Transgo shift kit - hole "F"

[P72Ford]

Yeah, thats why I had someone do the one in my car.

But I have done a few since then. The first one I did by myself was a TH400, which is really simple. I was replacing a spring up front in the transmission, near the pump, and I dropped the plunger, and it fell down behind the pump (transmission was out of the car, turned over on a bench). I thought I was fucked until I pulled the front pump and was able to get the plunger out.

Wouldn't have been too happy if something like that happened with my car.

[torquelover]

Ivan, is this a P72 AOD? If so, it is not recommended that you use a Trans-Go kit of any sort on that valve body.

[Lincolnmania]

no it's a 90 lsc aod

[P72Ford]

Ivan, is this a P72 AOD? If so, it is not recommended that you use a Trans-Go kit of any sort on that valve body.

I learned this. Actually, I think Scott's transmission mang, Brian, learned that as well.

[gadget73]

Thain, do you have a kit in your AOD? The factory-set VB on this one worked just fine, it's only after I put the kit in that it started acting up.

To my knowlege, no. It should be a Ford reman unit. It didn't start the engine flare crap until I serviced it. It fixed the other slushy shifting problems, and developed the flare at the same time. Possible I over-torqued the filter and slightly distorted the vb. I don't really care for how it shifts under load though. It has that typical sloppy 1-2 upshift at WOT, and it needs the HO trans governer. 4200 rpm shifts are BS.

[Archangel]

Well, thanks to SilverFox I may have a good lead on how to fix the issue - of course the VB has to come off again, but I was kinda expecting that anyways... Stay tuned!

[gadget73]

He is the man. I'd like to try one of his valve bodies on the Towncar. He's got one that provides an electric OD lockout, and that sounds interesting as hell.

[torquelover]

He is the man. I'd like to try one of his valve bodies on the Towncar. He's got one that provides an electric OD lockout, and that sounds interesting as hell.

So, full 1-2-3 selectivity from the standard column shifter detents? Very cool indeed.

[mitymerc]

I was wondering about the silverfox VB. Is it like the explorer, focus & escape where you can just turn OD on or off, or does OD become manual ie: you have to engage it when you are through 3rd & disengage it when you want to go back to third?

[Archangel]

I'm thinking these are questions that you should ask Dan directly:
(816) 365-6215
dan@silverfoxtrans.com

[Pirate]

Aight folks, I'm working on a late ('89-'92) AOD, and I need some help with it - I put in the shift kit like always, and took her for a test drive, all is good except on the 4-3 downshift after she drops out of OD she goes into neutral for a second before the 3rd engages. The instructions mention possible engine flare on the 4-3 downshift, and Eric confirmed this is what I'm experiencing indeed. Now, the instructions say in case of engine flare on the 4-3 downshift, to drill out hole "F" - simple enough, larger hole means more fluid flow, resulting in faster engagement of whatever hole "F" is responsible for. Except one minor detail - nowhere on the separator plate diagram is any hole marked with "F". There are B, C, E, K, and X (which in my case is actually a slot), no F tho. I just watched the video for the AOD-HP kit, and now I'm able to identify two more holes as A and T, but still no F. So I'm drawing a blank on that, how am I supposed to drill out a hole that I can't identify? Anyone else ran into this issue? This is the only late-style VB that I've worked on, everything else has been '88 and early, and I never had any issues with those... I'm suspecting the flare issue has something to do with the fact the '89-up VBs don't use the big accumulator piston in the front corner of the transmission case, any thoughts on that?

For the '89-up AOD's, they did indeed move the 3-4 accumulator from that one pocket in the case into the valve body. It's possible to use a 1989-up VB on a 1988-down case, but impossible to go the other way.

What I would suggest doing is verify, provided you're pulling the VB down anyway, is that ALL of the valves and pistons actually move back and forth. I've thrown away more AOD valve bodies than Jesus Christ due to pistons being seized/really sticky in their bores, and of course (steel pistons and aluminum bores don't get along too well), Ford quit building new ones.

Something else to keep in mind: As I've seen with the AOD shift kits....with there being five shift kit suppliers (you forgot Superior)....no two kits work exactly the same, so relying on TCI's drilling diagram may not be the best idea to sort this out....

Another thing to consider....I'd recommend ceasing and desisting on using regular Dextron III. Switch to Mercon V, or just go with synthetic; Dextron III has the lubrication properties of sand-encrusted vaseline....in other words, it doesn't work worth a shit. I suspect that this might be what's causing problems in a few of the transmissions here where guys have done services, and then they quit shifting correctly....

[Archangel]

Larry, I checked the valves and they all seemed to move fine, well to the extend I could move them using picks and poking through the tiny slots. And yes, I did indeed forget Superior's kit. Dan (Silverfox) says the TCI diagram actually follows Ford's own designation, however given the discrepancies between the different kits even he wasn't sure which one is that hole F the Transgo kit talks about - instead he recommended that I drill another hole, hole B (Transgo and TCI agree on that one), 5/64" would speed up re-engagement of 3rd gear, and 3/32" would make it almost instant. To avoid possible engaging of the clutches before full release of the OD band he suggested I go with the 5/64" setting, and so that's what I did - holy cow, this things downshifts with some authority now, it's not the hard U-joint breaking bang into gear, but at WOT it's pretty close to it. I'd imagine that would take some getting used to, but it's 100 times better than before. Then again there is the fact that I also aligned the separator plate gaskets better, considering how off they are even if they don't block any holes they sure cut some down to half-area, so I'm sure that also must have played some role in the before and after shift feel.

On the ATFs - I can see the Mercon V being better lubricant, but what makes used Mercon III lube better than the fresh Mercon III people put in their AODs? Is it the clutch material "dust" dissolved in it?

[Pirate]

Is it the clutch material "dust" dissolved in it?

That's kind of what I'm thinking....

[Archangel]

Well isn't clutch material supposed to be "grabby" (considering the purpose of clutches) and therefore shouldn't small debris of that floating in the ATF act like liquid sandpaper, instead of a lube?

[Pirate]

Well isn't clutch material supposed to be "grabby" (considering the purpose of clutches) and therefore shouldn't small debris of that floating in the ATF act like liquid sandpaper, instead of a lube?

The clutch material isn't entirely all 'grit'. You have glue/bonding agents, etc, etc, and the larger 'grit' pieces should be caught in the tranny filter....

If you have enough of the crud floating around in the system, to a point, it could act as something of a lubricant; what I do know is that modern basic Dextron doesn't have much of any lubrication properties, as most modern transmissions have lock-up clutches and have roller bearings/thrust washers where it counts, in order to reduce frictional losses.

This is merely conjecture; the other possibility might be that the grit acts as sort of a ball bearing between two hardened surfaces (the steel pistons and hard-anodized valve passages), and with fresh fluid wiping all of that away....who knows. I've had the same problem occur with me and customer AOD's, but the few times it's cropped up, where I have been able to dig into the VB, I've been able to trace it to a somewhat-sticky valve in the valve body.

I'm going to sleep now.