Kodas going to rebuild a transmission on his own? WHAT?!?

[koda6966]

Yep.

Sometime when I get the money (should only take a few days of heavy manual labor during college in probably august or september) I am going to pick up an A4LD Transmission from a Junkyard and rebuild it, then keep it on hand for when mine kicks the bucket. The goal here is as little down time as possible.

Mines been slipping lately, and the fluid has a brownish color, so I'm guessing it's slowly on it's way out. I'll just run it till it dies, unless it starts to feel like it's hurting the engine (or my wallet in gas money) and then swap in the rebuilt and ready trans. Should just be a few hour swap if I have it all out and ready. Hopefully it won't happen in winter, but I'm sure my brother wouldn't mind keeping his dog outside in the below 0 weather so I can use his garage to do the swap. Haha. Only thing would be getting it into the garage if the trans is dead.. will it still move? Maybe I'll just lose reverse or 4th or something. You never know.

I've been browsing around and at Napa they price a rebuild kit at $160, Advance has one for....... $162! But it comes with a 1 year guarantee, what the hell is that for on a rebuild kit? If it messes up won't they just say I put it in wrong? Haha. By the way, the prices are links to the items.

What else will I need to purchase to do this rebuild? Oh, and can anyone point me towards a book or something that would help with this, I know they're out there.

Don't worry about my slight lack of skills wrench-wise. I have my German Master Mechanic neighbor to back me up if I get lost. But only if I'm out of any other options, that guy hates me. Apparently back in the olden days in Germany they went to school until they were 14, did a trade for two years, then went to a military school at 16, and military from then on. He thinks I should join up with the Marines or Army instead of going to college. Oh well.

 

[koda6966]

Oh, and will the donor A4LD have to be from a 2wd 3.0 as well? What years?

No posts about doing a M5OD swap. It's too complicated for me.

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

Dont know if they have one on that trans or not but this is a great site for how to.

http://smartflix.com/

 

[koda6966]

I'll check it out. Every little bit of info helps.

 

[koda6966]

Mk. Checked it out. They have an AOD video, but no A4LD video. >.<

 

[Ozwynn]

why don't you change your filter/fluid and drain/refill the torque converter. prolly get another 50K out of that transmission........ unless its doing things like taking 5 min to go into gear or you hear crunching sounds coming from it.

add another cooler and get a trans temp gauge and keep the trans as close to 165* as possible.

 

[koda6966]

why don't you change your filter/fluid and drain/refill the torque converter. prolly get another 50K out of that transmission........ unless its doing things like taking 5 min to go into gear or you hear crunching sounds coming from it.
add another cooler and get a trans temp gauge and keep the trans as close to 165* as possible.

Well, since I highly doubt that the fluid was ever changed in it's long abusive life, that would probably be a bad idea. The little particles of crap it has in it is what keeps it alive.

I can pick up a JY transmission for about 100 dollars, then the rebuild kit at 160. Not sure what else I have to add in there but it hopefully won't total over 350 if I spend correctly.

A transmission temperature gauge would run me about 50 dollars, lets say I get an el cheapo pod for it that just 3M tapes to the dash your looking at about 20 more. Then of course, the cooler, I have no clue how much those cost but I'm guessing about 70-100. Around there somewhere. Plus of course I'd have to find a place to install it, and then the transmission might still go, so I'd have significant down time where I'd be stuck having to find rides to work and college as well as having to spend as much of my spare time as possible to fix it.

If I go my way, I'd have a failsafe plan.

 

[kunar]

dont take this wrong, but it's funny how you think you can rebuild a transmission, but you cant swap in a 5 speed. swapping in a manual transmission is not a big deal at all. and i agree with the recommendation of adding an auxiliary trans cooler, weather you keep this trans or put in a new one. i have one in my shed you can have if you pay shipping. a temp gauge would be good too, but not not really a necessity. you can get a trans temp gauge with bezel for $50 from autozone, and i'm sure cheaper if you shop around some.

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

Check out Murphy Automotive on ebay for a kit.USA made for a good price,great service to.

 

[Shran]

I would suggest that you do some reading on these things before you tear into it. I also have contemplated rebuilding an A4LD as a spare but have not gotten around to it yet. ExplorerForum has some bitchin' tech articles...these should give you an idea of what you're getting into.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146953
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146956
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137972

Good luck, I hope this goes well for you.

 

[rboyer]

If I had a A4LD in my truck I would definitely consider swapping in a 5 speed way before I even thought about rebuilding the A4LD. I wouldn't even waste my time with rebuilding the thing. You would be better off just taking a 50 dollar junkyard A4LD and swapping it in because you may just get the same amount of life out of it anyway. Then again if you throw a 5 speed in it the thing might very well outlast the rest of the truck and the install is WAY easier than playing russian roulette with an automatic. You do know how to drive a manual trans, right?

