AOD help... please

[junkjunky]

I Finally got the car mostly together and.... I'm having transmission woes.

This is a supposedly good (new to me) AOD behind a carburated 289, and I get no upshifts.  I've gone through all manner of adjustments to the TV cable (looser, tighter, more motion ratio, less motion ratio) and the affect is the same.  I don't think the TV cable is doing anything.

I think it might be starting in second, but I can run up to redline and it never shifts.  If I lift a bit, I think it barely gets into the next gear, but not with any firmness, if I get back on the throttle it goes back where it was.

Other things it does:
No compression braking
If I rev it up in Park or neutral, it starts to run against a load, but doesn't try to make the car move.

I'm going to drop the valve body tonight and look for sticky things, but I'm kinda bewildered on this one.  Any help out there?

Anyhow,  I've lurked for a little while here, this is my first post, thanks folks and hope you had a better weekend than I did.
-Richard

[Crosley.In.AZ]

You can remove the tail housing. then unbolt the govenor.

Then remove the tranny pan.

Slowly apply air to the proper gov passage to see if the shift valves in the v-body cycle (move) or not.  they will move in sequence if all is OK

Perhaps the gov is stuck?

[junkjunky]

Something strange is afoot, the govornor wasn't stuck and the valve body seemed to cycle (hmmm did I do it right?).   I did a pressure test, and the pressure is through the roof.  At idle it was 250psi plus (tv closed), and up if I revved it.  It would clear 600 I'm sure, but I didn't want to ruin the gauge.

There was a lot of friction material in the bottom of the pan (was clean when I put it in)... so I've decided to pull it and hand it off to a pro....

Any suggestions for shops in the Denver CO area?

Question: for streetable sbf power levels, with occaisional light towing, is a 2" OD band upgrade necessary?

Thanks folks!

shameless plug: older pic of the car on my website www.von-sneidern.com

[Anonymous]

Did you check the vacuum modulator?  If faulty or improperly adjusted, it could raise pressures to sky-high levels, but not apply the clutches.  I had a similar problem in my Chevelle, but caught it before it got that bad.  I just thought I'd take a shot in the dark.  Good luck!

 P.S. The upgrade to the larger band would help prevent slipping, but it doesn't sound necessary in your application.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

there is NO vacuum modulator on a Ford AOD tranny.  All pressure & shift points are changed with the TV linkage from  carb to tranny

Did you check the vacuum modulator?  If faulty or improperly adjusted, it could raise pressures to sky-high levels, but not apply the clutches.  I had a similar problem in my Chevelle, but caught it before it got that bad.  I just thought I'd take a shot in the dark.  Good luck!

 P.S. The upgrade to the larger band would help prevent slipping, but it doesn't sound necessary in your application.

[junkjunky]

Followup: the internals were completely toasted... clutch disks welded to each other, high drum was gone... they told me the case and valvebody were pretty much the only parts unscathed.   So much for my "good used" tranny.  There's a lesson in there somewhere.

Thanks for the advice though folks!

-Richard

[purplepickup]

There's a lesson in there somewhere.

When I was younger and even dumber than I am now, I let a friend rebuild an AOD.  He had successfully rebuilt a TH350.....once, and figured with a manual he could do it.  When we got it done it acted like yours......wouldn't shift right at all.  When I finally took it to a tranny shop the insides looked like yours.  The first lesson learned was that now I know how important it is to adjust the TV linkage correctly but the biggest lesson was that there are certain jobs that are better left to professionals.  In my case, that's rebuilding automatic trannys.  :?

[Bib_Overalls]

but the biggest lesson was that there are certain jobs that are better left to professionals.  In my case, that's rebuilding automatic trannys.  :?

When I built my roadster I was determined to do as much as I could myselk.  So when it came time to rebuild my junk yard core 350 I bought a book and got my wrenches.  Once it was appart I lloked at everything and said to myself "you are in way over your head."

So I took some time to detail the case and then I packed it all up and took it, along with TCI shift and rebuild kits, to a transmission shop out in the country.  Tim agreed to put it all together for $100.  

Shortly after I got home Tim called.  There were some parts that needed replaceing.  I figured I was about to get reamed.  But Tim said he had used parts on hand and it all came up to about $40.  I gave him the OK and kicked myself in the * for being such an *.

When I picked the transmission up Tim had my bad parts in a bag.  He took them out and showed me what was wrong with each of them.  Some of the defects were obvious but I am sure that I would have reused some of them with predictable results.

In short, the best $140 bucks I have spent in a long time.