freaked out about a4ld

[Natron]

so i got a 86 bII, eddie buaer, auto,2.9, from my father. the motor starts up real nice and runs smooth, the body is clean and the interior is in great shape. the only problem is that it needs a new transmission. thats when i learned about the a4ld. and from what i understand, its the biggest piece of crap in the universe. every story i hear is a horror story.
it would be a shame to ditch such a nice car however, so ive decided i want to convert it to a manual (so i can avoid becoming one of these poor saps that gets a new a4ld just to have it crap out 3k miles down the road). unfortunately this is beyond my capabilities,i am willing to learn how to work on the engine and everything else, but trannys are a whole other ball game, I have neither the nohow or equipment for such a job. so my question is, would it be wise to have a shop do this? and if so how could i go about finding one?

im in nor cal by the way

 

[84bluebronco2]

You could always try to have a reputable shop attempt to fix up the A4LD, or putting in the manual is no harder really than doing a full clutch job. Gotta lose all the auto tranny bits, put in the proper fly wheel, the clutch, put in the pedal, bolt it together. on a scale of 1-10, what ever you think the difficulty of dropping a tranny is plus 1.5-2 to convert your 86 to manual.

Use the search bar to do TONS of research. The recommended tranny from 99% of users, me included, would be the M5OD. Plenty of people have done it, and if I'm not mistaken Chriswilkns (sp?) has done it recently.

Here is one good spot to start: http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/A4LDto5Speed.html

Ask tons of questions, and plan this project out for the next month or two. Don't, I repeat DON'T, jump in without proper planning. Get your parts, set aside the time, and try to find a second set of eyes/hands.

There aren't enough BII's left to allow any good ones to go to waste! Save her lol!

 

[klogtruck]

i agree with him ^...... save her

 

[jhammel85]

My opinion is that you can go one of either way:

The 5 speed swap if you have the money and time to find all parts needed and to install. Frankly, I'd love to if I had the parts and time, but I don't. When the AL4D goes, I will hopefully install a new one. When the time comes for me to do more to the truck and I have another DD, then I will be swapping for a 5 speed. I love a manual!

As far as the AL4D goes....I've had my fair share of AL4D Paranoia myself. However, I do think it can be a perfectly fine transmission.

My original AL4D is still OK after 24 yrs and 150K. That's a feat for ANY auto transmission. You've gotta remember that these are old transmissions. That pertains to junkyard trans' as well.

If you have it rebuilt, have it completely rebuilt. Not just the "soft" items. A lot of times, that's why they fail 3k. IMHO, a well built trans will last 150K, not 3K.
Whatever you do, make sure to put on a bigger cooler for it. Heat's the biggest killer of autos.

Here you go check this out...

http://therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?p=933696

 

[Surrey]

The a4ld has a really bad reputation, and a lot of it is unwarranted... Sure they have broken, but so has everything else. If they are well-maintained they can last crazy long. I've seen two Explorers owned by my grandparents go over 300 000km on the original trannies...

A 5-speed swap is totally possible, plenty have done it... But if you like automatics for whatever reason, go to the Junkyard, find an a4ld out of a 91-94 explorer. (one around here gives 120 day warranties on basically all trannies and engines. They pull them, so its a bit pricier, but a warranty on a used engine/tranny is bad-ass.) You will want to re-use or replace your 2.9 torque converter.

These guys have lots of parts for it..
http://www.transmissioncenter.org/a4ld.htm

 

