C4 to Aod conversion

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JohnnyJ

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 13, 2017
Messages
71
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Location
Virginia
My Car
1973 Convertible. 1989 306 roller block with ported heads b303 cam, Hughes street rod converter. The car has 91k original miles. Has been painted once but is unrestored. I put the new engine in at 89k. It has about 280hp which is about double the original.
Got a good start on my c4 to aod conversion but I have a question about the aod pigtail

Which has 4 wires which I understand 2 for backup and 2 for neutral safety. However there are 6 wires coming from the c4 switch are 2 not used or doubled up?



 
The two on the separate connector, light green and pink/white hash, go to the seat belt retractors and seat belt warning buzzer circuit.

You can go to the Mustang Data tab at the top of this page and download the wiring diagrams. For the '73 diagrams, the NSS is shown at the upper right of page 4.

 
The two on the separate connector, light green and pink/white hash, go to the seat belt retractors and seat belt warning buzzer circuit.

You can go to the Mustang Data tab at the top of this page and download the wiring diagrams. For the '73 diagrams, the NSS is shown at the upper right of page 4.
thank you, I left that one out and all is well

 
I have an update for my conversion, after extensive research it seems no one does theirs exactly the same way or runs into the same problems. Last year I swapped my original engine with a roller crate engine based on an 89 5.0 with ported stock e7te heads a b303 cam. Summitt stage one intake and Quickfuel slayer 600 carb. I re used the stock exhaust manifolds, starter, and fuel pump. I also changed to a 2k torque converter in the c4. It was an easy swap because I had someone else do the work. I sold the original motor for 500 which helped offset a little. I really liked that setup. The converter gave me stock type low end performance but ended up with a ton more power everywhere else. My fuel mileage worked out to 15mpg in general. My original gears were a 3.00 which put me at 2500 rpm at 60 mph. Fast forward a year later I picked up an aod core from an 88 f150 and delivered it to a local rebuilder. In the mean time I ordered a new 8 inch center section with 3.80 gears and limited slip. I went ahead and installed that while I was waiting on the aod so I could break it in and get a feel for the new ratio. I drove with the c4 and 3.80s for a couple of weeks. My impressions. Much faster from a stop and felt much lighter as opposed to feeling more powerful. The downside is of course turning 3k at 60 mph hated it. But loved the new found low and mid range. I'll post about the swap in a bit



 
I absolutrly hate my AOD! It was the single worst mod I did to my car and totally ruined it. It turned it into a dog. It's lazy and can't be bothered to come out of overdrive unless I come to a complete stop. It has been rebuilt by an ATSG certified shop and there is no difference.

I'm glad yours turned out successful.

 
It's a standard rebuild using heavy duty clutches  and a Shift technologies shift kit

The gearing is standard. If would have gone wide ratio I would have used a 3.55 rear gear. Here's a pic of the before aod and after next to the c4





cancel my hulu subscription

 
I absolutrly hate my AOD! It was the single worst mod I did to my car and totally ruined it. It turned it into a dog. It's lazy and can't be bothered to come out of overdrive unless I come to a complete stop. It has been rebuilt by an ATSG certified shop and there is no difference.

I'm glad yours  turned out successful.
Have you tried different adjustments on the TV cable? Have you seen this article about the conversion?

http://www.mustangandfords.com/how-to/drivetrain/1407-how-to-build-the-perfect-aod-aodetail/

 
I had set mine up with a pressure gauge as per instructions but on my first test drives the aod wouldn't shift into overdrive at all and wouldn't shift back down to first even after stopping. I ended up installing a Sonnax corrector kit on the carb to make sure the tv cable was moving the correct distance compared to the throttle I've also tightened the tv cable a few times as it seems to have stretched. Now it shifts like the c4 did under light throttle it's shifts quickly from first thru third and then to od around 50mph. If I slow down I can blip the throttle and get it to kick down to third.

Luxstang can you shift yours manually like using the aod shuffle and get it to behave?

 
Yeah. I always shift it out of overdrive manually but it takes about 3-4 seconds to shift down which seems like nothing on paper but which is half an eternity

The first three shift easily but the whole trans eats power compared to the FMX that was in the car before.

I don't wanna hijack this thread though.

 
I think my only gripe with my AOD is that it sometimes slides in OD when I'm doing 40mph or so and not accelerating quickly - when I decide to speed up a bit, it's bogging a little at 900 rpm or less.  A quick stomp of the gas pedal gets the downshift and then I can take off.  I have the factory TV cable from the donor car using the factory settings - I adjusted the bracket (not the cable) to have zero slack/zero tension on the cable when the throttle's at idle - works like a champ.

Of course, if I had something other than 3.00:1 rear gears, it would be a bit better I think... but even then, the '89 5.0 Mustang my AOD came from had 2.75s (a 'vert).

 
Guys,

I have an AOD behind my cleveland in my model a coupe. I also had issues with the shifting, downshifting and in / out of OD. I cured all of those issues and the piece of mind of the trans pressures with a TCI valve body. It now runs like a raped ape !!!

Thanks, Jay

 
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