1983 AOD 4x2 Transmission, anything I need to know?

Thanks for all the help gentlemen! I finally located the transmission I wanted and just paid for it this morning. It’s quite a drive away, so I won’t pick it up for a week or two.

In researching these transmissions I don’t think I have ever found so much confusing and/or conflicting information before lol.

Anyway, whether it’s right or wrong, I ended up with a 4R70W out of a 1996 F150…or depending on who you talk to, it is an AODE-W. I guess at the end of the day, it’s an AOD-E with 4R70W internals. It seems like the wide ratio units are a little more desirable…they have lower 1st and 2nd gears, and they did not show up until 1994 in the F150. They were also used in cars like the Lincoln and Thunderbird, but it seems only or mostly with the modular engines. So the best chance of finding one (with the wide ratio) and the SBF bolt pattern is to get one from a 1994-1996 F150. Problem is, it seems like most of these F150’s have E4OD’s in them, so the AOD-E/W is at least somewhat rare…with the SBF bolt pattern.

I looked at three 1993-1996 F150’s and they all had E4OD’s in them.

According to some sources, the trans was called the AOD-E up to 1995, and then in 1996 started being called the 4R70W. I dunno, it’s an odd topic to research because it seems like a lot of people disagree about them lol. Some people say that the 4R70W was never used behind a SBF, but an AOD-E with 4R70W internals is the same thing, I suppose. I read that the wide ratio units were developed for the modular engines since they have less
Low end torque than the SBF series.

Depends on who you’re talking to, I guess…

You aren't kidding that Mod Motors lack low end torque. My son has 2002 Excursion V10 4WD. It has 3.73 gears, but between the tires and axle ratio it ends up a bit better geared (in theory) for towing than Darth with 3.55 gears and 215/85R16 tyres. Towing his 1986 F150 on a borrowed trailer over the Blue Ridge mountains on US 17 he was clear down into 2nd gear in the 4R100.

Towing a contractors heavy duty trailer, loaded with a pair of roll up garage doors, 3 operators, a steel walk-in door plus having the bed loaded, Darth came out of 4th in the E4OD going up hill in the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (much steeper grade) and settled at 54 mph and 2200 rpm in lockup, unlocked it was 2700 rpm. or about where the C6 ran at 55-60. This is with a well worn 460 and maybe 8:1 compression due to EFI heads on a carbureted short block.

good choice on adding an od. the aod is a good transmission but there is one point often overlooked. the flex plate..the 5.0 has one balance whereas the 5.8 ,4.9 each have different balance. the c6 flex plate has one offset dimension different from the aod. each of these must be correct.  years ago i bought an 86 5.8ho short bed to restore. the engine had been fairly modified and obviously money had been spent. anyway i towed it home. did i mention the rod sticking through  the block/ pan opposite the filter. oh yeah. that.
after a thorough investigation i discovered a 5.0 flexplate. yes they bolt right on. out of balance.
now to tell on myself. if you use a flexplate for anything other than an aod with an aod it will hold the converter loaded against the inner pump drive gear. as soon as you start the engine the pump stator is ruined and now a rebuild is needed to remove the steel filings from everything. i learned this first hand. but i learned..

mat in tn wrote

good choice on adding an od. the aod is a good transmission but there is one point often overlooked. the flex plate..the 5.0 has one balance whereas the 5.8 ,4.9 each have different balance. the c6 flex plate has one offset dimension different from the aod. each of these must be correct.  years ago i bought an 86 5.8ho short bed to restore. the engine had been fairly modified and obviously money had been spent. anyway i towed it home. did i mention the rod sticking through  the block/ pan opposite the filter. oh yeah. that.
after a thorough investigation i discovered a 5.0 flexplate. yes they bolt right on. out of balance.
now to tell on myself. if you use a flexplate for anything other than an aod with an aod it will hold the converter loaded against the inner pump drive gear. as soon as you start the engine the pump stator is ruined and now a rebuild is needed to remove the steel filings from everything. i learned this first hand. but i learned..

Ya, the small block Ford crankshaft counterbalanced parts have been causing problems and infuriating mechanics for many many years...lol, and it still happens today. The 302 and the 351w were the same @28oz counterbalance for many years, but in or around 1982, the 302 changed to 50oz and screwed everything up lol. The 300 inline 6 has a 0 counterbalance flywheel, yet they can all interchange with each other physically. A lot of people find out the hard way unfortunately.