[TEK4x4]

i just did the a4ld to fm145 swap because i had it in a parts bronco ii i got for free and because i smoked my a4ld. its not to bad to do just get all your stuff first. pedal assembly master cylinder slave cylinder flywheel clutch kit ( pressure plate clutch disk pilot bearing ) make sure your throw out bearing and slave are good ( i went through 2 used slaves before i finaly bought a new one. they are pricey) then you need the tranny cross member out of downer vehicle along with both front and rear drive lines. in my case the fm145 was 2 inches shorter then the a4ld. so you need the shorter front drive shaft and longer rear. oh that reminds me on the front drive line you need the rubber slip yoke sleeve protector i cant remember the name right off had but you need it cause the manual drive line is smaller in diameter. you will also need to clip the reverse wires on your downer so you can splice them into the five wire plug from your 4ald and wire the red with a blue trace to the white wire i believe so you can bypass the park neutral safety switch so you can start your vehicle. also take the tranny cooler lines from the a4ld to the cooler and just connect the two together. also depending on if you have a manual transfer case you will need to get the new linkage and lever off the downer vehicle. that's if you decide to go that route. if i had to buy all this i would have done the m50d swap with the 4.0 clutch and flywheel up grade. just saying this is what your looking at when doing it it sounds like a lot of work but its really not that hard i have a 2" body lift so it wasnt to bad to get the tranny out but it maybe a little harder when stock. dont get discouraged or scared its easy and the only to learn is to do it your self. so get out there and start wrenching oh and for the tools you will only need a 13mm 17mm 19mm 10mm along with a couple line wrenches for the tranny lines and a 12point 12 mm for the rear dive line along with a t10? i think torques bit for the front drive line wow this was a lot bigger post then i was planning sorry but i hope this helps. but like they said above save her she is way worth it.:icon_thumby:

 

[Surrey]

The FM145 is the only shorter tranny Im pretty sure. the 146 and m50d are the same length as the a4ld.

 

[trail B2]

What your trying to do isn't as hard as your making it out to be.If you talk to the shop tell them you will gather all the pieces they don't have time for that.If you gather all the pieces your going to have a better idea of whats going on.What part of northern Cal.are you from?

 

[TEK4x4]

oh thats cool. ya like i said i would have loved to go to a m50d but i had the other one so i decided to just do that.

 

[Natron]

thank you for the imput. im going to talk to the local transmission guys now that i know what kind of questions to ask. i agree that i should save her, the BII isnt long for this world.

p.s. im in amador county (someone was asking)

 

[4.0B2]

thanks for posting my link above.. i was gonna refer him to that.

i have NOTHING to say bad about my a4ld.. its been a good auto trans. you can look thru that thread and see what i have to say about it. it boils down to i have a md05 and the stuff i need to do a 5 speed swap. but w/ everything else going on right now i can't justify it.. i gotta get other stuff done first then i MIGHT do the 5 speed swap. we'll just have to wait and see.

my a4ld has never let me down and its been overheated twice, maybe more.. when i thought i had trans troublem it was really just the vss in the t/case. the plastic gears were wore down. i have nothing but good to say about the a4ld.

don't be scared it bro. its stupid simple to rebuild to if you wanna do it... i've rebuilt a couple for others.

 

[Natron]

So after hearing everything thats been said, i think im comfortable with getting a rebuild on the a4ld, so long as its a complete rebuild as opposed to a "soft" rebuild. but now im wondering what the difference is? will a good tranny guy know the difference or is there specific things i should request to be replaced?

 

[JTothII]

i have 198k on my A4LD in my 94 explorer it still runs fine. I plan on rebuilding it for my bronco II project. There is a great write up on one of the explorer forums on rebuilding

 

[Surrey]

rebuilding is a good option, but don't spend the money on rebuilding the bronco 2 tranny, get an explorer tranny, and mat it to a 2.9l torque inverter.

The explorer tranny has stronger internals, but is otherwise identical to yours. Or maybe the guys can just rebuild an explorer tranny into your b2 housing.

 

[rusty70f100]

I don't think the A4LD is really a bad transmission. I had one go 200k miles in a '92 Explorer (enduring 3 different owners and infrequent fluid changes), before the overdrive went out. I think that's a reasonable lifespan for any automatic transmission.

A decent transmission shop should be able to do a complete rebuild for you. Don't expect it to be cheap though. Ask around locally about a decent, honest transmission shop.

 

[b2rich]

There is a guy down here that will do the whole A4ld for about 1600. including install.
I thought i was having issues with the a4ld but it is in perfect shape. has only 122k on it and i should be able to get more.