I have a 90-91 Aerostar Extended with the 3.0 and auto trans. I have about 141000 miles on it. From Prior Experences with matinance on it I suspect the trans fluid has never seen the light of day before, (there was one orginal spark plug in it when I change then this summer, the gap was ou ragouse.) The trans doesnt smell burn but it doesnt smell like trans fluid either. It is real dark instead of red. NO I AM NOT CHECKING THE OIL. hahaha. I am just woundering how many quarts does the A4LD trans need to fill it up, and mine does apear to have trans cooler as well. Should I be Prepairing for a Rebuld with the miles it has on it?



Jeremy Vickers

Elkview, WV

 

I have been reading this thread with considerable interest. As I posted earlier, I have a 93 4.0 that I replaced the heads on. Everything is up and running very well with the exception of a funky shift from 2-3. It shifted fine after the topend rebuild until I found tranny fluid in the plenium. Obviously a bad modulator. I first replaced it with a Fram after market modulator that was adjustable. That is when the shift problem started. It doesn't slip 1-2, but it seems to want to down shift before doing the 2-3 shift. It seems to manually shift ok. I have replaced the FRAM filter with the Motor craft part that was in there with the same results. Once past the 2-3 shift, everything appears to be normal. It cruises fine in OD and doesn't slip under a load.

In one of the first posts in this thread, reference was made to a mis- adjustment in the down shift cable. Does anyone know if there is anything to this and if so, how to adjust the kick down cable. I can't find any adjustments for it? Maybe someone with a real shop manual can help. ( I keep getting outbid at the last minute on E-Bay)
Thanks in advance!

Bruce

 

As of yesterday I now have the privelage of getting a rebuilt transmission on my 91 AWD. Yipee. The front servo (which I believe is the OD servo) blew out of the case and cracked it. The tranny shop says its common with these transmissions. I've never heard of this.

Anyhow its 550 to switch my guts over to a new case, 750 for a used and 1100 for a reman with 1 year 12000 mile waranty. They are a reputable shop as I have dealt with them in the past but I'm still are leary about this A4LD.

Has anyone heard of this type of failure? I can't believe what has just happened. I'm kinda mad as I just bought the van and still am considering junking it.

 

>Has anyone heard of this type of failure? I can't believe
>what has just happened. I'm kinda mad as I just bought the
>van and still am considering junking it.

I haven't heard of that failure, but a cursory search of the internet should convince you that, until rebuilt, the A4LD is a time bomb. We've heard stories of people getting >200k miles on them, but for every one of those stories, you'll hear five others about how theirs has grenaded on them, myself included. I had thought I heard that the post-'91s were better than the early ones, but maybe I've got that confused with the infamous Taurus transmission of that era.

If you're going to keep the van, have it rebuilt with a different case. If you just want to drive it for a year and resell it, then $550 sounds pretty attractive. Actually, $1200 is pretty darned good price to do the rebuild. I paid $1600 carry-out price, and then I had to install it myself!

Regards,
Al S.

 

Yes the 1100 is pretty good considering this is removal, and reinstalling a reman trans. They have most transmissions stocked (Aerostar is one them). They rebuild them in house. VERY fast turnaround. They just called and said the van is done-and I brought the van in last night at closing time. I remember I had a 79 Ford F-100 with a bad trans that I had brought to them in the morning. 800 smackaroos and 7 hours later it was done. I ran the truck for 6 years after. The trans is still good but the truck fell apart! It helps when they've been in business for 25 years.

 

This is a follow-up on Portland, Ore's "Transmission Exchange".

As I had the A4LD out to replace the 3.0l's rear casting plugs anyway, I pulled the tailshaft housing off and took it in to them (if you'll recall, they rebuilt the trans for $1500+ 2.5 years/21k miles ago, and the driveshaft always fit loose from Day One, but I installed the trans then drove it two states away and was there until well after the warranty period expired.)

I gave them my sob story, told them that I didn't care about the warranty issue but that I wanted it fixed. Took in my driveshaft with me so they could see how loosely it fit.

They rebushed the housing and drove in a new seal, for $20, and turned it around in two days. One day, really. The driveshaft fits noticeably tighter. I haven't driven it yet -- I just now got everything back installed, fired it up on the stands and filled the cooling system, let it run for 30 minutes, now it's in cool-down, tomorrow I climb back underneath and start looking for leaks again -- but I'm hoping for an end to leaving little red puddles wherever I park, for the first time since I've owned it.