 

[koda6966]

dont take this wrong, but it's funny how you think you can rebuild a transmission, but you cant swap in a 5 speed. swapping in a manual transmission is not a big deal at all. and i agree with the recommendation of adding an auxiliary trans cooler, weather you keep this trans or put in a new one. i have one in my shed you can have if you pay shipping. a temp gauge would be good too, but not not really a necessity. you can get a trans temp gauge with bezel for $50 from autozone, and i'm sure cheaper if you shop around some.

As said before, I don't really feel like buying an M50D, rebuilding it, swapping it in, having to buy a shifter, cutting into my baby, and spending extra money when it would be so much cheaper, and easier to just swap another A4LD in.

I would suggest that you do some reading on these things before you tear into it. I also have contemplated rebuilding an A4LD as a spare but have not gotten around to it yet. ExplorerForum has some bitchin' tech articles...these should give you an idea of what you're getting into.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146953
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146956
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137972
Good luck, I hope this goes well for you.

I have seen glaciers threads and read threw them, very detailed. However, I don't see the need in building a "bulletproof A4LD." That guy replaced way to many things. Good write up though, it should help a lot with the teardown/rebuild. I actually took some notes on those threads.. haha.

If I had a A4LD in my truck I would definitely consider swapping in a 5 speed way before I even thought about rebuilding the A4LD. I wouldn't even waste my time with rebuilding the thing. You would be better off just taking a 50 dollar junkyard A4LD and swapping it in because you may just get the same amount of life out of it anyway. Then again if you throw a 5 speed in it the thing might very well outlast the rest of the truck and the install is WAY easier than playing russian roulette with an automatic. You do know how to drive a manual trans, right?

I considered it. I decided not to do it. At my yard I would spend just as much money buying the M50D and swapping it in as I would the A4LD. I also stated that I'm looking for as little downtime as possible. And A4LD's aren't 50 dollars around here, more around 120. I don't see the point in swapping in a transmission and not giving it a little refresher course. Even if it only gets me an extra 20,000 miles out of that transmission, at 10 thousand miles a year, that's going to take me two years.

And who's to say mine doesn't last that long? If it does, I'll end up doing the swap anyway just for the sake of doing it. Or if for some other reason I end up not wanting the truck, the freshly rebuilt trans would find it's way to craigslist, and I'd have some pocket money for the next vehicle, or since that would more than likely be a 1993 or 1994 Ranger, which used the A4LD. I could just pick one up with a junk tranny and presto. It has life.

I would rather not have this turn into yet another thread about why the M50D is better than the A4LD. It is, we all know this. I posted this looking for information on the rebuild, and to see what vehicles/configurations the A4LD would have to come out of.

Oh, and how is the install with an Auto like playing Russian Roulette?

 

[rboyer]

Oh, and how is the install with an Auto like playing Russian Roulette?

Well mostly because you can't stand there and stare at the thing and tell if it will work. As long as you accept the fact that you could possibly screw it up and have it out of the truck once or twice because that scenario could happen to anyone and can get quite frustrating. I'm not going to sit here and try to talk you into a manual trans swap because your mind is made up. Just make sure that in the end it's worth sinking money into the truck because that's what really matters. A 16 year old Ranger with a rebuilt auto trans is still a 16 year old Ranger and worth about the same as one with a used junkyard trans. If you see yourself selling the thing in a few years then it wouldn't be worth sinking money into. BUT if you do your rebuild properly and plan on having the thing for a while then it would be worth it.

 

[Combs Customs]

Before you go tearing into the A4LD, you better make sure you don't need any ford specific tools to get anything out. Factory tools can get expensive quick. I'm another one that agrees the M5OD swap is much easier than an automatic rebuild. It's a bolt in affair, no cutting on your baby. You would need clutch master, line, slave, clutch kit, transmission, shifter, boot, floor plate. 5-speeds will run with the automatic computer. And like was said before, if you rebuild the automatic yourself, odds are you will be pulling it apart again. I went to school and learned how to rebuild automatics, and i wouldnt do it.

 

[cocoasranger]

If I had a A4LD in my truck I would definitely consider swapping in a 5 speed way before I even thought about rebuilding the A4LD. I wouldn't even waste my time with rebuilding the thing. You would be better off just taking a 50 dollar junkyard A4LD and swapping it in because you may just get the same amount of life out of it anyway. Then again if you throw a 5 speed in it the thing might very well outlast the rest of the truck and the install is WAY easier than playing russian roulette with an automatic. You do know how to drive a manual trans, right?

+1 on all counts. If you buy an A4LD rebuild manual and read it through like I did when deciding which way to go after the the POS....sorry, A4LD went tits up, you will quickly discover what a daunting task a rebuild is.

I decided to switch to the Mazda trans (first swap I ever did) and it was definitely the way to go.