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I have a '92 Aerostar 3.0 and always wondered about the tranny. I believe it is an A4LD and I thought it was a 3 speed plus OD but it seems to have 5 gears sometimes like when you give it a little extra pedal on the highway and it increases RPM but not enough for 3rd gear.
Well look what I discovered from becontrols.com (see Chapter 7 on their site):
"The A4LD was derived from the C-3 three-speed automatic transmission by placing a two-speed overdrive unit in front of the original three-speed workings."
Fascinating. Ford must have been pretty hard up to squeeze every mpg out of the Aerostar.
Last edited by TallPaul; Dec 25, 2005 at 03:40 PM.
I can vouch for that being the Torque Converter Lockup. I have installed the LED for it, and sure enough, the blinking LED does correspond to what felt like the tranny going in/out of fifth gear, which it doesn't have.
Can you give the schematic and location out of the LED?
Originally Posted by copper_90680
I can vouch for that being the Torque Converter Lockup. I have installed the LED for it, and sure enough, the blinking LED does correspond to what felt like the tranny going in/out of fifth gear, which it doesn't have.
There are 2 electric valves iside the tranny. First - Lock-Up, 2nd - OD, I had two LEDs.
Converter clutch solenoid is controlled by white wire, 3-4 shift solenoid is controlled by TAN Lt. blue wire. Or you can connect LED to 224 (OD) and 332 (Lock-up) pins on electronic engine conrol unit. Use 12V LED or common 1.2-2V LED, but with 1-3 Kohm resistor. You can use 12V signal bulbs (0.2-1Wt) instead LEDs.
When I had the automatic tranny, LEDs were located on IPC, there are some not used places for lights. Now I want to add tachometer, to see my RPM...
Last edited by Pablo-UA; Dec 27, 2005 at 04:56 AM.
So this tranny is a rather comical beast, having a vacuum modulator for the old C3 portion and electronic controls for the OD and lockup? But it works. I will say the tranny is too prone to over downshifting. Kind of high strung. Maybe because of the low powered engine.
Well, a smaller engine give more feedback of high load through the vacuum modulator, so it is more prone to downshift. Yes, useing a more powerful engine reduces this, or increaseing the power output of the 3.0
I think when I had the on-purpose leak (and filtered) in the vacuum line to the modulator it made it less prone to downshift, but also firmed up the shifts. With enough leak I could get it to bang shift. I understand you can get a different modulator or link for the modulator to vary the shifting characteristics.
Here are the pictures I promised. I only looked at the schematics for 93-95 vans and they are the same. I don't know about other years, so you may have to confirm that the connectors pinout is the same.
WARNING: The connectors pinout are different for the 4.0L and the 3.0L, so be careful which one you have.
I have a 92 and a 94, both 3.0 with 4-speed automatic overdrive. I notice the oil filler in one of the photos is in a different place than I am accustomed to seeing it. Do you have a 4.0 by chance?
BTW, I changed the ignition lock cylinder this weekend. Not a bad job, but I never could get the key-left-in dinger wire to fit, and I finally ended up taping the end of it and tucking in somewhere out of the way. I am suspicious they may have sold me the wrong part, but it works, and it was getting dark. I may purchase look at another one and see if there is a difference. This could be the one for my 92. Will have to visit the locksmith and see about making one key out of two as so many on the forum have suggested.
I do appreciate all the assistance you folks have offered.
Originally Posted by copper_90680
Hi Dave:
Here are the pictures I promised. I only looked at the schematics for 93-95 vans and they are the same. I don't know about other years, so you may have to confirm that the connectors pinout is the same.
WARNING: The connectors pinout are different for the 4.0L and the 3.0L, so be careful which one you have.