When i was rebuilding this trani I noticed that it had been rebuild before but also the 3-4 accumalatar was missing. should i replace this or leave it out also the valve body according to the book is supposed to have 6 small and one large ball in it but mine only had 4 small and 1 large. should i replace these as well? this van has been moded in the past and when i had it weighed at a scale i came back with an empty weight of 7889 lb's thanks for any help
erik

 

It sounds like you have a late model AOD. At some point Ford dropped the 3-4 accumulator so if yours doesn't have one, don't put one in it. The accumulator's purpose is to smooth out the shift. So it will be firmer without it.

If you suspect the transmission has been rebuilt before, its likely the builder put a shift kit in it and that may account for the difference in check *****. I would buy a kit from Baumann Engineering and install it.

AOD Transmission FAQs - Baumann Electronic Controls, LLC

 

ok , thank you for your input. can i do any damage to the trani if i put 3-4 accumulator back in? the resone i had to do a complete rebuild was i found metal in the oil and most of the bushings where shot and the cluch packs where all worn but the forward clutch pack 4 of the clutchs where worn down to the metal and the fifth was almost that bad. Can i damage the trani or the valve body if i replace all the check ***** as they are acording to the book with out replaceing the metal plate on the valve body? could this damage have happened becuase of an incorect shift kit? miss adjusted tv . i also found that the drive shaft only had 2 bolts holding it on at the rear end instead of the 4 it should have had could this have caused a vibration that caused the damage. the van sat for several years before i bought it and i had a complete fluid change done but i should have done it myself anyway when i first got it it had 37k oringinal miles and in the past 6 months i have put over 18k miles on it. the only symtom it had when i got it was a really hard **** from 2-3 and 3-4 but then it fixed itself after about 2k miles and only shifted hard into 4th. i thought it was maybe a stuck vavle or something but i am not sure now. thank you

 

There is no need for the 3-4 accumulator. Its been a long time but I am not sure you can use the accumulator on the late model unit. It may be the late model valve body can't use it. And you can't swap valve bodies between cases.

I doubt the loose drive shaft caused all of that problem, sitting for several years likely did. The seals got hard and that caused it to slip and burned up all of those clutches. The metal you found in the pan is from the bushings and bearings. That's a common failure mode for the AOD. It could also be that the TV cable gromet on the throttle linkage broke. You need to replace it even if there is still one in it.

I don't know which book you have but you should be using an ATSG manual. That is the best manual to use. There you will find several different check ball arrangements depending on which version of the AOD you have. Then there may also be different locations if somebody installed a shift kit. If it has a shift kit, the separator plate has likely been drilled.

I would recommend buying a new separator plate and putting the check ***** back in the OE locations. Or, buying and installing a BE kit.

 

thank you for the information. I will be replacing the separator plate with an oe one and i will also be getting a **** kit for the trani. i need to get the van on the road asap and i was able to get my hands on a oe plate cheep so i am gong to try that set up and see what happens then when the shift kit comes in i will try it that way. I will let you know what i find out and thanks again for the info it has been a big help.