What's the deal about the AOD transmission?

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Mauricio Tavares - 08 Mar 2005 13:51 GMT

In my slow but ongoing quest to put my 90LX alive, last weekend I
bought an AOD tranny. I mentioned some people about my acquisition and
everyone told me the AOD is the worst thing that ever came out of Ford.
Why is it so maligned?

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Mauricio raub-kudria-com
(if you need to email me, use this address =)

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razz - 08 Mar 2005 14:21 GMT

No its not. My AOD is sitting behind 450hps and destroys those t-5s. Build
it up properly and it does just fine

> In my slow but ongoing quest to put my 90LX alive, last weekend I
> bought an AOD tranny. I mentioned some people about my acquisition and
> everyone told me the AOD is the worst thing that ever came out of Ford.
> Why is it so maligned?

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Wound Up - 08 Mar 2005 14:50 GMT

I don't know why. It's not the best, but it's not the worst.

This transmission often fails due to driver misuse. Doinks who leave
the thing in OD all the time wear it out prematurely due to the fact it
will shift up and down, up and down 1000s of times unnecessarily from
3rd to 4th between 35-50.

If used properly, and OD is only selected for a continuous 50-55+
(assuming factory gears), it will live a long, happy life.

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Wound Up
ThunderSnake #65

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Howard Nelson - 08 Mar 2005 15:00 GMT

> > In my slow but ongoing quest to put my 90LX alive, last weekend I
> > bought an AOD tranny. I mentioned some people about my acquisition and
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> If used properly, and OD is only selected for a continuous 50-55+
> (assuming factory gears), it will live a long, happy life.

Then why didn't ford put this information in large print in the manual.

Howard (a Doink whose AOD failed at 60K)
89 LX 5.0 vert

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Wound Up - 08 Mar 2005 15:05 GMT

>>> In my slow but ongoing quest to put my 90LX alive, last weekend I
>>>bought an AOD tranny. I mentioned some people about my acquisition and
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>
> Then why didn't ford put this information in large print in the manual.

Fair question, and two answers are CAFE standards, and parts resale.
You're one of the many innocent victims, and not just of Ford's.

> Howard (a Doink whose AOD failed at 60K)
> 89 LX 5.0 vert

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Wound Up
ThunderSnake #65

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Itsfrom Click - 08 Mar 2005 22:45 GMT

I agree that the Ford OD is OK. We did have problems with the first one
in our family - a '88 Grand Marquis - strarted to shift rough and the
dealer just put some majic friction reducer addition in it and told Mom
to keep it out of OD in town. Never another problem.

Have had 3 others since then - no prob.

BUT the tranys in the new 'Stangs are made in Italy, France and other
places - wonder if there's a difference?

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CobraJet - 08 Mar 2005 17:27 GMT

Because people are idiots. Try here:

http://www.lentechautomatics.com/aodhome.html

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CobraJet

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RichA - 09 Mar 2005 00:42 GMT

> In my slow but ongoing quest to put my 90LX alive, last weekend I
>bought an AOD tranny. I mentioned some people about my acquisition and
>everyone told me the AOD is the worst thing that ever came out of Ford.
>Why is it so maligned?

Hard to say. I only blew the 4th gear out of 5 of them.
-Rich

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Wound Up - 09 Mar 2005 01:04 GMT

>> In my slow but ongoing quest to put my 90LX alive, last weekend I
>>bought an AOD tranny. I mentioned some people about my acquisition and
>>everyone told me the AOD is the worst thing that ever came out of Ford.
>>Why is it so maligned?
>
> Hard to say. I only blew the 4th gear out of 5 of them.

No it isn't... read my previous posts on that.

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Wound Up
ThunderSnake #65

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RSCamaro - 10 Mar 2005 03:25 GMT

> In my slow but ongoing quest to put my 90LX alive, last weekend I
>bought an AOD tranny. I mentioned some people about my acquisition and
>everyone told me the AOD is the worst thing that ever came out of Ford.
>Why is it so maligned?

The guy I use for rebuilding transmissions thoughts on the subject is
that they are overbuilt. I only know that before I stopped using the
od in rural and/or town areas they generally would fail between 60,000
and 100,000 miles. These transmissions were from 92'?, 95', 98', and
02' year Ford Vans having from 4.9l L6 to 5.4l V-8's. All of the
above had a disable switch on the shifter handle. My newest Van, a
E-350 Super Duty w/ a 6.8l V-10 has a 4 speed auto /od but no
overdrive off switch, instead it has a Tow/Haul switch which uses the
gearing to assist slowing down or will keep the trans in gear longer
on acceleration. In case anyone wants to know how it feels when you
hit the go pedal, well I didn't expect 8,000 plus pounds to move as
well as it does. 420 lb/ft of torque is nice.

...Ron
--
68' Camaro RS
88' Firebird Formula
00' Mustang GT Vert

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