Regards,
Al S.

 

Just a note on tranny fluid coolers. Several years ago I asked my mechanic to install a tranny fluid cooler on my wife's '93 3.0 A4LD because we planned to tow a trailer. My mechanic said it already has one and that there had been problems with this tranny and heat so Ford in '92 started putting the cooler in on all of them.

 

Every AT-equipped Aero I've seen has a factory outside-the-radiator ATF cooler in series with the in-radiator cooler.

After I paid $1600 to have my A4LD rebuilt, I added a second outside ATF cooler in series with the other two, plus an inline filter, bringing the total number of oil coolers on my rig up to three. That, combined with premium synthetic ATF, will hopefully keep this thing cool running long enough for the engine to wear out.

Regards,
Al S.

 

i have a 91 ext aerostar 4.0 litre with 157 tho miles on it, with the A4LD tranny. i had it rebuilt last year because it wouldn't go into overdrive. now just one year and two months later it clunks while driving on the expressway at 50 or 60 mph when i press down on the accelerator to speed up a little. its as if it wants to kick down out of 4th but doesn't. it is usually only one or two clunks. one day last week it did it three times in succession. i called the rebuild shop for an apptment to check it....don't have the cash to rebuild it again...hope its not too bad...? annyone hhad that experience? rick

 

Unfortunately I do not believe this bodes well for you. I don't know what this means as I am not a trany expert, but I think you need to get it looked at before you use the abnormal disassembly procedure, i.e. scatter it all over the interstate.

14 months after rebuild and you are having trouble. Boy does that sound familiar.

Out of curiousity, what did you pay for the rebuild and what did you get for your money?

 

i dug out my 1 yr 12 tho. mi warranty,it says "recondition A4LD and exchange rebuilt torque converter. it also list items as follows. overhaul kit, bushings, 2 servo pistons, filter, washers, o/d planet carrier, o/d sprag, o/d sprag retainer, sun gear adapter plate, rebuilt bell housing, rebuilt torque converter, flywheel spaler, modulator, fluid, labor. grand total 1,378.00
i thought the tranny would be better than new after rebuild,....guess not. i wonder if the rebuilt torque converter they swapped was not as tough as my original. i had about 141 thou on prev tranny..i called the shop. they said they will look at it for free, and let me know whats up, cant get it there for 2 wks. hope to avoid "abnormal dissassembly!" it runs well other wise. rick

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 23-Mar-02 AT 04:53 PM (EST)]Update on my own situation.

Drove the wifes van today, there is a vibration (shudder or chatter) in first gear. Otherwise it shifts normally.

Don't know what this means, but I know it can't be good.

Back to the shop it goes, again!

Wonder what they are going to tell me this time. Any guesses?

 

This AL4D sure seems to be one fussy tranny. My 89 3L has close to 170K miles on it. The first tranny rebuild was at 96K miles and then a partial rebuild at 135K miles. Now the tranny will not go into OD until the engine has been run for about 15 miles at 60+ mph. When you slow down it drops out of gear totally and you have to shift to D to engage the tranny. It shifts 1-3 no problem. I took it back to the mechanic who did the original work and he said it was lack of power and running to cool. Anyway two shops, both running computer diag., a new fuel pump, mass air sensor, coolant temp. sensor and timing chain it still has problems in OD. Now the tranny mechanic says its the speed sensor. I just don't think he wants to work on it anymore.
Can a faulty speed sensor cause OD shift problems? Both engine mechanics put it on the computer and found other problems which they fixed but nothing to do with the speed sensor.

 

The engine coolant has to reach a certain temperature before OD will engage. Some Aerostars have two temperature senders, one for the dashboard gauge and one for the computer. So even if the temp gauge reads Normal, the computer may think the engine is cold if the other sender isn't working properly. Jan Richter

 

Well the second mechanic said that the temp. sensor he replaced was the one that the computer used to tell that the engine was warm enough to shift into overdrive. The temp. sensor was the main suspected culprit from the beginning so I focused on that from the start. Still no proper shifting. And even when it is thoroughly warmed up and in OD when you take your foot off the gas pedal it just falls out of gear and you have to shift to D to get it back in gear.
My main problem is to find another tranny mechanic who will just fix the problem in OD, probably a solenoid or something electronic in the tranny, without trying to sell me on a total rebuild.