Aftermarket shifter

[Nixon1]

Quick question..I've got an AOD transmission. If I yank that crappy shifter assembly out and throw in a, say, ratchet shifter..something with full manual control capabilities...will I be able to control every single gear, versus the AOD's assembly which lets me only manually control first, then second and third together, and OD? Thanks.

[mustangII460]

To [ control ] every gear you need a manual valve body.

Just replacing the shifter wont do it. You'll have a different shifter that does the same thing.


hope this helps ya.

[HiFlow5 0]

Yeah you will need a new valve body to control what gear the tranny holds. Lentech makes a great manual valve body. It uses 1 on the gear indicator as 1st, D as 2nd, OD as 3rd, and has a button that controls the trannys overdrive which can be turned off for street driving. I did find that going to a ratchet not only looks better, it makes it a lot easier to do the 1-D-1 shuffle.

[Nixon1]

Not too pricey are they? And how does one go about adjusting shift points in this tranny, besides a shift kit. Is the only way via the TV (detent) cable?

[Mach 1]

dont mess with the TV cable to adjust shift points. to risky, many an AOD has been fried this way. set it right, and leave it.

[90GT Vert]

we have the PA Street/Strip valve body. when doing the 1-D-1 shuffle it shifts nice and hard, you can control all gears. but if you keep it in d or od it's like the stock one

[Nixon1]

Wish I had that..

And Mach 1.. Well the problem is, at WIDE OPEN THROTTLE, it shifts into 2nd gear, in drive, at 3500. There's something severely wrong with that. All gear shifts are abnormally early, but it's never missed a gear or slipped, and the shifts are nice and firm and positive, but not HARD like a tranny on its way out. Everything else is perfect EXCEPT the shift points...3500 shifts is killing me..takes away all the power of the car cause it makes all its power 3500-6000 it seems.

[Mach 1]

I think the factory set up should shift around 4500 rpm. You can adjust your cable, just make sure you do it correctly, or else you will be rebuilding your AOD.

there are shift kits available to raise the shift points. baumann and transgo both do this.

[Nixon1]

4500? Jesus that's low.. I think the grind on my cam combined with the exhaust system pushed the power band up high..because I make insane top end power but low end is sloppy. I'd shift this thing at 5500 if it was my choice. Wish I could just afford a tranny rebuild, because I don't want to throw a shift kit into a non-rebuilt tranny and blow it up.

[HiFlow5 0]

Something needs to be done about that tranny. 3500 is way too low. If you want any type of performance out of that tranny, a stall converter should be installed, espically if you have a cam. If you want to hit the higher rpm's where your power is, from the motor work done, you'll really need to manualy shift the tranny.

[Nixon1]

Yeah I know 3500 is way too low....but the car is in the transmission shop now. Hopefully they can get it to shift at least at stock specs. Then I'll be saving up money for a rebuild and shift kit I guess....that is after I pay off all the repair bills, which won't be for some time.. I manually shift the tranny from first to second, which makes a huge difference....but stupid Ford left out the 2nd gear, it's combined with third in Drive so I cant control 2nd to 3rd.. Oh well...new problems for new days.

[HiFlow5 0]

I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Theres a trick to hold second gear. Start off in 1 like you do for first gear. when you want to shift to second gear, shift up to D. Wait a second or two for the gear to engauge, then shift back down to 1. That will hold second gear. When you want third, shift back to D. That will give you third gear, then OD for 4th. Its called the 1-D-1 shuffle. Going from 1 to D causes the transmission to shift breafly over second gear right into third. That is not good for the transmission. Hope that helped some!

[Nixon1]

So THAT'S what everyone's been referring to on here.. Well I'll have to try that out..thanks. Car is in the shop, has to be kept overnight. TV cable was broken and twist tied up badly out of adjustment apparently.. If I had driven it for another few weeks, the tranny could've blown up. Shop's gotta pick up a new cable from Ford...should have the car by tomorrow afternoon. I'll let ya know how it works then.. Differential is getting serviced too.. They cant fix the speedometer...the cable is new and so is the gear..it's the speedometer itself that's broken. A new gauge cluster is $1000 for this car...un-f***ing believable. Guess I'm ordering a speedometer off of Summit and gonna see what kind of hack job I can do here.

[Nixon1]

Now that I think about it...my tranny is probably dead now. The mechanic said it's been running on low pressure probably since the aftermarket intake was put on..the previous owner had the car for a while and didnt mention anything recently done so I assume it's been running on very low pressure for several months. Which means..new TV cable goes in tomorrow, whiz, bam, normal pressure. Another week, whiz, BAM, bye bye tranny.

[Mach 1]

4500 is a good shift point for the factory engine.

You might be surprised at the performance had at shifting lower. I ran my car (you can see the specs. on the link below) and shifted manually (i had a manual valve body) and experimented at different rpms, ranging from 5200-5800 rpm.

Then i entered a bracket race and left it in drive to shift by itself, which it did at around 4000-4500 rpm and my times were identical to shifting at the higher rpm.

anyway, you can get a decent AOD, built up with one piece input shaft, manual valvebody, etc...from www.gerperformance.com for a reasonable price.

then get you a stallion converter and youll be in business.

[Nixon1]

Not a bad price..but I think I can get it rebuild with a TransGo kit, locally, for about the same, installed..

[Mach 1]

the transgo kit will not allow you to hold second gear like the GER or Lentech valvebody will.

The 1-d-1 SHUFFLE IS NOT RECOMMENDED, It has been reported to shorten tranny life.

The GER valvebody shifts like this 1-2-3,4 It hold third under full throttle, and will go to fourth when you let off the gas.

[Nixon1]

I can't imagine how the 1-D-1 shuffle would shorten tranny life if it's only holding it in 2nd gear....wouldn't it prematurely shifting into 3rd hurt it more?

[Mach 1]

there is a technical explanation as to why it isnt good, something to do with a certain band temporarly applying while your doing the shuffle and burning it up quicker.

I dont know exactly, because I never had to worry about it, but maybe somebody out there has more information on it.

Prematurely shifting into third? How is that going to hurt it? it shifts to third when it should if it it set up right. sounds like your TV cable was messed up.

If you were running with low pressure, you probably burnt it out. did you inspect the condition of your tranny fluid? was it brown and smelly? if so, you have a rebuild coming up.


Sounds like you need to research the AOD and what makes it tick. there are books available and info. on the web.

good luck

[Nixon1]

Checked the car out when I first got it. It was low on fluid but it was bright red and had no odor. TV cable was broken and linked up with a twist tie, so it was running low pressure...don't know for how long. I get the car back tomorrow, with a brand new TV cable....hope to god my tranny isnt toast. But yes, Mach 1, my TV cable was royally messed up. WOT, 1st to 2nd was at 3500. Part throttle shifts were ridiculously early. When it shifted to 3rd gear sometimes, it hit 900 rpms.