Auto vs. 5 speed

[25thmustang]

5-speed i do have another vehicle to fall back on, but still DD the car. I also did the 5-speed swap and raced the car well before I had my Jeep. Even if I didnt have my Jeep Id have the car as it is today, no changes would be made. Im a young kid, I dont care about 5-speeds in traffic, I take all my anger out at the track!

As far as the 7000 RPM... the tachs off!

 

[wht93gtEd]

I picked up a fully running donor car for $700 bucks to do an AOD to 5spd swap. Buy the car, even if you want a stick, and do the swap later. I had the same dilemma as you; all the 5spd cars were beat to hell by dumb kids. I got my 93 GT from a 45 year-old lady. I couldn't say no.

I'll post pic's of the swap when I do it next weekend. The hardest thing is changing the pedals, just take your time and everything should be ok.

Oh-yeah, don't the AOD's have a 5800 or so redline.....I'm almost positive it's different than the 5spd's, and I also think it's under 6k?!?

 

[5spd GT]

5-speed i do have another vehicle to fall back on, but still DD the car. I also did the 5-speed swap and raced the car well before I had my Jeep. Even if I didnt have my Jeep Id have the car as it is today, no changes would be made. Im a young kid, I dont care about 5-speeds in traffic, I take all my anger out at the track!

Well I drive my car everyday and race it also...and have spirited runs on the highways...(accelerating - not top-speed runs)...but I would still drive my car everyday also if I had a daily driver (and probably be less forgiving on it to) to fall back on as you do...I'm 19 also...(young)...and the only time I do not like the 5spd is on inclines from a stop and accident type stop-go traffic...

 

[Michael Yount]

I think the main thing is finding a good, clean, solid, rust-free, accident free car. If you can find one like that - get it with whatever tranny it has. You can always easily convert it if you don't like the tranny choice after having lived with it for a while.

 

[89roadster]

Regarding the 4R70W on a Fox - Only use for the "swap" is the wider gears. Why does nobody know about Ford Racing's wide ratio gear kit for AOD's? It's incredible, and it comes with all the stuff to make it last for a very long time. With a shift kit and converter, I easily beat equally modified (3.73:1 gears) T5s. As it is, my car will shift at 6500 RPM 1st-2nd, and at about 5800 RPM 2nd-3rd. Sure, the powerband is done by 5700 RPM, but it's a blast to hear the engine scream and know your transmission is fine.

I know about the wider ratio gears for the AOD, but I would rather be able to control the tranny's shift points through an external computer to the AODE, so that I can have different settings such as economy vs. sport vs. track vs. etc.... With the AOD, you don't get that kind of control over the shift points.

 

[Doug W.]

Second off those 7-9 second cars dont have AODs. They have C4s (similar to the AOD) or powerglides and such. It is rare to see an AOD in anything faster than an 11 second car (there are a lot, but most guys by that point have C4s). You wont see many T5s in that range either, for comparison sake.

Here in San Diego, I know of at least 3 mid-low 9 second coupes that run AOD's. All 3 of them were 5 speeds that were converted to AOD's. Mine is the only one with a manual valvebody. I have had mine in my car for 2 1/2 years, 300 plus passes, and thousands of street miles. I have no problem jumping in the car and driving it all over town. I drive it to work at least once a week.
If you buy an AOD car, upgrade the valvebody and torque converter first. Lentech sells a valvebody that will move the overdrive to a switch and change the shift pattern to 1-2-3. You can find them used for around $300.00.
As far as them robbing a whole bunch of power goes, they do cost you a couple of extra horsepower but you will more than make up for it in ET.
Here's a dyno sheet of my last trip to the dyno. My car was spinning the tires above 4500rpm, thats why the sheet looks like that.

My car

The motor

 

[johnt785]

I bought my stang last year right around this time. When i got it, it was a AOD. The shift down cable slipped off right around Spring this year. Apparently its common with the AOD transmissions. And it will truly F-up your gears. So since my AOD was trashed i converter her over to a Tremec 3550.

