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

[Ozwynn]

I don't know how many miles you got on your truck but my brother's last Jetta had 250K on it and it wasn't exactly treated nice...... we drained the converter, drained the trans and changed the filter, we didn't have it powerflushed, just got fresh fluid into it..... we got another 30K before the car quit running.

 

[koda6966]

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.

I plan on keeping it.

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.

I'll check in on those Ford tools. And yeah, I'd still have to cut into my floor and I think the firewall to run the clutch into the truck if I'm not mistaken.

I don't know how many miles you got on your truck but my brother's last Jetta had 250K on it and it wasn't exactly treated nice...... we drained the converter, drained the trans and changed the filter, we didn't have it powerflushed, just got fresh fluid into it..... we got another 30K before the car quit running.

My rule of thumb is if it never had the trans fluid changed after 150k, don't touch it. My brother went through three cars because his transmissions went to hell after he changed the fluids. Actually, I think one of them is the Ranger my new rear shocks are from.

 

[kunar]

And yeah, I'd still have to cut into my floor and I think the firewall to run the clutch into the truck if I'm not mistaken.

you unbolt a plate on the firewall and bolt in the master in place of that plate. the shifter is the same, it goes through a plate in the floor. you dont need to cut anything. but hey, do what you want. just take pics of everything and keep us all up to date. you obviously have made up your mind and that is fine. i would still recommend a transmission cooler, and like i said, i have one ill send you just for the price of shipping.

 

[Combs Customs]

When i said bolt in affair, i meant everything is done with a socket set. No sawzall, cutoff wheel, dremel, or hacksaw. its probably the easiest vechicle to do a tranny swap on.

 

[Bent Bolt]

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.

Building a Frankentranny is not hard at all. The biggest thing is to buy a 5R55E for the guts. Drill some holes in the back of the case to drive out the low one way clutch race and drive it into the A4LD case. After that it's a regular rebuild.

Works very, very well. Not a single issue after 3 years of very hard use.

 

[Mechanickid]

3 words - Automatics Suck Ball$

 

[koda6966]

you unbolt a plate on the firewall and bolt in the master in place of that plate. the shifter is the same, it goes through a plate in the floor. you dont need to cut anything.

When i said bolt in affair, i meant everything is done with a socket set. No sawzall, cutoff wheel, dremel, or hacksaw. its probably the easiest vechicle to do a tranny swap on.

Really? I was told that you had to cut into the floor to make the hole for the shifter.. it's just a plate bolted in there?

Building a Frankentranny is not hard at all. The biggest thing is to buy a 5R55E for the guts. Drill some holes in the back of the case to drive out the low one way clutch race and drive it into the A4LD case. After that it's a regular rebuild.
Works very, very well. Not a single issue after 3 years of very hard use.

Well, I was referring more towards how glacier replaced prettymuch everything, even the stuff that looked better than his new stuff.

3 words - Automatics Suck Ball$

Especially the A4LD.

 

[kunar]

Really? I was told that you had to cut into the floor to make the hole for the shifter.. it's just a plate bolted in there?

borrowed from this thread. i hope mjones doesnt mind.

you will either have to replace that plate, or take it out and cut a hole in it. if by chance you screw it up, just go to the yard and get a new one.

 

[Shran]

Really? I was told that you had to cut into the floor to make the hole for the shifter.. it's just a plate bolted in there?

Well, I was referring more towards how glacier replaced prettymuch everything, even the stuff that looked better than his new stuff.

Yeah, like 90% of Ford trucks have a bolted in floor plate that you swap out when you swap transmissions. It's too easy.

You don't HAVE to swap out everything in your trans for new parts. If I was going to build one from scratch I would buy all new stuff because it would be built for a specific application. But yours is just a replacement for a DD, just replace worn out stuff and roll with it.

 

[Danger FX4 Ranger]

you unbolt a plate on the firewall and bolt in the master in place of that plate. the shifter is the same, it goes through a plate in the floor. you dont need to cut anything.

+1. Remove the carpet covering your transmission hump and tell us what you see.

 

[koda6966]

I doubt he will mind. That was a write up wasn't it?

And is the floor plate built in & removable on 3rd gens as well?

 

[koda6966]

+1. Remove the carpet covering your transmission hump and tell us what you see.

How would I go about doing that without ruining my carpet, since I don't plan on doing the M50D swap?

 

[fastpakr]

Just remove the trim pieces holding the carpet down and pull it back.

 

[koda6966]

Is it.. glued in place or anything? I wouldn't want to mess it up. My interiors one of my only strong points.

 

[Mechanickid]

Wow