop. They did an amazing rebuild. Wowzie!

Initially they inspected the tranny and said it seems ok. But I insisted a further inspection and said it started to slip about two weeks earlier.

My AeroWreck leaked out all of the tranney fluid while driving over a bridge.

It was stranded for 3 days and 3 nights in the hillbilly area of the suburbs.

 

hello , thanks for the informative post. i managed to order a 56008G Deluxe Kit , A4LD 90-95 from an online shop, am hoping that this is a good foundation for my rebuild project. is a valvebody rebuild kit absolutely necessary , if so ,what parts exactly ? and as for the shift kit goes, i personally would not like to change anything about the shifting, the shifts are nice and firm, i'll stick with the stock setup for now. when i get the transmission out i will also inspect the hard parts, was wondering, if i happen to come across any hard parts that need replacing, do you know of any websites that carry most of the A4LD parts individually?

i agree with your statement about rebuilding it and is it worth it. i figure, that if i can do the rebuild myself(+ the help of a couple of mechanic relatives/friends) in my spare time, am hoping that the rebuild kit i have already purchased covers most of the trans problems, and if i have to spend a few additional bucks on some other part(s) then it seems like it would be worth fixing, especially if you take into account the learning experience. i should be ok, as long as there are no catastrophic failures inside. On another site, i read that the 1993 A4LD 's and up, replaced thrust washers with torrington bearings, resulting in a stronger transmission, am keeping my fingers crossed that the above statement turns out to be true.

will keep the planetary gear info in mind, and have found a few manuals on ebay, will research then order.

thanks

 

hello,

thanks for the info but considering the circumstances, purchasing a rebuilt trans (even with lifetime warranty) is outof the question, since from now on , the van will not be used much. if i were living in the states, i would probably consider the rebuilt trans with lifetime warranty, but since im in europe i can not do so due to expensive shipping costs.


is the 5-speed trans that u mentioned an automatic trans or manual? if manual, did you convert it, or was it factory installed?



thanks

 

hello

i am comprising a list of things to check prior to removing and rebuilding the transmission, an so far your suggestion regarding the improperly adjusted shift cable is on there, i also received a suggestion to check out the reverse piston and make sure it is ok .

i really wouldnt like to change anything about the way the van shifts. judging from your post, you did not have a good experience with the shift kit upgrade, i think that that is one more reason to avoid one for now.

as for the shift kits go, is there any info out there that discusses the specifics of what each shift kit "fixes"?

thanks

 

are "average off the shelf rebuilt units" typically just rebuilds in which they just replace the transmissions's "soft" parts or are they something else?


i too have recently had a similar experience with another vehicle, and just replacing the fluid + filter helped tons. in my case , i had replaced the trans fluid+filter about 25,000 miles ago,when i recently began to notice that the shifts were becoming a bit more rough, checked fluid level at dipstick, all was ok, even checked the color and smell, the fluid looked red when put on a white tissue, and it did not smell awkward nor burnt, but after draining an ounce of fluid into a clear plastic cup i noticed that the fluid was pretty brown . after replacing the fluid and filter the car is shifting great once again.

with the van i have been doing 30,000-35,000 mile atf change intervals since new, and i still lost reverse for some reason. when i take the van into account, and my other vehicle's rough shifting after 25,000 miles i think that from now on i will be replacing atf fluid about every 20,000 miles or 24months, just to be safe. ps IIRC a family friend and super mechanic that i know who rebuilds diesel engines for a living, and has also rebuilt his fair share of automatic transmissions, changes the atf in his car every 10,000 miles or so, i personally believe that that is overkill but to each his own i guess

 

Yes, they replace a lot of soft parts, and might replace some other stuff too, but since they are building the units to meet a price point they will skip over some other stuff that should be checked.

I relation to Aerocolorado's bad experiences with a shift kit, a proper shift kit needs to be done in conjunction with a valve body calibration, which involves someone who knows what they are doing, modifying the valve body to change the flow and pressures. Just doing a shift kit on its own will often result in harsh shifts. The trans will still last much longer than without a shift kit, but an experienced builder can tune the valve body to better match the load and engine and to make the shifts firm without being too hard.

In regards to Jose's comments above, i'm not sure what issues he is having, age and lack of maintenance from a previous owner likely contributed to create the issues, I'm sure he will bring those up in a separate thread when he is ready to address them. The 1997 Model year has a 5 speed automatic for the 4.0L engine. The 5 speed manual is not an option in that year.

 

the 1997 Aerostar came with a 5-speed automatic transmission, the only year they came with the 5-speed.

It is different from the 4-speed A4LD in that it has only one "D" in the shifter's dash indicator ("D" as in 4th gear, the "D" surrounded by a circle), and it has an Overdrive (5th gear) On-Off switch in the shifter arm.

it makes a huge difference at highway speeds over 80mph and the engine "relaxes" its rpm's , you can't even hear the engine.

I think the problem I mentioned is engine-related, since the transmission shifts fine at all speeds.

 

The 5 speed transmission was a 4 speed that was modified to engage a combination of two of the planetary gear sets to give you an additional ratio in between the original 2nd and 3rd (I think). The 1st and 5th (OD) gears have the same ratios as the original 1st and 4th gears of the 4 speed.

 

the 5th (OD) is a much higher gear than my old '92's 4th. The difference is quite noticeable, it does not "feel" like the '92's 4th speed at all. In fact I always complained that the '92 could use a 5th speed.

Either that or the fact that I have a 4.0 liter now as opposed to the 3.0 liter of the '92, makes a difference? Otherwise I have no clue about the specs of the 5-speed