It's all based on preference. I think 5 speeds are fun, but i've missed some gears when racing before, sucks watching the other guys win because of your own mistake. AOD's are always reliable. I live right outside of DC... and the traffic around here is horrible. I hate stop in go traffic with a stick.

Thats a sharpe looking stang your looking at buying. And i guess it's all about your budget. If you truly like stick you can always convert it over for around $2000. Go to www.ampperformance.com, they have the supplies.

 

[89 droptop]

With a shift kit, does the harshness of the shifts depend on how hard you are accelerating, or are you always snapping foward with each shift even at low speed?

 

[25thmustang]

I said it was rare not impossible. There are very few around me and I actually dont know of any off hand, and run with a heads up racing group!

 

[Michael Yount]

With most shift kits, the firmness of the shifts is somewhat proportional to the acceleration rate. Even under light throttle it will shift more firmly than stock, but poke it harder, and it will shift harder/quicker.

 

[89 droptop]

I think that everyone is forgetting the most important advantage to an auto. It is a lot easier to get road cabeza

 

[The Shape]

:OT: A few people have mentioned burning up there AOD becuse the bushing on the TV cable broke and the cable came loose. I make a point to check mine everytime I check my oil which is atleast once a week. But I am just wondering if that did happen wouldn't you feel something is wrong in the way it shifts as soon as you drove it? Or is just to late once you feel it shifting odd and it is already fried?

 

[Michael Yount]

Educating myself as a self-confessed automatic idiot. What's the TV cable? What's its function? How/why in the world did it come to be called the 'TV' cable?

 

[The Shape]

It's hooked so that your engine gets all of the good stations without having an antena or having to sign a contract with a satelite company.



Actually it is the Throttle Valve cable and controls the line pressure in the AOD. It is hooked to your throttle body and moves with it increasing pressure. If it falls off it will burn the tranny up. And ford saw fit to attatch it with a cheap grommet.

 

[5spd GT]

With most shift kits, the firmness of the shifts is somewhat proportional to the acceleration rate. Even under light throttle it will shift more firmly than stock, but poke it harder, and it will shift harder/quicker.

The ones I've seen and the couple I have been in...shift almost abnormally or unwantingly hard...at part throttle...but shift real crisp at WOT...

 

[89MustangGX]

:OT: A few people have mentioned burning up there AOD becuse the bushing on the TV cable broke and the cable came loose. I make a point to check mine everytime I check my oil which is atleast once a week.

Ford's replacements are brass from what I understand, and relatively cheap. Sounds like a must-do to me.

 

[ill advised]

Sweet. Don't see many red hatchback LXs (w/out the black molding). And yes, a couple weeks driving that AOD and you will be ready to modify it. lol I ran out and got a gear and shift kit after driving my friends modded Coupe. Havn't installed it yet.

To be honest I like the automatic. I drove 5-speeds everyday for 16 years (straight) so I needed a break. Still love banging the gears but I like the steady pull in the auto. <insert obligatory "And I can chomp down on a Double-Double at the same time" here.> lol When I get bored with it, out comes the 5-speed.

 

[crazypete]

Forget the stupid bushing kits. Get a lokar TV kickdown cable and rig it in place of the stock cable. SOLID bottom. There is nothing to slip out.

A tv-less AOD will not downshift when you give it gas...it will stay in whatever gear you are in. Of course....by this time...it's too late and your AOD is already fried since there is zero pressure holding the bands in place and they have been constantly slipping for a few minutes. The TV adjusts pressure in the system. If you attach a pressure guage to your AOD, you can see the pressure rise as you give it throttle (or just yank on the TV cable).

You can get a lentech strip terminator which is a full pressure unit so it is ALWAYS at 125 psi (150?) and the TV is used only to time downshifts.

 

[artus70]

Wow guess I should give mine a good look over....didn't know they were prone to breaking....I used to adjust mine every weekend. Kept it in the normal position during the week (so I had the kick down) and when I raced it I would slide it all the way over so it wouldn't shift till 5700 or so and would slam in. Must have done it like 400 times

 

[The Shape]

Pete do you know much about the StreetCruiser AOD Lentech has now?