AOD to T5 Swap

[jdwyer25]

Tried doing a search on here but didn't really find what I was looking for or my search criteria contained words with too few characters. So I'm going to look at a 87 5.0 with a 5 speed transmission it has an electrically issue from what I'm being told. My current car is an AOD and I'm looking at the car for the a couple of reasons. First reason was it has the wheels and tires I've been looking for and the second I'm thinking about stealing all the 5 speed stuff and throwing it in my car. I seen a couple of different articles on other sites and was wondering if there is a link to somewhere on here that might talk about the swap.

The donor car just got a new tremec transmission, of course I'll probably get more details when I get a look at the car this afternoon. From what I've seen it looks like a pretty straight car that might yeild me some good parts or I could pull what I need and sell the rest and end up saving me a bunch of cash.

 

[wythors]

Let me Google that for you.

First hit on "AOD to T5 swap":

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forums/5-0l-tech/135059-aod-t5-swap-procedure.html

Second hit:

http://westcoastmustangs.com/articles/tech/t5swap/t5swap.html

Now get to it.

 

[jdwyer25]

Both of those are good links for sure and I read them both. Just trying to read as much as possible before I go tackling this project. It just sucks that I didn't find this car three weeks ago, before I swapped out my bad AOD for another one. Oh well at at least I have the removal process down already. LOL

My previous car had the swap done and they did a piss pour job. I did a five lug swap on the car and when I went to change out the booster I found that they didn't even put the top two nuts back on the booster. Just seemed like every project on that previous car was a PITA due to the shaddy mechanic that had the car before me. So I want to make sure that I do the job right the first time.

Also I know people talk about the reverse lights and wiring those up, but haven't really found any detail on it so if any one has some pictures or a how to that would be great to.

 

[wht93gtEd]

Reverse lights are simple. The AOD has a plug with 4 wires that plugs into the trans. 2 wires are for the reverse lights and the other 2 are the neutral safety switch. Get a wiring diagram with the color codes as they'll be different between years.

I didn't care about wiring up a new neutral safety switch...I've been driving manuals for so long that pushing the clutch in to start is automatic to my brain. So after looking at the diagram you'll know which 2 wires are for the NSS; just connect them together. The other 2 are for reverse lights; wire it to the t5 reverse light plug (again the diagram will show you proper colors for + and -). I've done it twice....I used to have pics but I can't seem to find them. If you can swap the AOD in your car you can swap the 5spd. It's easy...aside from pedals which are a bitch, it's essentially plug-n-play.

Getting a donor car is 100% the way to go, and it's what I did. This way you see how things come apart on a factory 5spd so you'll know how to put them back together. I put nearly 30,000 miles on my car post-swap before I sold it.

 

[wythors]

Both of those write-ups address the backup lights.

Agreed on the pedal box. Doing that part took me longer than all the rest of it.

 

[jdwyer25]

Yeah I'll be getting a complete car in the next couple of days that I'll be parting out after I take the parts I want and need off of it. Yeah I think I can handle everything, was just kind of curious on the wiring for the trans, but that makes sense to wire it up. Yeah I've pulled both and AOD and T5 out of cars so I think I'll be good.

 

[wht93gtEd]

Honestly it's simple. I didn't read those write ups but I've done it twice so if you have any questions post them up.

Me and a buddy stripped the donor car (which he planned on keeping for himself), stripped his old car (needed to put the drivetrain from this car into the donor car body because it was better shape), stripped my car, did the full swap on my car, and put it all back together in a Friday night and Saturday. We were @ the Olive Garden Saturday night eating post swap success dinner!

 

[jdwyer25]

Yeah wish I had a 2 car garage so I could set both cars next to each other and do what I needed to do. Plus I'm guessing it will be just me doing all the work. Might be able to find some help but that is probably unlikely.

 

[wht93gtEd]

Yeah wish I had a 2 car garage so I could set both cars next to each other and do what I needed to do. Plus I'm guessing it will be just me doing all the work. Might be able to find some help but that is probably unlikely.

HA! I have to dig up the pics, but 2 of the 3 cars were on the street in front of my buddies house sitting on jack stands, and only 1 in the garage.
There were parts all over his street, driveway, and garage for those 2 days.

 

[jdwyer25]

Yeah I don't think my neighbors would be to happy about that. It's bad enough that I have a drag project and another parts car I need to haul off to scrap behind my fence. Yeah I'm sure there going to love seeing another mustang roll up on a tow truck tomorrow.

 

[SSchuu]

Yeah, I'm about to attempt this swap as well. Seems pretty straight forward. Let us know how it goes