Some people find out about the different size ring gears the hard way too. Some of the cars had 157 tooth, while the trucks were 164. Imagine bolting everything together, and only finding out when you try to start it the the starter bendix doesn't touch the ring gear lol. Whirrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Good to know on the flex plates, so thank you for that. I'll have to investigate. The 5.0 V8 I purchased came out of a 1996 F150 with an E4OD trans. The AODE-W/4R70W I bought also came out of a 1996 F150, also with a 5.0 V8. I might just order a new correct flex plate just to be safe. Thanks for the heads up.

i really want to say the aode-w flex plate will work . it came off a 5.0 after all. if you do have both compare them well. i usually find it stamped on the plate but many times i have needed to scrub them clean with brillo pad or scotch brite to find it. c6 and e4od are usually the same part and say so on the plate. i recently built an 86  with a 5.8 ho mildly modified but i matched it with an aode-w. it felt rather close to me so i made a 3/16 shim to space the trans back. after the trans was torqued in place i was able to comfortably move the torque converter up to the flexplate with the mounting nuts.  

mat in tn wrote

i really want to say the aode-w flex plate will work . it came off a 5.0 after all. if you do have both compare them well.

The flex plate that came with the engine is for an E4OD. I had assumed they were the same, but I just looked on RockAuto and of the two brands listed on there, they both show different flex plates...one for the 4R70W and 4R75W, and a different plate for the E4OD and C6. Very good to know. Thanks for the heads up in this thread.

glad to see that you got another opinion. i definitely want to stress the importance of doing just that. with so many possibilities to make a mistake lets just try to help each other out . looking forward to your progress

I'm back digging into transmissions again...and Merry Christmas guys!

As mentioned earlier, what I ended up buying was a 4R70W out of a 1996 F150 2wd. I guess there are some that still called it the AOD-E when they were bolted to an old pushrod SBF, but whatever...they're mostly the same thing anyway, just that the 4R70W has a little different gearing.

The trans supposedly has about 80k miles on it, and it came out of a running and driving truck.

What should I do to this trans before installing it? I haven't worked on an auto trans since back in the 90's (old 700R4 Chevy stuff...). The slip yoke or output shaft seal is a no brainer, I'll replace that of course.

Buy a pan gasket a filter?
I assume there is input seal behind the torque converter?

Should I take it to a trans shop, or just install some new seals and go?

What do you guys recommend?

Any input is appreciated.

if it has low mileage and the pan is not leaking and looks to be original ,i  would say leave it alone and flush it after it has run after a good warm up. both input and output seals are a no brainer and they are already disturbed at this point. what controller are you intending to use?

X2 and Merry Christmas!

When we swap in a used unit at work we do the seals if needed and gasket if it’s not reusable. I believe the late AODEs should have a reusable one, might say on the pan. I wouldn’t bother flushing the trans. A used trans cooler? Flush that or replace with new. Replace the filter. I’d also bust the old filter open and see what’s inside (cover it with a rag and hit it with a hammer, it will be messy). That pan can look great but the filter can tell a different story. Look for metal shavings and chunks of clutch material. I don’t think you’ll find any but it’ll give you some peace of mind. A little is okay, a lot is not. Hope it goes well!

mat in tn wrote

if it has low mileage and the pan is not leaking and looks to be original ,i  would say leave it alone and flush it after it has run after a good warm up. both input and output seals are a no brainer and they are already disturbed at this point. what controller are you intending to use?

Good to know, thanks.

I plan to use this controller below. They also sell a TPS kit that attaches to the side of the carb so there's no physical linkage between the throttle and transmission like there was traditionally. My brother in law is using this same controller, also on a 4R70W that he has installed behind a Toyota engine (in an 1930 For lol).

https://www.usshift.com/usq4.shtml

It is kind of an expensive way to go...these controllers are not cheap, but the 4R70W is a nice transmission with lots of aftermarket support. Most people prefer to go with an older transmission for simplicity sake, but then you have a linkage or cable to deal with. That in itself is not a big deal, but if you read anything about the AOD, you'll come across a lot of stories about getting that cable set just right.

Having overdrive is a requirement for me, and in running a small block, that pretty much left me with the AOD-E, E4OD, or the 4R70W. The E4OD is too big, so that leaves the AOD-E and 4R70W. The more I read about the 4R70W, the more it seemed like the best choice...although not overly easy to find with the small block bellhousing since they only existed for a couple years.

So I started out looking at an '83 AOD that I probably could have purchased for a couple hundred, and now I have a 4R70W that needs a controller and when it's all done will likely cost me a grand lol. Oh well, at least I'll have what I want.

Jacob84 wrote

X2 and Merry Christmas!

