AOD won't upshift!! Can anyone help? -->

jaymac

New Member
Feb 18, 2004
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Northern Mass
3 weeks post-rebuild, this morning was fine, but now my car won't up-sgift past 2nd, no matter what I do. Go through the gears, into neutral, start, stop, slow, floor it, adjust the TV. Fluid's fine.
Nothing helps.
I figure a valve's gotta be hung or become mis-adjusted or something.
I've never dropped a tranny pan in my life, but is there any way I could do this on my own in my parking lot as far ar taking out the valve body and seeing if something mis-adjusted or sticking?
I have the car manual, but not the shift kit manual. Can anybody walk me through the whole shift kit inspection process?
What/where am I looking and for what?????
This sucks. :fuss:
 
You can easily drop the pan and pull the valvebody to clean it. I have done that several times to C4's and had some success. I have not done an aod. I got lucky last Monday and swapped A4LD's and the newer one worked!

You could try just removing the 2-3 and 3-4 shift valves and cleaning them.

However the AOD is a bit more complex and unless you have plenty of time and the manual for it, it would be a risk that you would cause more problems.
If you do this, be prepared to spend at least 1-2 hours getting it out, a couple more hours cleaning it, and some more hours reinstalling it. It is the mother of all messes also.

If you have air, you would want to air check the clutches and servos with the valve body out to see if they acutate when pressure is applied. This may isolate the items that have failed.

Overall, If the tv cable and manual linkage are properly adjusted, most likely it needs serious attention.
 
Last suggestion. There is some chance that the governor has stuck. I believe it is accessible with the trans in the car by removing the tailshaft housing. This has caused me similar problems in C4 and C 6 transmissions.
 
I pulled the VB and installed a shift kit in my AOD last night. It looks terrifying on paper, but once you drop the pan, and pull the VB, it all becomes clear, and it's actually pretty easy. Hanes has a tech manual for Ford tranny's that has great diagrams and pics, along with some excellent exploded views. One thing I would check for is the internal TV lever. It's spring loaded and the spring has to be re-installed properly. It might be worth getting a manual and checking to see if that spring has slipped. You don't even have to remove the VB. :)
 
I had a similar problem about 3 weeks after a rebuild as well. Mine happened to be a faulty replacement part. Some kind of spacer broke and fell and the gears slowly ate each other up. I discovered the problem while I was parked on a hill and when I went to accelerate I rolled backwards like I was in neutral. At first it would SOMETIMES go into 2nd/3rd..but no overdrive and eventually i couldn't get out of first. Drove about 15 miles in 1st gear to the tranny shop...that was a LOOONG trip...hehe..hope that's not what happened to you. Good luck. After my AOD blew up the second time....i said screw it..and got the swap...never been happier.
 
well, after driving arounf he parking lot for about 5 min., it started dhifting again. I drove around a bunch more and it hasn't f'ed up again.
Howver, that sucks in itself.
Problems that fix themselves usually go south again on their own just as easily.
I'll still have to take it to the shop and have them check the vb again someday.
Oh well, I'll just live on borrowed ime until it messes up again -
Thanks for your help guys!