i have an 85 f150 i just picked up. i believe its an aod tranny in the truck, havnt really checked to see if it is or not. what should i look for to check to see what tranny it is? if it does turn out to be the aod, it acts completely different than the aod in my 86. the 86 is smooth and shifts right where i think it should shift. the one on the 85 seems like it takes forever to shift. not sure what the gear ratio is if the speedo is right but driving nice and easy, it dont shift out of 1st till about 20, out of 2nd about 45, stays in 3rd gear till about 70 than shifts to 4th (od). than i back out of the gas to get back down to 60 ( the speed limit is 55), and as soon as it gets back down to 60 it shifts back to 3rd. the tranny also shifts hard (maybe a shift kit is in it, but no idea).

is that normal? i dont think it is unless it was setup that way. can it be adjusted? with my 86 the guy said he set it up for shift into od at 45 which it does and also has it setup to downshift when i let off the gas to help slow down and make the exhaust rumble. i like that too.

 

It kinda sounds it might have a racing torque converter, which will hold onto gears alot longer then normal ones & also firm up the ****ing action to be alot faster. However I'm not sure why someone would put one in a street truck unless they were speed junkies?

 

TV cable might not be adjusted, that will cause bad shifting in an AOD, and lead to premature failure.

Check out what you have:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...id=169485&.jpg=

 

I'm thinking they were making it into a street truck. It's better than 3/4 restored and the motor is new, seems to have more power than my stock 86. I'll have the shop check the tv cable to since they will already have it in the air doing exhaust work. If the tranny does go out which I hope it doesn't for a long time, I have a spare with very low miles lol.

Also it seems to be consistent not sporadic.

 

i had the shop adjust the tv cable but the tranny still shifts hard but not as much, also still holds onto the gears for longer than it should. anything else i should look into to get this tranny shifting closer to where it should be? short of swapping my 86 aod with the 85 aod. the 86 shifts smooth and goes into od around 45 where as this one dont until 70ish.

these are all ballpark figures since my speedo is off and also driving nice.
first gear holds out till about 20-25
second till 40-45
third gear till about 70-75
finally shifts into overdrive after about 70-75 but im exceeding the speed limit by 20mph just to hit od and than i slow down to about 55-60 and the truck lugs in od than shifts back to third

 

Do you have a tach? What engine? What tire size? I wouldn't think you could be lugging at 55-60 MPH in OD. If you have a tach it would be interesting to know what the RPM is in OD at 60 MPH.

If the previous owner was modifying the trans, they could have put a Mustang valve body in it, they could have put a different governor on the output shaft.

Is this truck carb'd or fuel injected?

 

The tach doesn't work. 302 carb. Right now I got 33s on it. Had 235s and same thing was happening. I don't know the gear ratio in the rear either, havnt checked. But someone told me that if the gearing is high (2.73) it will hold out longer. No idea I'd its true or not. It would be a great interstate driver but that's not what I need, hence why I'm trying to figure out why its doing this.

 

also i believe there is a shift kit in the tranny since there is no hesitation between shifts. i know they affect shift points but i always thought is was during wot not just daily driving

 

There is no way to only affect WOT shifts. A shift kit will change shifts at EVERY throttle position.

 

Is there anything I can do to bring them shift points lower. I'm going to check the gears in the back this weekend

 

You can modify the governor to bring the shifts lower. A weaker spring will do it. How much weaker takes some experimentation.

 

The only proper way to do it is to put a pressure gauge on and set the throttle pressure.

If you find throttle pressure is within specs you can modify the governor. There are 3 different valves. You can't do diddly squat with springs.

 

Yes - a higher ratio axle (or larger diameter tires) effectively widens out the gear spacing noticeably, whether an auto or manual transmission.
Even a small gearing change like 3.73 to 3.54 has this effect; the higher the ratio, the greater the effect.

If you dropped down to 28" tires for example, your shift points would all come down (& closer together) & you will have much more power too.
This would reduce the load on the AOD, as well - always a good thing.
If your axle gearing is too high, it may not completely fix the problem, but it will be a big help.

My F250 had an AOD when I first bought it (3.54 axle & 30" tires); it needed to be doing at least 75mph to be comfortable in 4th........ I swapped it for a manual trans.