When we swap in a used unit at work we do the seals if needed and gasket if it’s not reusable. I believe the late AODEs should have a reusable one, might say on the pan. I wouldn’t bother flushing the trans. A used trans cooler? Flush that or replace with new. Replace the filter. I’d also bust the old filter open and see what’s inside (cover it with a rag and hit it with a hammer, it will be messy). That pan can look great but the filter can tell a different story. Look for metal shavings and chunks of clutch material. I don’t think you’ll find any but it’ll give you some peace of mind. A little is okay, a lot is not. Hope it goes well!

That's great, thanks for the reply. I'll be using a new trans cooler (built into a new rad I'm buying), as well as new lines.

By the way, is there any reason why I couldn't run hoses from the trans to the cooler, or do they need to be hard lines?

I guess there's not much I can do in the way of 'priming' a "new" transmission. Do I just fill up the pan, and start it up?

i did the same thing in one of my trucks. used a low mileage aode/w, essentially a 4r70w. im using the hgm compushift. its right at a grand but comes complete with no needed add ons . ala cart can add up to the same price and even if it did save ten percent i weigh the difference against whether it's what i want or not. always looking at the finished product first. i love having overdrive and the aod is the deepest at .67 . one great benefit to the aode/w ist that first gear is 2.84:1 as the aod is 2.4:1  

mat in tn wrote

i did the same thing in one of my trucks. used a low mileage aode/w, essentially a 4r70w. im using the hgm compushift. its right at a grand but comes complete with no needed add ons . ala cart can add up to the same price and even if it did save ten percent i weigh the difference against whether it's what i want or not. always looking at the finished product first. i love having overdrive and the aod is the deepest at .67 . one great benefit to the aode/w ist that first gear is 2.84:1 as the aod is 2.4:1

I guess that's where it gets murky for me...lol. Isn't the AODE-W and the 4R70W one in the same thing? I guess it gets more into what is the name (instead of the internals). I've read on forums where guys say that the 4R70W never existed with a SBF bolt pattern. If it has a SBF bolt pattern some guys swear they are an AODE-W. I bought this trans online, and it was listed as an AODE-W / 4R70W...lol.

I know the W means they have the lower 1st and 2nd gears, which was done for the modular motors (4.6, etc) which had less low end power.

In any case, I'm excited to get it bolted up and tested. I figured the lower first gears would be nice even with the 5.0, and then the OD will be nice with the 3.55 diff. My '84 F150 had OD (M5OD) and 3.08 diff, and while it was great on the highway, it was geared too tall for regular driving.

Does the AODE-W and 4R70W have a lock-up torque converter?

I'll have to go read up on that hgm compushift. Thanks for the info.

yes the aode/w has a clutch type locking converter.
as to hgm  , i cannot say enough about how well their plug and play harness was made and how well it was to install. they use a proprietary tps which mounts alongside the carb or efi carb replacement and works great. smart phone adjusting and monitoring was new to me but very simple. i also opted for the od cancel and dual mode shift tuning but not required. customer service was spot on and enough so that i had to send them a very complimentary email to say thank you. something rare these days. when found, acknowledge it!

Gents,

I went to test fit my new flexplate on my "new" 4R70W trans, and it won't go on to the torque converter studs. The circle of the studs is a hair bigger than the circle of holes in the flex plate. I haven't touched an automatic in 25 years so forgive me for the dumb questions, but can I just open these holes up a hair to get it to slide on? There's a stub on the torque converter that looks like it fits in the end of the 5.0L crank to center it? (What I'm asking is, I assume the torque converter studs are not what centers everything here?)

this is a great example of getting learn something new and handle a new situation. not a problem i have found before.  you are correct that alignment is handled by the nodule which insets into the crankshaft. not unlike a pilot bushing/bearing except that it stays at crank speed and does not need tolerance to rotate at different speeds therefore it is a tight fit. opening them up is a simple task. whether you use a round file and count the same strokes or use a slightly larger drill bit to just enlarge the hole but do everything with as much balance as possible. using a drill will give more tolerance so get the nuts torqued well but that method seems to "center" better

Cool. Done.

I checked the existing holes and they were 7/16", which is about right for 3/8" studs. I ran a 29/64" drill bit through each hole, and now the flex plate fits on snugly with no slop. I might even have to open the holes up a tiny bit more to allow the little stub to self-align during installation. Thanks for the info.

that is simple enough. personally i would go up a little more as i would want it to fit with a "relaxed" fit and no stress bias. of course not to the point of being sloppy

Make sure you mount the motor plate on the motor before the flex plate.
I would also try the converter on the flex plate after the plate was mount to the motor, that is if the converter dose not have fluid in it.
This way you will know the converter will slip into the crank and the studs in to the flex plate with out issues.
Dave ----