I've had it with this damn AOD.....

[dodgestang]

It was a beautiful day. The mustang was running great. Crusing along the country highway passing people at the dotted yellow when I could. Get up to a traffic light...no one around...light turns green.......so I decide to be a little more aggresive than I have been in the past.

Plant my foot about 3/4 throttle and take off....wheels let out a howl and the car takes off even with them still spinning, RPMS gp up to about 6500 and then it shifts into 2nd and I push the peddle all the way down.....DT lurches forward with the full power of the secondaries now open, chirps a little and continues accelerating.....just as it goes to shift into third, it stops accelerating and a big cloud of grey smoke appears behind the car......

I immediately pull over and my idle is at 500 instead of 850 like it had been...both in gear and out of gear its still 500. Shut it down, pop the hood....nothing visibly wrong, look under the car no puddles of oil or tranny fluid. Start the car up and adjust idle circuit so it is idling at 850 again in park...put it in gear, no RPM drop, so I am thinking the tranny is completely gone....take my foot of the brake and the car moves forward...ok...some of the tranny still works.

so....the AOD no longer has 3rd or OD....nad it slips some in 1st and 2nd...I nurse the car home on the shoulder keeping it about 2200 in 2nd gear....

Pull the dipstick....tranny fluid is still tranny fluid color on the stick, but has VERY noticable burnt smell

Looks like I won't be making that show on Saturday now...and maybe not Carlisle next weekend

This is the second AOD my car has fried both of them in under 2k miles.....and it aint like I am putting in a junk yard AOD....I am running solid input shaft, upgraded everything, 4r70w gearing, kevlar this, red crap that., 3k 10 inch stall.........I am just sick right now.

[my95GTHO]

Damn Nick...sorry to hear this......sucks that the AOD's aren't as stong as C6's.....

on another note........what tranny cooler for my car would people suggest....dad told me that we'd get one for my b-day.......thanks.

[slowstang]

i highly recommend a transmission cooler on any auto car. I run two coolers on my car cause of the high stall converter I have.

My AOD went on me kinda like yours. No slipping or anything and everything seemed to be working great. I lined up with a buddys 96 SS Camaro and we raced from a 20mph roll...i went to shift the AOD into second(lentech valvebody) and 2nd wasnt there. I let off the car and it shifted into second and then i hit on it again and all it did was rev up like it was in neutral. Then i had to make the 10 mile drive home with the AOD slipping so bad that it barely made it. Mine served me pretty well lasting 95,000 miles, 49 passes at the dragstrip, and more then 60 races on the street.

Andrew

[RdRunnr]

Sorry to hear that too :( My AOD has been going in my car for like 4 years and as behind a 351 before that in another car. It has never been refreshed either. Sounds like something isn't being built right?

[my95GTHO]

mine lasted 108,000 miles.....about 55 runs in the 1/8th and 5 in the 1/4....countless runs on the street...
Mine only had one thing that was weird.....the tail piece was loose and caused it too loose fluid and is what really caused the tranny to go in the end. it was slipping at high speeds in overdrive before this though. but Why the hell would this come loose on a tranny that has never been messed with....the guy that rebuilt it works for ford and said he's never seen this before!

[OneBad93]

on another note........what tranny cooler for my car would people suggest....dad told me that we'd get one for my b-day.......thanks.

Josh, PM or email RdRunnr, I happen to know he's gonna have one for sale tomorrow...

[my95GTHO]

Thanks Rich!!!

[dodgestang]

Just hung up with the tranny guy.

the 408 Stroker tore the splines off the intermediary shaft which is why I lost 3rd and OD. He took it down, cleaned it all up, sent the converter to the manufacture who took it apart and cleaned it up, and is putting it back together. If I want, I can pick it up tommorrow. So we will see how much the total comes too since "this thing already has the best parts in there you can use, its the upgraded shaft from the AOD-E...its just not going to stand up to that 4 inch stroke the same it can stand up to a 302 stroke with a power adder that comes in at the higher RPM"...makes sense to me, but since this was a hard part that broke because of the power, its not really warranteed...so it looks like I have to cover the cost of the part and most of the labor :(

At least the car will be back...its also refreshing to know that I am making enough torque to strip the splines of a shaft on street tires :D

So here is my plan....the converter also works with a c6....so if this happens again, I will change over to a c6 and possibly invest in a gear vendors thing.

[my95GTHO]

that sounds like a better plan......if a C6 can stand up to a 460....i think it can handle a 408 :)

[RadialX]

thats why they make the billet input shafts for the AODs, That motor could be stock and it will blow that shaft if you add a shift kit. thats a common problem with AODs. First upgrades are billet shaft and torque converter..........hehe.

[dodgestang]

thats why they make the billet input shafts for the AODs, That motor could be stock and it will blow that shaft if you add a shift kit. thats a common problem with AODs. First upgrades are billet shaft and torque converter..........hehe.

Now I am confised...I was told the hardened AODe shaft was the best shaft you can get for the application. I've done an internet search and turned up nada about upgrades to this shaft. Do you know of any online resources to read about a 'billet' shaft and/or a manufacture? Just for clarification although it is an AOD case, I technically have an AODe...all the internals are that of an AODe just without computer controls

[my95GTHO]

thats why they make the billet input shafts for the AODs, That motor could be stock and it will blow that shaft if you add a shift kit. thats a common problem with AODs. First upgrades are billet shaft and torque converter..........hehe.
:shock: i have a shiftkit!......god that's all i need

[FastAOD]

There are several companies that make the solid input shaft, Lentech, GER, Art Carr i think.....

I havent had a problem, been on the same tranny internals, untouched, for about 4-5 yars and its a street car...2-3 of those it was my everyday/only car.....but i only have a wimpy 306..... :shock:

I would check out www.Lentechautomatics.com....

[RdRunnr]

I don't know about running all that aod-e stuff. I run a one pieceAOD input shaft and you see how much power that thing can handle. My tranny was built my Level Ten (http://www.levelten.com/). They have good AOD info on their site.

[dodgestang]

I think I may have found the problem......

Here is a short history on my tranny.

Bought it brand new..its called an AOD Dominator....DON't ANYONE EVER BUY THIS BOAT ANCHOR.

Anyway....lost my motor and had to do a rebuild so by the time that was done, it was out of its 6 months warrantee. The governer valve was bad on it from the beginning and the tranny burnt out.

Paid a local builder to go through it and he did. But he didn't replace the hard parts because they were ok.

Reading the documentation on my orginal tranny I see they toute themselves as top notch fabricators and build their own hardened intermediate shafts.....which is what broke in my tranny...I stripped the spines right of it...almost like it wasn't a hardened shaft....anyway....

I feel a little more confident that it might not happened again since it is being replaced with a hardened intermedaite shaft for sure...not some part he made himself but a trusted, tried and true, ford hardened part.

I'll keep you all informed...it just sucks that he aint covering it under warantee because it was a hard part and not the clutch pack.