Well The good old 1992 Aerostar XL 3.0 shorty with 241,000 Miles on it has an ailing Tranny... I have no Idea how many miles is actually on the tranny. We bought it used in 2001 with 121,000 miles on it and My dad has been using it to commute to work everyday, he drives about 40 miles on rural roads and another 30 on 'interstate 20' at highspeed, that's one way, not round trip... The constant merging onto the intserstate over the past few years has finally taken a tole on the A4LD...

Like I said I don't know if it has been replaced or rebuilt before we got it or if it has all of those 241000 miles on it. Other than the tranny slipping, and the clearcoat peeling right over the passenger side door this van is in good shape, looks good, and runs good too! The engine is in surprisingly good shape for its age and abuse...

Anyway, we are trying to find a way to buy some time before rebuilding the tranny, we want to get as much as we can out of it, and are on a really tight budget right now... My dad and I are thinking about having the fluid and filter changed and adding a bottle of Lucas Oil Products transmission Tune-Up to it. I have herd that the Lucas Tranny additive is pretty good and It just might keep it going long enough for us to aford the rebuild. What do you all think??? any opinions??? I am not really for using tranny additives but it might buy us some time and we're going to have it rebuilt anyway.


-Mike-

 

If you've had the tranny fluid changed before and regularly I say go ahead and change it, if you haven't I"d be very nervous about a fluid change just making the problem worse. You could try adjusting the bands though, it made mine run well again 120,000 miles.

 

I don't have a shop manual for this thing. How do you adjust the bands? Something a fairly mechanically inclined person could do right?

Yeah we haven't had the fluid changed in a while, we got it changed probably about 60k ago so I don't know about a change myself.... I've herd stories about fluid changes on neglected transmissions just making the problem worse, guess i better not then. If the fluid was cleaner and pinker I probably would go ahead with it, but it is so dirty looking that putting clean fluid in there probably wouldn't help matters.

-Mike-

 

For the bands there are two adjusters on the drivers side of the transmission, all you have to do is loosen the lock nuts, torque the adjusters to spec, (I forget what spec is I don't have my shop manual in front of me but I think it's been posted on this forum before) and then back off the adjusters I either a turn and a half or two turns (which depends once again on year and engine size I believe). Pretty easy job all in all. The other thing to check might be the vacuum modulator on the passenger side of the transmission, pull the vacuum hose that runs into it and see if it's full of trans fluid, if it is it needs replacing.

 

Did you adjust the bands or use Lucas Oil.

I was told by a mechanic that it was the filter.

I am up here in wisconsin and it got down to -21
it seems to not slip as much when it warms up.

Once it warms up it's fine.

Best Regards,
Gary Creed
gcreed@netscape.com

 

I've got a '91 and a '93 Aerostar and each one of them have the original tranny. I've used Lucas tranny treatment in the '91 a few years ago when it started to act up. I'm still not a big believer in the stuff, but maybe it helped in my case. Each of the vans has over 200K miles on them and the trannys work great.
Anyway, I'll give you a little time-saving tip if you are changing the filter and adding the Lucas treatment, at least for this time of year.
Add the Lucas oil treatment to the transmission pan BEFORE you install the
pan. Get everything cleaned up, put the gasket in place and hold it in place by a few bolts, and add the treatment in a warm garage or shop BEFORE you bolt it in place. Otherwise the thick stuff running down the long fill tube will take you several hours!! Also, make sure you have the Lucas treatment warmed up in your house ahead of time or this stuff will NEVER come out of the bottle.

 

Was the tranny slipping, and did Lucas tranny treatment work.

Or did it not and you had to drain it and put in a new filter in.

I am trying to not drop the tranny pan because I do not have access
to a garage now, and did you change the filter.

Was yours slipping like mine.

Gary,

 

Yes, it was slipping. I bought my '91 from the original owner and changed transmission oil at 150K miles. It really needed it. I changed it again at 170K miles because it started to turn a darker color and you really don't get all the oil out when you do a typical change anyway. (Oil in torque converter) It had some slippage between 3rd and overdrive. I also installed a drain plug at that time although I know that taking the pan off and replacing the filter is the proper thing to do and it isn't that hard or inaccessible. My '91 is rusty but trusty, but my '93 has no rust and looks very good for 200K+ miles.
Both of mine are the extended versions with the 3.0. My wife and I really like the extra room you get with the extended Aerostars. Being a rear wheel drive, most of the parts are easy to work on, with the exception of the spark plugs.
I have now changed them several times and it gets easier and quicker with each time.

 

It's not slipping as much today the temp's around 40 degrees.

Did you try the Lucas tranny treatment before you droped the pan.
I would like to do it come spring when it is warm up.

I have no garage now to do it.

Do you think the Lucas treatment would work to by me some time.

And do they make some for an oil leak, mines leaking pretty
bad 1 qt every 50 miles.

Out of work-out of money and out of a garage.

Come spring I will be fine, my work is all outside.

Gary,

 

I put it in after I changed the filter. Like I posted earlier, I'm still not sold that this is a cure for everything. (I am a mechanic by trade, so unless the filter is plugged, there is a problem somewhere) Where is the leak? Front seal, rear seal, or linkage shaft? The stop-leak products are a band-aid, not a fix. You might get the leak to stop or slow down with the the stuff, but not always. I'm not a cold season lover myself. We've had a few cold days, but so far it has been okay here in Kansas.