Transmission

October 2, 2013

Ok. A job I’d been putting off out of fear. Tinkered all my adult life with cars, but honestly never had my fingers near an automatic transmission. There I said it. Always had a gear car and I can wrap my head around that, but the Automatic transmission has always been a mystery to me.

So… Today I pulled the pan to install the Lokar shift lever and shifter. To my amazement… Not so bad. Followed the instructions, watch some you tube videos and it all went well. Darn proud of myself!

Next.. Location of the shifter. After much research online and in email with Dr. Ruth and Bruce H. I decided on a Lokar 6″ shifter… Problem is that the mounting hardware sits forward of the tailstock which with an AOD, leaves the shifter too far forward and close to the dash. I want it to fall in hand more like a 5 speed would without a long bent shifter arm.

So I used the rear mount bracket as the rear bracket then took a trip to the hardware store for a bunch of parts and u-bolts exhaust hangers and washers and nuts and cam up with a solid way to support the rear of the mounting bracket at the back of the trans.

Of course this left the supplied shifter rod too short, so out i went to pick up some aluminum 1/4″ rod to thread with my trusty tap and die set… Mission accomplished. Once I make a few cuts in the tunnel should be good to go.

October 9, 2013

Now the shifter is in but I replaced the aluminum rod with a steel one (feel safer) I tackled the kickdown cable. It will need adjustment but for now here are the pics.

November 15, 2015

Before the tunnel can go on and the interior wiring bundled up, I HAVE to get the TV cable adjusted.

The Ford AOD transmission has a high pressure kickdown and because I have a Holley Carb, I used the Ford AOD Hi-Tech Kickdown Kit from Lokar.

When we put the car away for the summer I could not get the damb thing adjusted. If you watched the video above it needs to be set at between 32 and 35 psi when in neutral with the spacer installed and 0 psi without. No matter what we did, the gauge always showed at least 15 psi and as much as 55 psi… no bueno!

THE TRICK!!!

The return spring on the Lokar cable is too weak to push the arm all the way back, so even with no tension on the cable it always had some pressure. Solution (as per the Lokar rep at SEMA 2015) add a simple carb spring that pulls the arm at the trans rather than just pushing the arm (see pics below)

Notice the small spring added. It connects the TV arm to the front of the oil pan with a small hole drilled in the flange of the pan

And just like that, presto 1-2-3, I get 0 psi with no spacer and was able to adjust the cable to 32.5 psi using the fine adjustment nuts up top near the carb.