GTDroptop

Hello, all.

I have an issue with a stang. 5.0 AODE trans. When the car is started it can be put into gear and it moves like it's supposed to...for a few seconds. After those seconds it warms up a little and it goes into a neutral mode and won't go anywhere. If the car is shut down and restarted after a few minutes it will act normal...for another few seconds then neutral again. I've been all over google, youtube and forums on here as an "observer". I've been pickin up info from the forums here and they all seem to point to the modulator. I'm not sure if it's vacuum or electronic, but I was under there a little bit ago and wasn't able to find the thing. The car is a 94. Any help gettin this beast going again would be more than appreciated.

mattdel

Ford has a TSB out for this problem: http://www.tccoa.com/articles/mn12-t...sb-94-26-9.pdf

May or may not be related. Whatever the problem, it's related to fluid transfer through the valve body somehow.

GTDroptop

I'll hold on to that for reference. I'm not sure if the problem lies that deep. Here's more info, pertinent or not...
The car belongs to a friend of ours, and one evening she was on her way out here with it. She turned a corner and the car stalled, acting like it was out of gas. She left it there over night, and when she got back to it the next morning it started and ran fine. However now we have the trans issue. They picked me up to go look at it after it went down the road a little. Of course I checked fluid and whatever else I could do on the side of the road. I got in and got the trans to engage. I powered up a small hill in the road and right near the top it slipped out. So for ****'s and giggles I put it in neutral and shut it down and coasted down the next hill. Started it back up at the bottom and powered up the next small hill and it slipped out again right in front of my house. I put it in neutal and jumped out and just pushed the last few feet into my driveway. It took me 2 tries to get it up on the ramps and it's been sitting there ever since. I don't have the resources or the facilities to actually pull too much apart so I'm hoping it something that can be done on my back in the driveway.

GTDroptop

Ok the car has no modulator. I'm now leaning into seeing if the TV cable is broken or something. I'm sure it's not the neutral safety switch as the car starts no problem in both park and neutral....any more ideas ?

mattdel

AODE has no TV cable, that's the E designation, electronic. What you're describing to me sounds like a rapid pressure loss. Granted I'm no expert on automatic transmissions, but just that fact alone is pointed out in that TSB I linked. Forward clutch seal leaking. Leak grows with heat and pressure(read: engine load) until it relieves enough pressure to no longer work. This may be incorrect, but the symptoms alone point to a problem that can't be fixed in a driveway by a "novice". At the very least you'll need to take it out and bring it to a trans diag shop.

Venomantidote95

about 200$ in parts will fix the problem but if you cant do the work it`ll be between 12-1700$ for the repair!

If the fluid smells burnt and isnt bright to mid red its far past a pressure leak time for a rebuild..

GTDroptop

Update. I've gone ahead and changed the fluid and filter on the 'stang. I let it warm up and it stayed in gear. Test drive was successful as well and it shifted fine, although just slightly late. When I returned the car to its owner I told her to get it flushed as soon as she can. As we all know you can't really drain "everything" just by dropping the pan. I'm sure it crudded up the new stuff right away with old fluid still being in there. A flush should get her by for the rest of the season and if it still needs a rebuild I'll have a way to get it out and be able to rebuild it before she starts driving it again next year. I want to thank everyone who replied to my post on this issue. I'll still be popping onto the site and will try to help others with anything I can.