Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

I went out testing my new engine today and noticed that the transmission started slipping while in overdrive. I can shift down into drive and it seems to do fine. Got any ideas of what's going wrong?

clutches are going, valve body issue.. could be a few things, how much more power does this motor have than the last?

I'm thinking about 100 more horsepower. I recently did the HO swap with a few extra little things done to the engine.

check your trans fluid? it may be a little low

Transmission fluid is not low. As a matter of fact I think I may have over filled it a little bit.

Over-drive band is on its way south. Ask me how I know :(

there are other possibilities, but that's probably what it is

OK how do you know?

 
A girl I was involved with had a '93 Cougar the same time I had my '86 Cougar. Of course, red fender was always leaving me down, somewhere. Well, her '93 started doing like you described. Next thing you know, it wouldn't go ANYwhere. Well, I check the transmission fluid & the stick is DRY! So, we proceed to the autoparts store, where I grab 5 quarts of transmission fluid.

I dump four in, and the car starts working like it's supposed to. So, we get it to a shop her dad told her to bring it to so it can get worked on first thing Monday.

Well, that Monday, they dump NINE quarts out :sorry::giggle:

So, after conversing with Eric, the OD band went bad. The only reason the trans dip stick was dry was because it was checked facing up a big hill. If we'd have just put her car in drive, we could have gone anywhere we wanted to.

That's how I'd know you burnt up over-drive :(

As a post script to the story ...

Her dad was a construction worker. Every bit of 6' 5" and 300lbs of muscle. Well, he wanted to wring my neck something fierce. In fact, this girl told me not to show up at her house, 'cause her dad was pissed. Her mom explained to her dad I was just looking out for his little girl. After momma told dad that, and it sunk in, I was his best friend in the whole world. shiznit, I got to drink through his case of beer, if I wanted to :rollin:

If I had to take a guess, I'd go with the O/D band as well.

it's a typical happening for a high mileage/old AOD

O/D band is dying.

Odd thing. The O/D band on my AOD never died. The clutches between 1-2 and 2-3 were eaten by the power of the GT40 5.0 but the  O/D band still worked.

OK what kind of repair costs do you guys think I'm looking at?

Basic back to stock rebuild should be between $800-900. If you want to modify it the sky's the limit. An AOD with a high quality performance rebuild+high quality performance converter will run around $3,000.

This is what my SC did.  I fixed it without a rebuild.  Replaced just the OD band and the seals on the servos.  It was pretty easy once the trans was out.  See my post here:

http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?26434-Replacing-the-OD-band&highlight=

Worked great after I was finished.  About $50.  I was confident the other gears were working good.  I sold the car a few months later.

Old thread revival. :shakeass:

My aod drives fine, but ive noticed if I get on it hard and it downshifts, It seems to slip some as accelerating.

Im thinking about getting a Silverfox valvebody anyway, would that hasten the aod's demise?

Is it slipping when loading up in 4th (od)?  Ie, you let it shift into 4th and then give it some more gas without it wanting to kick down?  If so, thats what my SC did when  the OD band went out.

If it flares when kicking down into 3rd (4th gear, give lots of gas, Lower RPM-REALLY HIGH RPM-High RPM) then most likely it is somewhere else.  Might be the 3-4 accumulator but I would have to go study the AOD some more.  Folks at Click-Click racing might know.
 
-DZ

It happend going fairly slow (like 30 mph) and stomping on it, downshifts good and takes off, begins to slip in upper rpms. I let off and it upshifts, and I think "WTF" just happened and get pissed.:mad:

I'm going to preface this with saying: The following are educated guesses from a guy on the internet who has fooled around with a couple AODs.  Please refer to a certified mechanic if don't feel very confident mucking with your only mode of transpiration.

So you are cursing along in 30 (probably in 3rd) and you stomp on it.  There should be a firm kick to 2nd and then hold 2nd till you hit X RPM (it's been a while since I had an AOD).  At which point it will attempt to shift into 3rd. <>

If it's flaring on the 2-3 shift, the clutch is not applying fast enough allowing too much slip in the shift.  Some likely culprits are the  2-3 shift accumulator or 2-3 shift valve or one of your clutches have started to give up (probably from the former going out, can't remember if it's the front, intermediate, or direct clutch which is responsible for the 2-3 shift).

If you are confident with taking parts of your trans apart, I would try inspecting the 2-3 accumulator and 2-3 shift valve.  You need to pull the VB to get to the accumulator so you may as well check both. 

Not as scary as you might think but will cost you ~$30 in trans fluid and another ~$30 in a gasket set.  You will need to be very clean and clean both the VB, separator plate, and trans case.  You will need a small torque wrench as well.  Can be done without removing the trans.  I replaced the 2-3 accumulator seals when I did the OD band replacement because I was already in there.



Check out this recommendation.
http://www.justanswer.com/ford/20wae-1992-ford-f150-4wd-the-transmission-shifts-neutral-second-gear.html

These clutches are buried in the trans assembly and would basically call for a complete tear down.

 
Yeah if I I was stuck at 30mph I would probably be cursing as well. :giggle:

As far as the above statement, I don't think it would be in 3rd at 30 mph unless you've got a high geared rear.  But I can say that my AOD will stay in 2nd gear if I'm WOT until about 70 mph, which is somewhere around 4500 rpm I believe. But this could also vary a bit based on the TB cable adjustment. The upshift to 3rd should definitely  feel smooth but not drug out. Pretty much instant.

It COULD in fact be in 3rd when cruising even with a numerically low rear end gear depending upon how you've set the TV valve.  Where I have mine right now, the car will not shift into 3rd even at the absolute lightest throttle until 35 MPH.  This is with a 27 inch tall tire and 3.45's.  Depending on if I move the block back more or forward more on the rod, I can adjust this a good amount.  The car will grab 1st gear up to 32-33 MPH depending upon temperature conditions if I mat the pedal down.


It's more due to inherent converter slippage in 1st and 2nd.  Case in point.  I get about 80 MPH in second gear and I'm turning 6 grand on the motor at that point.  If there were zero converter slippage I should get about 10 MPH MORE.  The car would accelerate a hell of a lot slower though.  Tradeoffs suck.

As far as adjusting the cable goes.  I tried all sorts of combinations.  I found that adjusted too tight results in the more aggressive quick shifts I liked, but sometimes it would "hang" waiting on the downshift.  Basically, it would stick it out in 3rd too long when coming up to a light.  I finally settled on somewhere in the middle giving me firm shifts but coasting to stops normally.

I had 3.55s and 26" tall tires and an SC engine pushing 300ish ftlbs torque.  If I was on anything but the freeway I drove around in 3rd (D).  Otherwise with the 355s it wanted to kick into OD at 40ish.  Resulting in a alot of shifting in-out-in-out.  I would really recommend city driving in 3rd for any AOD owner.  That OD band sucks (1.5" wide for most of us) and just heats up the oil with all the shifting. 

Man I miss that car.

The most common solution is to replace it with 4R70W parts. Its a much better band. 2" IIRC

Update. So I've been driving around in (D) for about a year now and finally tried (OD) out again. It seems to be doing fine now. I wonder if I had gotten some trash in the fluid or something that worked it's way out.

Magic Healing Car. 

I had a 92 topaz that was a magic healing car.  It would make all sorts of horrible noises that would slowly go away.  I thought everything was fine and dandy.  Then one day the transmission just disappeared.