did you do any work on this car yourself, or did you buy it as it is now, with the mods. already done?

TV cable with a twist tie? Lol..sorry man, but that car was mickey moused.

Bought it as is...done no mods to it. Yes..previous owner was a *******. I'm in the process of fixing everything he screwed up now.

Yes, the 1-D-1 shuffle isn't the greatest on the trans. It has something to do with the OD band engaging for a split second, causing more wear. Don't remember exactly, its been a while since I read about it. That's also why going from 1st to 3rd isn't good, it puts more wear on the tranny. I'll have to look it all up again, to get specifics. I had lots of information saved on my computer, but lost it all when it crashed last year.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but...it sounds like there's no right way to race on a non-rebuilt AOD...?

How does one go from 1st to third in an automatic, skipping second, with an AOD?

You can race it any way you want to, but you have to realize the AOD is not a strong tranny for that kind of abuse in its stock form. It was designed for Lincolns, not muscle cars.

It can be built, but it can get expensive also. You might want to consider a 5 speed swap.

Usually on the street it doesn't matter too much. But when racing or such. Going from 1 on the gear indicator to D, won't allow the transmission to stay in second gear long at all. Causing a premature shift, and wearing out one of the bands quicker. Like I said, I have to look it all up again cause I don't remember exactly what happens. I'm just going off of what I remember.

I do remember reading once that the automatic transmission in a mustang wasn't built with performance in mind, but can be made to handle massive amounts of power.

I wish macx was around, I know he could clear all this up!

Your still going through second gear, so to say your going straight from 1st to 3rd is not accurate at all.

It probably doesnt stay in second long because your RPM,s are higher when you hold it in first manually, so its designed to go to third by that time

the AOD shouldnt go into 3rd when you shift up to D...i used to race the crap outta the foxbody when i drove it....my dad blew OD about 4 times, so he built the damn thing up strong (tranny cooler, torgue converter, etc)....so i can do the 1-D-1 just fine...doing that holds 2nd in 1 (like youve said)...and racing through 1, then shifting quickly up into D takes you through 1st gear in 1 then hits 2nd gear in D....if i was hitting 3rd gear, then it wouldnt have still had kick to it in D....but it did....chirped the tires and kept on roaring...

and no...i dont recommend ANY kind of manual shifting to a stock trans...itll just shorten its life by quite a bit...

but some of the most fun is driving along at about 50 then downshifting into 1 (2nd gear)....thats how you take off froma roll with an AOD....cours ethats how my dad blew the tranny 3-4 times...rofl...except that was about 60-70mph...silly him...oh well :)

Uh.........ok

Exactly.

When I said 1st to 3rd, I meant on the gear indicator itself, not the transmissions actual shifting pattern. I know my earlier post wasn't specific enough, but my last post stated it properly.

Like Mach 1 said "Uh.........ok"