94 Ranger 4x4 - Swapping out Standard for an Automatic? Any thoughts or advice?

[BillRod]

Hi All

I have a 94 Ranger 4x4 thinking of swapping the Standard out for an Automatic Trans.
Any thoughts or advice on how involved this would be?

Or can anyone point me in the right direction for research info?

Thanks in advance.
Bill

 

[BlackBII]

Totally doable and can be done with factory parts from a junkyard. You'll need the transmission, ECU, column shifter, etc.

BUT

The automatic trans for that year, the A4LD, doesn't have a very good reputation for reliability. You could instead use the newer 4R55E or 5R55E if you were to also swap in the correct ECU, which would likely also include an OBD2 swap, which can get pretty involved.

 

[adsm08]

Best advice, don't.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

There are options but we need to know the purpose of the swap.
Are you missing a leg?
Want to rock crawl?
Just dont know how to stick?

 

[BillRod]

It's my wife's truck, do to a back injury she was advised to look for an automatic trans.

Unfortunately Not a lot of them out there without tons of miles.
And they are pretty pricey here in Colorado.

It needs an engine and a clutch anyway so was thinking of doing the trans swap with the engine.

 

[bobbywalter]

Best advice, don't.

solid advice.....





but the medical issue overrules....







like said....swapping to the later powertrain is ideal.


buying or trading for a newer truck is likely the best solution. whether or not its better to swap a new engine in and trade it off for an auto truck or swap in a later powertrain depends specifically on your skills.

 

[BillRod]

What are the obstacles and issues that I would face?

Are there any posts or any literature that I can research what the swap would really entail other than the obvious?

Thanks
Bill

 

[4x4junkie]

There's a good bit of material available for doing the inverse of the swap you're proposing... that might help offer a few clues as to what you're getting into if you have a good sense of "working backwards", if you will (search for "M5OD swap").


As for the trans itself, I'm not so convinced all the problems we typically see with the A4LD are the fault of the trans itself... From things I've gathered, excess heat is what kills these transmissions because Ford never saw fit to put a proper cooling setup on them (and problems I've seen on A4LDs have persisted with the later 4R and 5R variants because they too used the same cooling setup).

My suggestion is put a nice fat auxiliary cooler on the transmission return line and chances are good you'd have a good reliable setup. Try to start with a trans already in good shape though (one that's been driven 100K or more with no aux cooler is likely to have much of it's life used up already). Have a good shop do a full updated rebuild on it if you can't find one where it can be determined it was well-cared for.

I've seen A4LDs well past the 200K mark after having spent most their life with a decent trans cooler.