I have a 1984 F-150 with a 351HO and what I believe to be a C6. I also have a AOD out of a 1988 Crown-Vic that I want to swap into the truck to gain the overdrive. I know the C6 is stronger but the AOD will hold up to a stock 351 and old-man driving. So, I have the entire doner car what do I need to grap from it and what do I need to buy.

 

you need something from lokar to make the kickdown work on a carbed motor

 

anything else?

 

the torque convertor for sure i think that may be all

 

what about all the linkage and whatnot? Has anyone out there done this swap or know anyone who has? All help is appreciated.

 

oh yeah that too

 

My 82 was "converted" from a C5 to an AOD when I bought it, so I don't know ALL the specific details. Whoever did it was a half-*** kinda guy and I've had to redo much of it when I had to replace the AOD.
1. Your crossmember will likely be wrong for the rear tranny mount. This is easily solved by spinning it end-for-end when you take it off. You'll see what I mean when you start installing the AOD. No biggie.
2. Your driveshaft will be wrong. First, the front yoke has the wrong splines. Luckily one will work from a C4, C5, or and AOD driveshaft. Next, the truck AOD's (and Lincolns)are generally 1 1/2" longer than all the other AOD's. Including Crown Vic's. This means finding a "bolt in" correct driveshaft from a junkyard truck will be very difficult. They'll all be an inch too short. Been there, done that. I hate to say it , but I ran an inch short driveshaft for quite some time with no ill effects other than the tailshaft seal tended to leak a bit.
3. The C6 cooling lines are in the wrong place and have the wrong connectors. My solution was to get the connectors and about a foot of tubing off a junkyard Crown Vic. I then cut the lines and used brass "compression fittings" to join them to the old lines. Works great. The fittings are cheap and easily found at most parts stores and hardware stores.
4. The TV linkage. Tough. Best to buy the cable conversion kit from LoKar. The early trucks used rods instead of cables like all the cars did. I discovered the hard way that if you have a 351W, the 302 rod is too short. Took me forever to find an AOD specific, 351W, truck TV rod. If I had to do it over I sure would have hust bought the cable kit. If you want your AOD to live any length of time, the TV cable/rod has to be a good one and adjusted just right, or else. A TV cable very far out of adjustment can ruin an AOD faster than you would believe. Mine once fell off the carb on the freeway. In the time it took to realize something was wrong and pull over, OD disappeared. Fixed the rod and was on my way, with a 3 speed. OD never ever worked after that.
5. After many linkage problems, I finally robbed the complete pivot setup and rods from a AOD truck/Bronco. The pivot assembly just bolts the the left framerail. The C4/C5 is different, it can be forced to work if you're willing to build some really goofy and untrustworthy brackets. I suspect you'll need to do this too, though I'm not up to speed on C6 linkages.
6. The F150 steering column is AOD or C6 specific. All this amounts to is that if you have the wrong one, it's impossible to adjust the gear indicator to be accurate all the way across. A minor annoyance really. Even if you swap out the indicator in the cluster to the "OD" one. I just lined mine up to where OD was correct and find the rest of the gears by feel. My wife can never seem to figure out where reverse is though.
7. I can't swear to it, but I'm pretty sure you'll need the AOD flexplate as the C6's won't work. This is something I've heard rather than actually seen though.
8. So it seems the AOD swap is a pain. Well sort of. A heck of a lot easier if you can find a donor truck that has all the right bits you can rob. Would I do it again? In a minute. I really like having overdrive. An added benefit is you can run lower rear gears and still cruise nicely on the highway. 3.55 rear gears, an AOD with a mild shift kit, and a healthy 351W make a truck that is actually fun to drive. I feel it was worth all the trouble for me, especially since my truck was often used to haul race bikes race to race.

 

I have an 84 F150 that had a 302 with AOD, I swapped in a 351W. My 351W has an edelbrock intake and carb. The kickdown rod does need to be modified as far as how it connects to the carb in my case, but the same rod was used. Also you will need to make sure you have the right flywheel with the 351W weighting and the AOD step heighth. If you try the C6 flywheel it will jam the torque convertor back to far into the tranny and take out the pump. My situation didn't require any change in driveshaft, but yours will. You may just have to find an F150 that had the AOD driveshaft and you'll be okay. There aren't very many 351's hooked up to AOD's, but they work well. A very well respected tranny man I know said the AOD's are great tranny's with a few modifications which are outside of my realm. The only factory application of 351 and AOD that I know of was early 80's cop cars.

 

I have a AOD out of an 86 Mustang and was considering doing the same thing as my C6 in my 81 F-150 4x4 is burnt out. What problems will the transfer case cause?